Why are politicians so thin-skinned, and what does this mean for the rest of us in today’s India?
What the Internet did, unfortunately, was give everyone access to the one thing politicians hate more than the free press or fair elections: a voice. Representation pic
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.
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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.
What the Internet did, unfortunately, was give everyone access to the one thing politicians hate more than the free press or fair elections: a voice. Almost overnight, it seemed as if anyone with an opinion felt compelled to share it, irrespective of whether those the opinions were intended for wanted to hear them or not. From that point on, things only became worse.
The National Crime Records Bureau began compiling data on sedition laws since 2014 and found that a majority of sedition cases against 405 Indians for criticising politicians and governments were filed over the last decade alone. A week or so ago, a senior politician and lawyer informed the Supreme Court that there were over 800 cases of sedition pending across the country, with approximately 13,000 people in jail for related offences. It prompted the court to put that law—first introduced during the colonial era, for those wondering how it came into being—on hold, but that doesn’t do much for those whose lives have been torn apart, simply because some thin-skinned politician couldn’t deal with a comment or wanted to score political points.
What does it say about a country where undertrial prisoners account for 62 per cent of total prison population against the world average of 18-20 per cent? It says that our priorities, when it comes to justice, are in serious need of an overhaul. If our judicial systems are as stretched as they obviously are, it should compel us to wonder why courts need to be bogged down by complaints about Facebook posts when young men and women are being held without trial for serious crimes like murder.
We like to talk about justice delayed being justice denied because it makes us thump our chests and feel like individuals who care about personal freedom. The truth is, none of those prisoners denied access to a trial during their youth matters to us unless we happen to know one personally. It’s also why we aren’t particularly concerned about how laws are constantly misused in our country to make people suffer for imagined crimes. It’s why a student went to jail a little over a year ago, simply for sharing a document intended to help farmers protesting against agricultural laws, and few of us had a problem with that farce.
The sedition law may go away forever, if we’re lucky, because this is 2022 not 1822, but it doesn’t take away the fact that we don’t pay as much attention to our judicial processes as we should. We assume things are fine on that front because we don’t break any laws, until we find out that we may have broken a law simply because someone thinks we have. That is what happens when politicians get people arrested for questioning them, or posting a meme, or putting up a cartoon that makes them look like the ridiculous, power-hungry individuals they usually are.
Tyrants throughout history have always been afraid of being called out. They don’t want the world to know how they are really perceived, which is why they do everything in their power to control every narrative. Sometimes, they succeed for decades, which is why North Korea still exists. It’s hard to do though, because not everyone likes to toe the line. Someone, somewhere, always speaks out.
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.
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