Senior journalist Ravish Kumar is known for voicing his views on the rising intolerance in the country. His recent speech at the Press Club after the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh was widely appreciated. A known face among the masses, Kumar is no stranger to the snide barbs directed at him by some ‘bhakts’. A few days ago, the Facebook page of Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV had witnessed a fierce battle between the anchor’s fans and detractors. Now, Kumar’s Facebook page too turned into a battleground of ideology with both his fans and critics ‘reviewing’ him on the basis of his journalistic credentials.
Kumar, a recipient of several awards including the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award, has more than 10,000 users giving his Facebook page a 5-star rating. However, there was no dearth of haters as well, at least 1,500 of them sending out nasty reviews on his page. They gave him a 1 star rating. Their angst against Kumar did not only remain limited to the rating. They also wrote nasty things about him in the review of the page, labelling him ‘a Congress agent’ among other things.
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Just take a look at these comments and you will come to know how a journalist’s acumen is questioned these days.
This is not the end. Sample more such hate posts.
A screen shot of the hateful Facebook post on Ravish Kumar’s official page.
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Or maybe these two Facebook posts may give you a better idea of the hatred spewed.
However, Kumar, who hosts daily news debate show Prime Time on NDTV India, also found support from fans who lauded him for his strong views on freedom of speech.
Recently, Kumar became the victim of fake news which claimed that he had termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi a ‘goon’. The post went viral on social media. Following a backlash, the journalist took to Facebook to dismiss the allegations, saying that he had not used such a term for the PM.
Ravish Kumar, in his speech in the aftermath of Gauri Lankesh’s murder, had revealed how a few of his close aides had advised him to seek security cover, fearing that he might be targeted for his work. Pointing out a derogatory tweet which was directed at Gauri Lankesh, Kumar had said,
I’m disappointed that the Prime Minister follows people who referred to a person who just died as kuttiya (bitch).
While it is every individual’s right to agree or disagree with an opinion, what is appalling is the trend in which people get too personal on social media and start abusing each other.
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