It is exhausting to try and list the number of cases filed against Indians for posts deemed objectionable by some politician or another. This isn’t to say the posts themselves are not offensive, because some of them might well be. It isn’t a comment on whether they should be allowed to exist or not either, because it’s impossible to predict how what one person finds funny may be deemed offensive by someone else. It is exhausting, however, because it makes one think of the time, energy, and resources that are constantly diverted towards dealing with the aftermath of these complaints.

Some of us may look back fondly at a time when social media platforms didn’t exist, when the only objectionable things against politicians or the government were said in the privacy of homes or during drunken rants at shady bars. Back then, children could hold plays in school without the threat of being arrested for their content. No one was dragged to jail for not standing up for the national anthem at the start of a movie. It all seems like the good old days—yes, those ‘acche din’ again—when looked at from the depressing place we are today.