We are very clear. Profanity is not criminal. What may be distasteful to one may not be for another. The use of criminal machinery cannot be justified in such cases. Any speech that does not reach the threshold of inciting violence is just speech. Answer to speech is more speech. Period.
BJP is in a lot of pain, their primary weapon of propaganda - the godi media - has been demolished. Its credibility is in tatters. This post shows that pain. He also misleads when he equates the act of people appreciating the work done by journalists on the ground as being equivalent to the journalists being aligned with the protest. Both are not the same, he knows, but its his job.
But more importantly, this collage that he's attached to his post is an attempt to warn the journalists that they're being watched.
These independent journalists, some of who worked round the clock, brought important information to the public square which ensured that the legacy media couldn't run its agenda this time. People's voices and their pain was heard, and it made many people sympathise with the movement. Till very recently, the legacy media would successfully turn public opinion against all protests, repeatedly, whether it was CAA-NRC or farmers protest. This time, they couldn't do it.
Support independent media, support democracy.
Some late observations:
1. Students love a good fight. Esp. when it’s unfair and they are the underdogs. Plus they love community - a highly valuable state of mind available to the modern human only for a few years of youth. No money can buy those hormones.
2. Sense of humour is a great weapon against fanatics. It disarms the opponent and heals the oppressed. And most importantly, gets you Instagram views.
3. Father figures, constantly telling a nation what to eat, who to marry, who not to love etc, are easy to dislike and unite against.
4. Mainstream media committed a mass-sepukku by agreeing to peddle just the govt. narrative over the last decade. So much so that on most policy issues, they are more conservative and bigoted than the government itself.
It did two beautiful things - one, a big chunk of population started switching off, and two, the government itself ended up dumping them in the end, by negotiating with genuine protests already labelled as aatankwaadi by the news TV. On most occasions they make govt’s job more difficult than easy.
Today - watching news TV is seen as one of the most uncool, low IQ things by a majority of the population.
5. Cuss words are no longer the underground culture they were a decade ago. (Even Gangs of Wasseypur was like 14 years ago.)
Access to international rap, desi hip hop, more than 100 Indian comedians not censoring their language, even when they censor their thoughts, and in some cases political patronage to the cuss-heavy influencers have made sure that the language on the street is no more purist/sanitised. The more it shocks the authority figures, the more it will be used.
6. An aura - carefully built over a decade - took a fortnight to burst into smithereens. That’s how flimsy it was.
Thank you PM for NOT firing Pradhan ji two weeks ago.
It gave us enough time for:
1. The end of godi media
2. A million funny memes
3. A thousand pictures of courage
4. The rise of a dozen new young political leaders
5. “56 inch ka chhota bandar”