SUFFERING FROM BLOOD CANCER, MAN STREAMS SUICIDE ON FB
SILIGURI: A patient of blood cancer in West Bengal reportedly committed suicide while streaming the act live on Facebook on late Saturday, police said, identifying the deceased as 43-year-old Arindam Dutta, a resident of Siliguri in Darjeeling district.
Police said Dutta made a final call to his childhood friend, one Mohammed Alam, who works as a journalist in Kolkata, but the latter could not receive the call.
Police recovered Dutta’s body from his house on Sunday morning. In the 3-minute-long video, Dutta is seen tying up a nylon rope around his neck. Five of his Facebook friends, who noticed him, tried to persuade him against taking his life through comments while some called him up but Dutta did not answer.
His friends said Dutta was a divorcee and was battling depression since learning about the blood cancer. He lived alone, while his former wife and their daughter stayed together.
Alam now regrets missing Dutta’s call. “He also called my wife and told her that he was not interested in living,” Alam said. “Had I received the call, probably I could have persuaded him (not to) take such an extreme step.”
He said after being detected with blood cancer, Dutta’s close friends assured him they would contribute for his treatment.
“But I had never imagined he will commit suicide,” Alam said.
Achinta Gupta, assistant commissioner of police, said that the police was probing the matter.
Socio-political churning in India is at its peak and one of the biggest reasons for this is social media. Views and ideological standpoints are getting polarised into two extremes, with logic usually being the casualty.
Last Sunday, I decided to stand up against the abuse and ‘trolling’ being meted out to MEA Sushma Swaraj on Twitter but earned a label for myself for daring to question injustice and condemning abusers who indulged in offensive and obnoxious treatment of a senior female Minister.
The story began with alleged harassment of an inter-faith couple Tanvi Seth and Anas Siddiqui by passport officer Vikas Mishra at the regional passport office in Lucknow. Social Media went to town with one side of the incident. It’s understandable to some extent because social media has its limitations. But the way ‘victim’ and ‘guilty’ were decided instantly was disturbing.
Worryingly, the mainstream media too got carried away and declared the officer guilty. Primetime TV debates started questioning the government for vitiating the religious environment of the country as well as the whole administrative system. The officer’s version was missing or was not taken at face value. There was nationwide outrage against Mishra.
Under pressure from the media and the opposition parties, Mishra was transferred with a show-cause notice. To put an end to the controversy, the regional passport officer apologized to the couple; their passports were printed overnight and given to them in front of TV cameras.
I decided to dig deeper. Mishra told one of my colleagues that there were discrepancies in Tanvi’s form.
I sent out a few tweets underlining the discrepancies in Tanvi and Anas’ forms and questioned RPO’S decision to bypass a basic rule like police verification of the address; why were the passports handed over to the couple personally when the rule is to send them by post, I asked. I tagged Sushma Swaraj in these tweets and asked for an investigation so that the truth comes out.
By this time, Swaraj was already being abused for doing “injustice” to the passport officer. Disgusted, I instantly stood up for her and condemned those using abusive language. Sushma Swaraj is one minister who has best used Twitter to widen her ministry’s outreach. Even opposition leaders appreciate the way she has used it to help Indians in need all around the world.
As a response, the minister or her team decided to highlight the trolling by ‘liking’ their tweets, ignoring the difference between ‘trolling’, and ‘journalism’. Some of my tweets were ‘liked’ too