Controlling technology? Honoring culprits!

Most of the rumors warn of child abductors and alleged cow slaughters. The Indian government was prompted to ask What’s App to act, only after three men at a railway station in the northeastern state of Assam were rescued by the army from a possible lynching. They were surrounded by hundreds mistaking them for possible child abductors. The men were begging for money and food and at one point, appeared to have been speaking to a child, and soon they were considered to be child abductors. Since some officers and soldiers of the Indian Army intervened and saved the lives, and preferred to ask the government to act that Indian government finally acted. In India there are more than 200 million Whats App users, and service has become a prime source of news.  However,  the news at times are fake. Also the political parties are making use of the platform and other social media sites to impress their vote banks. Even certain fringe elements are hyperactive to create hatred among various communities, and as distorted information spreads fast, damage has been done.

A shot in the arm for the Indian government came in the form that What’s App finally decided to tackle the problem and is testing a tool that could help identify fake news.  What’s App ran full page advisory in the form advertisements in all leading dailies. “The use, abuse, and misuse of your platform, particularly, which leads to killing of innocent people is plainly not acceptable,” India’s Minister of Electronics and Information Technology  told What’s App last week, and it had the right effect. What could have been a commendable step, was nullified by government own representatives. While trying to control the What’s App the government forgot to tame its ministers.  Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha stoked a controversy  after he garlanded eight men who were earlier convicted in the Ramgarh Lynching case in Jharkhand. The convicts, who were released on bail, were seen being felicitated and welcomed by Sinha in an event which was organized in Hazaribagh where the Union Minister resides. The killing of the Muslim man was barbaric. The minister’s conduct is even more condemnable.

Not to be left behind another Union Minister Giriraj Singh triggered a row as he met riot accused, lodged in a Nawada jail. Members of Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad were arrested for allegedly inciting violence in Nawada after an idol was vandalised during Ramnavami celebrations in March this year. Not only the minister met the three accused in the jail, but also expressed his resentment over their arrest saying that they were “framed”. By saying so, he has made an attempt to say that his opinion is far more valuable than the investigation carried out by the authorities.

Such acts by Cabinet ministers in Narendra Government undermine the efforts the that it has been putting up with what’s App. Controlling technology is one aspect, but encouraging criminals by visiting them in jails and facilitating them in public is another. It is highly unfortunate that there are few members of the ruling party who have shown their support for hate speech. There are clear signs of the kind of vicious polarizing that is being enacted by the ruling BJP in a run up to the general elections of 2019. It is indeed worrisome that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen not to act against party members, only strengthen the belief that attempt at controlling fake news is just a half hearted attempt.