In today’s times of social media, it is used and misused constantly. Trolling has become almost a political weapon. Anybody who is Left or Right of centre, gets trolled by those who have an agenda. It’s less about personal angst and more about the political parties of the age realising that social media has a certain power of reach. They think that a certain volume of trolling is going to dissuade people from their beliefs and statements. Trolling is threatening, with the vilest of language because there’s no censorship.
Now it’s a possibility that a lot of the Opposition parties are pretending to be a particular party and trolling to make people believe these guys are goons and fools. Take for instance Unilever’s ad on the Kumbh Mela. It probably portrayed a sense of truth but it is an unpleasant truth of lots of people trying to lose their aged parents at the Kumbh Mela. Now this is a fact but you cannot then make it into a commercial proposition because it is an unsavoury fact which is part of our social fabric—you cannot use it to sell a tea. It attracted a lot of trolling and a lot of it evidently choreographed by Baba Ramdev. Mainly because it is his single point agenda now to replace Hindustan Lever with his own products. He evidently uses these trolling opportunities to actually push his point through.
Now when the Surf Excel commercial on communal harmony came out, it was immediately targeted by what we thought was the same Right Wing fanatic trollers. Now I don’t think even the Right Wing—and however frothy they are—are stupid enough to troll something which is as well-intentioned as this commercial, which is above board. Millions of silent people actually liked the commercial. In comparison, just around a thousand trolled it. And we look at it as a Right Wing agenda! Any sane liberal Hindu would turn around and say they have lost their marbles. Now who would want the sane liberal Hindu to believe that the Right Wing fringe has lost it marbles? The Opposition!
This instance was clearly opportunistic. I don’t think even the Right Wing yahoos are so stupid to shoot themselves in the foot so obviously because they know they are being automatically painted into a corner as being completely intolerant. Just before an election everybody is highly sensitive. Why would they even risk being painted as intolerant by trolling? And what an opportunity it is for the Opposition to troll on their behalf because everybody had assumed that it was the Right Wing fanatics. Fact is, eventually the Opposition doesn’t have anything to say about anybody or even about themselves.
The reverse if also true. When the trolling started, it was probably done by the people who took credit for the trolling. Today I believe trolling is a disinformation campaign. It is done about subjects that might split opinions. Today out of 10 Hindus that you may know, at least 8 are liberal. They believe in the Modi government because they think it has an economic agenda; while being uncomfortable with the communal agenda. And it is here that disinformation plays a key role. Trolling has a negative power—not to swing the vote but to disengage. It can reinforce the already convinced. Trolling has an agenda—it’s important not to get swayed.