Chinmayi's Vengeance: A big blow to 'Online Democracy'
Chinmayi, a cinema singer who stepped into the online world of twitter and Facebook has now sprung into sudden limelight by filing complaint against fellow tweeters. When a celebrity comes into the online world and starts posting messages in the social networking sites, he or she is no more a celebrity. Because the users of these social networking sites are commoners and one has to have the tolerance of accepting comments and feedback, negative or positive. However, Chinmayi failed to understand this logic and has resorted to complaining against a few tweeters.
Chinmayi has filed a complaint against 9 tweeters stating that they have constantly posted abusive comments against her. All this happened a year ago , when hash tag in twitter #saveTNfishermen was very popular. This hashtag was created to spread awareness among Indians to save Tamil Nadu fishermen who were continuously killed or assaulted by Sri Lankan navy. Tamil people who were behind this save fishermen campaign also decided to seek support from Chinmayi as Chinmayi was quite active in twitter. Chimayi could have avoided this or supported this campaign. She did neither. She posted some comments like, " We don't eat fish and we don't kill fishes" . Many of Chinmayi's followers were in support of Chinmayi and apparently they too have posted comments like " what is wrong in killing fishermen when they kill fishes". This made Tamil activists furious. An heated argument triggered between Chinmayi's followers and Tamil activists soon after this.
On another occasion, Chinmayi was pulled into to comment on Reservation issue. Even at this time Chinmayi played a negative role of criticizing reservation system and have stated that there is no such oppressed people in the society. She used the term 'so called backward'. Again this statement of Chinmayi created tension and rift among Tamil Tweeters. Normally when these kind of political debates arise, people tend to lose their patience and end up with leaving harsh or abusive comments. This happens everywhere even inside the parliament. Twitter world is not an exception as users there are sitting at different locations of the world and they tend to react instantaneously.
As Chinmayi was identified as belonging to a elite upper class sect, Tamil people started to show their anger much more furiously. Tamils felt that Chinmayi was against the sentiments of Tamil people and that is the reason she is against reservation system. At one point of time Chinmayi was not able to tolerate the comments against her and was not in a position to give fitting reply to attacking comments either. Therefore she decided to file a complaint against the tweeters. She complained to the police commissioner that these twitter postings are harassing her. Chinmayi alleged that , "a few individuals have threatened to kill, rape and assault me on Twitter". She listed six twitter handlers - @senthilchn, @RajanLeaks, @asharavkay, @losongelesram, @vivajial and @thyirvadai.
But the question lies on freedom of expression. While these tweeters have expressed their views online and nowhere it could be considered as a crime. There are millions of tweets every day which are far more abusive than these and even targeted on national leaders. But there is no action against these tweeters as Indian law allows freedom to express their views. In this issue the fellow tweeters did not call upon Chinmayi , nor did they physically handle her. They have not even seen her in real. Moreover, there are quite a number of fake ID's floating in twitter and facebook . How can replying to a post stop unless the person stops his or her posting? Comments on social networking sites not moderated by external person and that is the reason the users are given a tool to block a particular person to post. Chinmayi is known to block people who are commenting against her. She could have very well used this tool as much as she wanted. But complaining to the police , actually shows how immature she is . This has actually triggered a negative impact on Chinmayi. Police who normally indifferent towards online complaint, this time was very active in arresting the persons mentioned in Chinmayi's complaint. This is quite unusual.
Tamil activists allege that police and the government officials are in favour of Chinmayi because of Chinmayi's celebrity status and caste background. Moreover politicians too are in support of this arrest, as this may be good starting point to threaten online users and political commentators. This is bad example of failed democracy . The professor Mr. Saravanakumar who was arrested and jailed in this case is likely get a black mark in his career. He was taken inside the police campus as if he was a worst criminal. Now the online facebook users and tweeters are shocked about this incident and are reluctant to post their comments as freely as before. They feel that their democratic right is clamped down. Of course Chinmayi's stand is big blow to online democracy.
