The language used against the government online, in
particular, is more vicious in India than it is in any other English-speaking
nation.
That's columnist Aakar Patel telling us how educated and civilized we
are online. People who regularly visit newspaper and news channel websites
can't disagree with Patel. The situation is more pathetic on those websites
which allow the netizens to post their comments in Hindi. One can learn
choicest 'desi' expletives while reading Hindi comments. Many of these
comments, if members of rival communities or political parties hurl on each
other face to face, will cause communal riots or violent political
clashes.
I have noticed one disturbing development while posting
comments on media websites. These websites don't allow many anti-BJP comments
even if they are written in civilized language and supported by facts. On the
contrary, they don't delete uncivilized and highly abusive comments that are
apparently written by BJP supporters against the 'enemies' of India, which in most cases are Pt Nehru and the Gandhis. So, the netizens' comments are proving to
be handy tools to further the partisan political goals of some media houses.
The situation is more worrisome on Facebook and Youtube.
These are being used increasingly to present concocted information which
the gullible young netizens are prone to accept as facts. For example, one
person has loaded a video on youtube proclaiming that Pt Nehru died of STD. How sickening is it.
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