Social media Is Not For Making Irresponsible Comments

There's a hue and cry over the arrest of a 20 year old girl commenting on Facebook against Mumbai shutdown following Bal Thackeray's death.. These young guys will nevertheless call a bandh at their schools or colleges if a student dies. At their age, Balasaheb was someone who they never really knew. They have known him somewhat sketchily from the so called secular TV channels and newspapers who took pains to paint him as a living demon. All politicians have some good and some bad in them. He must have meant something to some 2 million Mumbaikars/Maharashtrians which made them come out on the street and shed tears for him. Just because you are 20 something and have no respect for him doesn't mean you will start questioning whether it was respect and  fear that made shopkeepers and business-owners to stay closed for a day. How can a 20 something kid even know what another 10 million people are thinking? How can then she make such a flippant comment? I am not a Shiv sainik. Never knew Balasaheb closely or intimately. Yet I was moved by the scene of the sea of people who had come to his funeral. If that was not love and respect for the man, what was it? Were they brought by busloads and paid a day's pocket money like political parties do? If you want to exercise your freedom of speech, you should also have the understanding of what you are saying and avoid saying something that hurts other people's sentiment.

Perhaps arresting them was the best thing the police had done at the time. The girls got bail. Later on, the charges can be dropped. But if police had remained inactive, and the Shiv sainiks who had taken offense to her comments, retaliated? Would not that have been more serious and damaging for the girl?

Chetan Bhagat in his column only last Sunday TOI observed that we have become very sensitive and hence, we tend to perceive insults even when there were none. True. But then that's the way things have become. We have learnt fast from others.

We are small people. We feel angst about many things. Earlier we used to bottle it up within us as there was no outlet. Now there are these free forums where you can express. But remember, people against whom you are posting can retaliate. And that may not be through a harmless Facebook posting. In Bengali, we have a saying. If you throw a stone, be prepared to have a brick thrown at you.