Troll nation

 

Recently I quit a WhatsApp group. I have been reflecting upon the conduct of the group and its members. 

The group was called “democratic.” 

One single person, late in the night, DECIDED that since there’s an option in WhatsApp called ‘timer,’ it should be tried. And, he did. Because, he could, as he was one of the admin members. He didn’t bother to consult the other admin members. He didn’t bother to find out whether that was what the other members wanted. He just did it. Because, it was his version of democracy. And, he had DECIDED. 

Some of the other admin members pushed back. Ultimately, one of the (very) lowly members (viz., me) pushed back. But, in the name of democracy, this one person held firm and stuck to his stand. Because, he had the power – he was admin, no less! When push came to shove, he did what every bureaucrat in the annals of history had done. He organised a poll. Not “before,” but “after,” having blocked all the other members from saving their individual preferences. He also suddenly remembered democracy again. There was one type of democracy before he peremptorily blocked everyone else from individual ‘saves.’ Under this second type of democracy, members had to now vote before his “democratic” action could be revoked. Even though the concerned admin vigorously rang up other members to support the timer, more members voted ‘against’ the timer than ‘for.’ So, there had to be a third type of ‘democracy.’ Poll extended for a week, extendable for a fortnight, a month, a year, or so on, ad infinitum (the time period decided by him), until enough times the coin dropped ‘heads.’ Meanwhile, that “democratic” decision to block the saves continued. 

Such is the basis upon which “democracy” is built. Amen! 

There was another member whose world began and ended with one particular dispensation (OPD) and its policies. So, whatever OPD decreed or promoted had to be defended at all costs. So, if OPD committed the country’s Air Force to battle under some “cloud theory” of escaping radar detection, that was a masterstroke! Obviously, there was plastic surgery which made Lord Ganesha’s elephant head possible. The 2,000 rupee notes had chips embedded (wonder what happened to the chips since the notes are now gone). Shivaji statue had laser eyes to detect terrorist movements in the sea – the statue has now collapsed so we all are quite vulnerable. 

There was another guy for whom everything reminded of caste. If someone even posted a nice painting or said the sky was blue, he would rave and rant and splutter about how Brahmins have been so evil. And, heavens forbid, if anyone even mentioned reservations … I tried telling him everything reminded me of sex but at least I didn’t put it in ALL my WhatsApp posts but the irony passed him by. 

One guy thought that he was “the chosen one” to spread the outpourings of the toxic IT cell and try and fashion the group in its image. It was not even acceptable to him if nobody responded to his rants. He would cast serious aspersions on the intellectual abilities of his batchmates if others remained silent. 

Two guys once got into a heated argument and then the admin (used to be a lone person then, the creator of the group) was asked to intervene. The admin did so but it was apparently not acceptable that the admin had not taken a stronger stand. The then lone admin quit the group – for more than a decade, he had worked assiduously to keep the group together, … and civil. 

The problem is not with WhatsApp as a platform. The problem is not even with most of the WhatsApp group members. The problem is with the systematic injecting of the venom that has made us into such a hateful nation of trolls that “hatred” is our default option. The bigger problem is that the “injecting” has been SO successful that highly educated people (IIMs are the pinnacle of educational excellence in India) and people who have seen the ins-and-outs of government and politicians and their seamier sides at play (civil servants) have been mesmerised into idolatry. I quit my IIM batch group in the past. I’ve now quit a civil services group. I’ve also quit a retired people’s group. I guess, I self-enforced my social media ban. Other governments en-forced social media bans from the outside, with disastrous results. With time, they’ll probably pivot to the Indian model (of immersing social media with so much venom from the inside and creating so many trolls that no ban would be necessary). Just a hope – India will learn from these incidents. It’s a small, dwindling, now-barely-flickering hope. We live in dark times.

Why do they hate us so much?

 

Nepal has been up in flames recently. Although international media has given the news short shrift, things appear to have been really bad there. News about Nepal made me cast my mind back to my United Nations deployment in Sierra Leone. The guns had fallen silent. Peace-keeping was practically over. A very small group of us were engaged in what was called “capacity building” – the deaf leading the blind? Since it was a small group, we interacted with each other continuously and extensively. One Nepalese officer used to spend much of his time in my office room. One day, while discussing someone else, he just burst out saying, “Who toh Indians se bhi gandaa hai!” [“He is even dirtier than Indians!”] before realising that he was actually talking to an Indian. I was furious and threatened to report him for a racist comment like that and he panicked and apologised profusely. I let it go; however, it made me think how hated we are amongst our neighbours. 

The next time I came face to face with the hatred was nearly a full-blown diplomatic crisis with me at the centre of it. I was working with Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the security regulator for all things aviation in India. The previous hijacking of an Indian aeroplane (IC 814) had been orchestrated after the plane took off from Kathmandu and we were concerned about the security arrangements at Kathmandu airport. I was leading a team of officials from different organisations and ministries for an audit of Kathmandu airport as far as it pertained to our operations there. 

Actually, this is a routine matter and within international obligations under the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) mandate. Any ICAO signatory country is obliged to allow inspection of their aviation security arrangements by officials of any other signatory country having aviation operation to and from the former. We were inspecting airports in many countries and officials of other countries used to inspect our arrangements too. I never expected how big a problem my visit was going to be. 

Just a day or two before our trip, the Indian High Commission’s office informed me that there was a glitch and that the Nepal government was not willing to permit us. I told them we were coming anyway because we could always travel to Nepal under the existing agreements and if they permitted the audit, fine; else, we’d come back. Later I heard from my IPS colleague at the High Commission that the High Commissioner was not-a-little amused, aghast, and, somewhat admiring – he chuckled, “I like these guys’ attitude!” He worked hard to facilitate the trip and the audit. 

When we landed, I was shocked by some of the headlines in the Nepalese newspapers. “India is sending people to destroy our sovereignty.” “Now Indian arms will land in Nepal.” “We are an independent nation.” And, so on. I was also told that the matter of issuing Airport Entry Permits for us was raging in their legislative body (I think, it was called a legislature then) because a Minister had raised strong objections to our proposed audit. 

Something funny happened though. A very senior police officer of Nepal (different from the previous mentioned) who had served in the team headed by me in Sierra Leone heard that I was in town, visited me in his personal capacity and took me around the airport and its facilities and discussed a lot of the details, apart from discussing the (good?) old days. The next day, partly because the particular minister realised that I was able to access things without the permit and partly due to the efforts of the Indian High Commission, we were “formally” granted the permits and rest of the audit went smoothly. 

I was appalled by the incident. However, I was even more appalled by the attitude of some of the officials in my delegation. The moment we “officially” entered the airport, the guys in my delegation started “directing” the Nepalese officials and “dictating” what they should or shouldn’t do. I called a time-out, gathered them in and told them to strictly follow protocol; their job was not to “oversee” but to observe and ask questions after asking for permission; any observations would be communicated between the governments on govt-to-govt basis through proper channels and any “directions” to the Indian aviation agencies would be communicated during a closed-door de-brief meeting. Believe me, my delegation officials were sputtering and straining at the leash so I had to be even harsher than the previous words suggest. 

Even though this was a small incident, it does mirror how we, as a country, have managed to gather so many enemies and so much hatred in our backyard. We are big and that is our privilege but that is also our burden. We need not be overbearing. Also, we could be a little more gracious, and sensitive. Sensitive, above all.