REVENGE OFTHE LITTLE MEDIA
For the past two decades, a breed of self- confident and successful Indians have nurtured the belief that sustained economic growth, middle class prosperity, availability of technology and global exposure would also rub off on its flat- footed bureaucracy. Although there were few expectations of efficiency, there was hope that the huge gap between the assertive and brash New India and the indolent and inept babudom would be narrowed.
Smart governance was never a realisable dream. Modest hopes centred on the demise of stupid governance.
It has turned out to be a futile wait. In the past fortnight, in a bid to crack down on a rumour industry that was blamed for the exodus of North- eastern people from Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad, the Government emulated Inspector Clouseau with rare perfection. However, unlike the exasperating French policeman who invariably blundered his way to success, the efforts of the mighty home ministry and its cyber sleuths proved horribly counter- productive. The Government of India emerged from the exercise looking inept, illiberal and totally ridiculous.
At the heart of this colossal misadventure was babudom’s incomprehension of the dynamics of the social media. Having long been accustomed to an organised media ( both print and electronic) that believed it has a stake in governance and, consequently, is both restrained and malleable, it has been confronted with a new breed of activists who are naturally irreverent, even reckless.
Available statistics suggest that a mere 13 million Indians, accounting for not more than 1 per cent of the population, have Twitter accounts. A more disaggregated analysis would probably reveal that the most active of the twitterati is below 40 years of age, either graduates or pursuing higher education and, most important, reasonably versed in English. In political terms, they would be regarded as inconsequential and even a part of the non- voting classes.
This statistical insignificance, however, masked a more important phenomenon. First, by virtue of their education and geographical spread across India ( and, indeed, the diaspora), Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Facebook, has become an alternative channel of opinion- making and news dissemination. It has become virtually impossible to suppress news.
Secondly, its occupation of an alternative space owed considerably to a rising dissatisfaction with what is called MSM ( mainstream media). A casual pe- rusal of tweets will reveal that the social media is prone to believing that MSM is riddled with bias, obfuscation and collateral agendas and is not the last word.
It has been argued that the Twitter community in India has been captured by a clutch of right- wing, Hindu nationalists. The claim may be overstated but there is little doubt that Narendra Modi— the ubiquitous NAMO— has emerged as the favourite politician of the twitterati. Some of this is undoubtedly due to Modi’s charisma and his image of a decisive, nononsense leader. But a large part also owes to the belief that MSM has been unfairly demonising Modi. The Twitter narrative has consequently emerged as the alternative to the dominant Left- liberal discourse on public life in India.
Liberal India is well represented in the MSM. Its search for alternative platforms is less compelling.
Yet, social media activists aren’t revolutionaries; they can best be described as an emerging counter- establishment hellbent on flaying a cosy and compromised political and intellectual establishment.
Finally, Twitter messaging has tended to be blunt, much to the irritation of those who insist that English is a language of understatement. This has less to do with the lack of sophistication of the activists than the 140- letter ceiling that the platform has imposed on messages. Brevity has contributed to sharp, in- your- face messaging that liberals with access to the MSM find disturbing, even hateful, and the voiceless find appealing.
To a Government that operates on the principle of control and regulation, the anarchic, free market of opinions and news is both unsettling and subversive. The fact that Sonia Gandhi and her son can be mercilessly attacked and lampooned, and the Prime Minister mocked, is seen by the officially empowered as reprehensible and akin to treason. Over- zealous ministers and officials have long been trying to force a ‘ regulatory regime’ ( a euphemism for control) on the Internet and particularly the social media. The comic, post- Assam riots crackdown on Internet sites and the social media, in the guise of preserving peace and enhancing national security, was part of this muscle- flexing.
It is reassuring that the exercise was transparently clumsy. The last thing India needs is efficient censorship aimed at stifling the angry voices of those who feel disenfranchised from the big media.