In this age and time, public figures getting trolled by random strangers on social media platforms is not new or something to be taken serious note of.
New Delhi: No, there is nothing wrong in the headline. But it is a fact that RaGa did put out post on Facebook and Twitter passionately urging people to vote for Narendra Modi and make him Prime Minister again.
Now, don't get confused.
The RaGa in question though here is Ranjani and Gayathri, leading Carnatic music vocalists duo who live in Chennai. They had put out a video post on their social media timeline on April 18 --- the day Tamil Nadu went to polls, and after sweetly crooning a few lines from the famous bhajan Vaishnava Janata To, the sisters explained its meaning and opined that if there is one who fits the noble ethos of the lines then it has to be Narendra Modi. And they urged the public to vote for him.
Mind you, it was their own social media timeline (the sisters operate joint FB, Twitter accounts), and they were voicing their personal opinion.
But the two may not have been prepared for the kind of hate and vicious sniping that their post would elicit.
Of course, there were people who welcomed the duo's point and post. But there were others who began to troll the sisters with the most unflattering language and terms.
In this age and time, public figures getting trolled by random strangers on social media platforms is not new or something to be taken serious note of.
But the trolling in the case of RaGa sisters crossed the stage of being nasty and got into the territory of casteist and personal threats. And of course leading Left Liberals were also foaming at their mouths.
Maoist sympathiser Kavita Krishnan, in a shrill tweet (as a reply to the duo) cried herself hoarse: "Brecht writing in Hitler's time said 'The compassion of the oppressed for the oppressed is indispensable. It is the world's one hope.' That compassion will save India. But history'll remember you 2 using your soulful voices to peddle hate and bigotry as selfless empathy!"
In Kavita's view, making an appeal to vote for Modi was to "peddle hate and bigotry". A person who goes out of the way to defend marauding Maoists did not see the irony of calling people merely expressing their legitimate opinions as being hateful.
Another popular Carnatic Music singer and an activist in his own right, T M Krishna, also indulged in some behind-the-back Twitter exchange with his followers about the 'appropriation of the song'. But to be fair to him, his comments were more in the nature of sly chatter.
But on Facebook, things had turned nasty, and very problematic, as typical Tamil Nadu trolls were crossing the line of 'edgy comments' into hurling casteist slurs and violent abuse.
On FB, one handle named 'Kanaga Varathan', said "I want to puke", to which a handle named Deepa Lakshmi responded, "Let me find their address. We shall go."
Kanaga Varathan was not done yet, he said (in Tamil) that the address can be found in Mylapore.
The reference to Mylapore is important --- it comes from a position of inverted snobbery and bigotry that sees places like Mylapore (where Brahmins are deemed to live in large numbers) in a pejorative light. Mylapore, in popular parlance, is a metaphor for Brahmins area. (Of course, this is a lazy symbolism, as Brahmins are not the numerical majority there.)
Deepa Lakshmi added her bit (in Tamil): "if you go to the area (Mylapore) it is puke only."
Threatening to find their address and create trouble for the two women somehow did not seem to be a matter of concern for the liberal media sections.
But such an exchange is not surprising in Tamil Nadu where many intermediate castes people, who have whipped up the bogey of Brahminism for over 50 years now, have been openly rabid against people who have been born under the State classified list of Brahmins. "It is also discrimination. But just because we are classified as upper caste we can't even complain," says S Raghunathan, a caterer. "Our names, our attire, our way of life are all made fun of. But the moment one points this out, we are the ones called casteists."
Says Vijayalakshmi of Anna Nagar, who is an entrepreneur, "reverse casteism in Tamil Nadu is a reality. You can no longer run away from this fact. 50 years of Dravidian rule has ensured that."
Many people don't complain, and just take the mudslinging in their stride, because they still come under the list: upper caste. "When Dalits continue to suffer physical abuse day in and day out at the hands of intermediary castes, our problems are miniscule," says Madhusudhanan K, a professor. "The real problem is these intermediary castes continue to torment the Dalits and generally get away because the media use the omnibus term upper caste to describe the perpetrators."
Coming back to RaGa, the sisters’ duo again put out a post saying, "Little did we realise, for the first time when both of us decided to express our thoughts in our Facebook page on election day, as sincere Indian citizens, that we would create so many ripples!"
Providing screenshots of the vile abuse that came their way, the duo hit the nail right on its head, when they said: "Strange that 'progressive' people seem to progress farthest in nastiness, spite and name-calling even as they continue to exercise their own freedom of expression."
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