How to pick a side these days

A member of the United Forum of National Integrity participates in a rally to express solidarity with Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Kolkata, on November 10. Representation Pic/PTI

I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but this has been a tricky period for much of the world given how many political and other issues we are all trying to make sense of. I have been trying to figure out where I should voice my support because that is what we are all called upon to do these days. We can't just sit and watch television or interact with people without commenting on some situation or event.

We have smartphones now, so we are all compelled and coerced into taking a stand, and into being vocal about what we believe. This, more often than not, involves supporting something, denouncing something else, or voicing outrage and calling for some sort of boycott. It's just the times we live in.

The one good thing in my favour is that I have no social media profiles and haven't had any for more than half a decade now. This makes my life just a little easier to manage because, whenever I choose to declare support for someone or some cause, I have to do it on WhatsApp alone. I can simply update my status there, informing the small number of family and friends on my list of contacts that I have picked a side. I know this is harder for most other people because their declarations have to be well thought out and posted after a great deal of effort. Celebrities, for instance, presumably have to sit through multiple meetings with publicists and PR teams before crafting some kind of supportive post.

Here is a rule of thumb I have begun to follow, based on what film stars and members of India's cricket team do: I simply wait for a Hollywood star or pop singer to voice support for something before adding my vote in agreement. This has worked very well for so many Indian celebrities, which makes me believe it is a solution to all our problems. The alternative approach is to wait for the government of India to tweet, so we all receive clues on what can and can't be supported.

Consider the past few weeks alone. I didn't know which country to support given the number of skirmishes reported in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Israel and Palestine. I had already voiced support for Ukraine a year ago, so it didn't make sense to proclaim how much I disliked Russia. The Prime Minister hadn't tweeted against Putin either, so I decided to put aside that year-long war and look at events closer to home that probably required more attention. There was

Manipur, of course, but it was obviously not as important as Israel, so I quickly went with the latter. This was justified by the presence of television anchors masquerading as journalists too, many of whom began filming themselves in the streets of Jerusalem. None of them had managed to reach Manipur, so I knew I was doing the right thing and supporting people who genuinely needed thoughts and prayers on Twitter.

I believe it is the government's duty to step in and point us in the right direction because we have such little access to information these days. There may be pensioners protesting in Delhi, wrestlers begging for justice, and farmers killing themselves even as I type this, but none of us may know it because reporters are covering some election rally. Given this scenario, and our proclivity to support things and people abroad, it is only the government that can act as a beacon of light in this dark world of misinformation. It is only our highly educated and unbiased ministers we can turn to for the truth.

Where the next conflict will take place is anyone's guess. It's also impossible to predict how long Israel and Palestine will take to resolve their differences. Maybe the government can simply issue a set of guidelines for us to follow, until it can come up with more concrete resolutions. Perhaps it can set a limit based on distance, for example, allowing us to voice support only for events that occur over 1,000 kilometres away from our borders. Or, perhaps, we can simply take cues from the Prime Minister's Twitter handle and do what he does. It took him a few hours to voice support for Israel, but often takes him months to comment on atrocities, protests, or riots within our borders. Maybe that's what we are all supposed to do. If we pretend something isn't happening, it will probably just go away.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.