The manner in which Himanshi Narwal wife of Lt Vinay Narwal – was subjected to rampant abuse and character assassination is in extremely poor taste. She was married to Lt Narwal who was killed by the terrorists at Pahalgam on 22nd April – only a week before he was brutally killed.
It is a shame that instead of support and sympathy the young widow is being subjected to such despicable behaviour. Equally shameful is the trolling of Aarthi Ramchandran from Kerala whose father N Ramchandran was also brutally murdered at Pahalgam. They have been subjected to hate campaign and abuse because they refuse to abuse Muslims or hold them responsible for the Pahalgam massacre.
It is these victims of terror like Himanshi and Aarthi who have to deal with the loss of their dear once. It is these young ladies who have to spend their lives with the memories of ghastly killing of their loved ones that happened in front of their own eyes. However, the sick trolls have only hate to offer against them. These trolls are worse than the terrorists who killed the husband of Himanshi and father of Aarthi with bullets. These haters on the other hand are using the anonymity of social media to kill their spirits even while they are attempting to come to terms with the tragedy. The abuse by these keyboard terrorists not only targets the victims of tragedy but also encourages several others to indulge similarly.
The above two are not the only victim of these hatemongers. They routinely disparage those who dare question the aggressive demonization of Muslims and other minorities. Recent example is of Shaila Negi who stood up to the violent mob involved in violence and arson against Muslims and their properties, shouting anti-Muslims slogans in Nainital because the criminal identified as the rapist of a minor girl was a Muslim. Shaila stood firm amidst violent mob and kept pleading for unity and harmony. Her fearless pleas for peace and harmony have however invited rape threats from right wing hate brigade. The organised online hatred and abuse has now found a new target in Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and his daughter after he announced cease fire decision of the Government.
The online hate campaign against dissenters, especially prominent women with strong voices has been going on for the last decade or so. Prominent dissenters like Rana Ayub, Swara Bhaskar, Arundhati Roy, and many others have been the target of such hate campaign. The hate mongers don’t even spare people even in their death like the late Gauri Lankesh. Hate mongering appears to have turned into an industry in itself.
The organised, and targeted, online abuse carried out by an Army of abusers that has sprung up is very disturbing and has reduced the level of public discourse to extremely low levels. The strength of this troll army is further increasing because of absence of any action against them and also the fact that many of these abusers are followed by people in power.
Every right thinking Indian must condemn it in no uncertain terms. Urgent steps are required to be initiated to control this phenomenon.
However, it is extremely disturbing and shameful to find that the people in positions of responsibility turn a blind eye to this blatantly shameful and inhuman misdemeanour. Whereas, these very so called responsible people are quick to take offence to any criticism or questioning for failure of establishment in any field and take immediate steps to ban the social media accounts and you tube channels of people daring to do so.
Even the Chairperson of the National Women’s Commission did not find it appropriate to condemn the trolls who were abusing Himanshi out rightly. She qualified her statement by stating words to the effect ‘shayad unki (Himanshi Narwal) pratikriya aakroshit logon ko theek nahi lagi hogi’ (probably her (Himanshi Narwal’s) statement would not have been liked by the agitated people)
Such acts of online hate are against the Indian culture and ethos which promotes respect for women. Such hate mongering exposes the dark underbelly of online harassment in India and raises a wider question of whether India is safe for women? These acts go against the very principles professed by our forefathers and betray the hollowness of lofty pronouncements like ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padaho’ or claims that women can move about safely wearing their jewellery even at midnight. At the rate which the online abuse is spreading, it won’t take long for these hate mongers to be provoked to carry out their threats actually and to physically harm the target of their abuse.
One can only be amazed and feel sorry for the Moral Corruption of those abusing these victims. These are the vultures who despise those who seek accountability and descend on right thinking people like Himanshi, Aarthi, Shaila and others because they stand up to the bigotry of these trolls besides not letting them use their personal tragedy to sow hate.
The reality we face today raises serious questions — about who we are and where we are heading as a society. What kind of values are we nurturing in our upbringing that we don’t even spare a grieving widow?
Shame on those trolling these courageous ladies, and that too during such a painful time for them.
As an Indian, one should respect every fellow citizen, regardless of religion. My beliefs are rooted in freedom of speech, equality and secularism ingrained in our Constitution which have been further strengthened by my long years in a Uniformed service.
I proudly stand with these ladies and their dignified conduct in face of hateful onslaught.
We all must speak up.
Silence on this account now is complicity.
Such acts of online hate are against the Indian culture and ethos which promotes respect for women. We all worship Laxmi, Durga, Sarswati, etc. But in actual women have never been given respect which they deserve. Lower school dropout, Sati System, Child marriage, rape and other violences do not look consistent if the above quoted line. So, harassment like as per given articles needs not only condemnation but such people are punished. I can only pray that such action stopped.