It’s not even been a day since the BJP swept the 2019 Elections, but director Anurag Kashyap has already raised a very urgent and legitimate question to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kashyap took up the cause of online trolling, that has hit a new low during Modi’s governance. The Dev.D director pleaded with the Prime Minister to keep a check on these seemingly ‘BJP supporters’ and how fearlessly they go about issuing rape threats to women. Kashyap brought it up after his daughter faced it on her Instagram. And that too, for Kashyap’s dissent.
Dear @narendramodi sir. Congratulations on your victory and thank you for the message of inclusiveness. Sir please also tell us how do we deal with these followers of yours who celebrate your victory by threatening my daughter with messages like this for me being your dissenter. pic.twitter.com/jC7jYVBCi8
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) May 23, 2019
This has been an ongoing malaise during the Modi tenure, where Twitter has only become a filthier place for women. When Gauri Lankesh was murdered in 2017, there were many accounts celebrating her being gunned down with the choicest of expletives. These are accounts that are followed by the honourable Prime Minister’s official Twitter account, something he has done nothing to dissociate from even after their vile tweets became headlines.
Only yesterday, OpIndia Editor Nupur Sharma’s derision towards ‘liberals’ took an ugly turn after she chose to break her dam of F-words.
Massive victory. Bigger than 2014. While so far, I have maintained decorum, aaj to banta hai:
Fuck you “liberals”. Fuck You!
— Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) May 23, 2019
We got an exhibit A of how low the discourse had stooped, shortly after Kashyap’s aforementioned tweet. BJP sympathiser and former filmmaker Ashoke Pandit retweeted Kashyap’s request by questioning the legitimacy of the screenshot. He went on to say that when something similar happened to his own daughter, he didn’t ‘crib about it to the PM’ and instead filed a police complaint against the alleged ‘miscreant’. At which point Kashyap lost his cool, and the name-calling began.
This twitter handle seems to be photoshopped because it doesn’t exist. Seems to be created by an #UrbanNaxal to give an opportunity to somebody to abuse #Modi when the entire World is happy. https://t.co/e0kVlEhL4J
— Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) May 23, 2019
Another five years of a Modi-led BJP government and what it does to our conversations on Twitter, is something we’ll have to wait and watch. However, as Kashyap has rightly pointed out to the BJP supremo, something needs to be done about these rape/assault threats that seem to be coming from a particular part of society.
