Social Media has been as troublesome in politics as in every other sphere. It helps the users understand the thought process of the politicians in a way that was never possible.
For example, to see what goes on inside KTR’s life one can study his personal Twitter account. The way he chooses to respond and retweet or uploads selfies or tags people or his tweets about his favourite cartoon Calvin Hobbes. A person closely following him gets to know better about the politician’s choices.
The way Lalu Prasad Yadav takes a dig at others keeps his followers in splits. For External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the medium has literally become a platform to solve issues. She expresses all her emotions, love, anger and solves problems in the best possible manner. Smriti Irani even indulged in war of words with Journalists on social media.
Are these people all insulated from haters or trolls? How many of us see Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi memes surfacing each day? Is the PM saying it offended him? They have haters and their blocked list grows every day. How often do we read that some celebrity shutdown a hater who tried to troll them? Who is on a high ground?
When used rightly, just one social media campaign for Special Category status escalated to a level that the CM had to impose section 144 in Vishakapatnam. And when the leader is wrong like the ‘B.com in Physics’ dialog, the social media is bound to joke about it.
Speaker Kodela Shiva Prasad took offence of the trolls for his comments during women’s parliament. He decided to issue a clarification in the assembly on this closed chapter, instead of discussing on several important issues. The speaker should have given back on the very same day or in that week. But he waited patiently for the budget sessions. Firstly, the damage is done, the populace is very unlikely to make his “actual video” viral.
Just because one doesn’t try to use social media to give back to the critics, it is absurd to term trolling as “an act that damaged the credibility”. He also stated that his family members were also dragged into controversies through posts in the social media. The speaker should have hired a PR agency who would check and issue clarifications on his behalf. The state has enough problems to solve and this issue of being offended and wasting precious time of the assembly is actually belittling the office of the speaker.
The speaker could have easily used the Information Technology Act, 2000, categorically which makes a person liable should they post any incriminating or illegal content or material on social media. In fact, the law has gone even further and recognises the person, providing content on social media, to be a content service provider and network service provider. Hence, the law recognizes social media users as network service providers and hence, intermediaries under the law.
Despite the law in place, TDP leaders demanded stringent law. Chandrababu Naidu might as well groom his subtle leaders. TDP MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar and YSRC MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy challenging each other said, “raa choosukundam” (come let’s fight). These leaders should adopt the ways of the new entrant Nara Lokesh who challenges Jagan on social media by tagging him in his tweets.
The ruling party leaders wanted the leader of opposition to accept the challenge and even were heard saying the famous Gautami Purta Satakarni dialog “Saranama maranama”. These leaders should first focus on Chandrababu’s biggest challenge of getting “everything online” before delivering dialogues in the assembly.
There are innumerable memes surfacing on politicians each day which do not spare even the Chandrababu and for that Lokesh or Jagan. They are not immune to haters, but they choose to respond wisely. Like many other training’s, it’s time Chandrababu contemplates on training his team to get acquainted with social media and use it fittingly.
