The arrest of an engineering student from Bengaluru and his online female friend from Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand, who used the US-based GitHub app to spread hatred against Muslim women, is a pointer to the growing degradation of social values. Maharashtra Police deserve a pat on their back for taking cognisance of a complaint and arresting them from the two states. There have been complaints from Muslim women that their pictures were uploaded on this application with lewd comments that they were available for auction. No action has been taken against the perpetrators, despite the promise to do so by the state women’s commissions in Delhi and UP. In the instant case, Vishal Kumar Jha used the name ‘Khalsa Supremacist’ to do the mischief. The girl, Shweta Singh, who hails from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, created fake Twitter accounts, using Sikh names to mislead the public that the anti-Muslim operation was a Sikh activity.
At the time of writing, nobody knows for sure whether the two were acting on their own or at the behest of some others for benefits in cash or kind. Only a thorough investigation will reveal their exact motive. Whatever be the case, they do not deserve any sympathy, as their action is in violation of several provisions of the IPC and the CrPC. When it comes to social media, nobody canvisualise when or what particular post or picture or video will go viral. One only has to recall how some social media users created panic among the people of the northeast living in Bengaluru, forcing them to leave the metropolis in a huff. Anything could have happened if Jha and Singh were allowed to get away with their mischief. It could have even under mined the communal harmony that exists between the two minority groups.
Unfortunately, the creation of hate has become a national pastime for some, primarily because there has been no stern, retaliatory action from the all-powerful state against the mischief-makers. For instance, the so-called religious leaders who assembled at Haridwar made bold to give a call for genocide of Muslims only because they were sure that nothing would eventually happen to them. Small wonder that similar congregations were organised in other places like Raipur where Mahatma Gandhi was openly denigrated and called names.
Alas, there are politicians who believe that hate can be politically harvested in the form of votes in the coming assembly elections in UP and Uttarakhand. What some do openly is done surreptitiously by others using social media. Though social media may give users a sense of anonymity, the fact is that the source of every item uploaded on Twitter or Facebook or GitHub can be easily traced by the police, if the latter have the will to do so. While social media has its uses, especially in the furtherance of democracy and transparency, it has a dark underbelly that needs to be exposed. Nothing is more important than communal harmony and the right to live with dignity.
