THE GREAT INDIAN BOYCOTT CULTURE

There will be something which is trending in our country every day. And nowadays trends are "created" and spreads through social media and mostly lasts only for that day. Indians have a history of Swadeshi Movement which was to boycott British products during the freedom struggle. That movement definitely united Indians for the freedom, in short, the intention was right and the consequences were good.

I'm talking about the #boycott trend. I'm sure the #boycott thing happens since the inception of Twitter, but nowadays people gets offended even for the most silly things and starts the twitter #boycott trend.

These are a few...

Even in this moment, when I'm typing, there's a #boycott going on in Twitter.

Not every hashtag trends has good intentions.

See the examples above.

The right wing propaganda is what drive these campaigns. The followers of right wing politics and their supreme leader who rules the country hates criticism, communal harmony and freedom of speech and expression.

And if they find any individual or group not following them, they are subjected to bullying with such hashtag trendings.

Sounds like a fascist thing, right ?

The campaign for boycotting Tanishq, a jewellery brand, happened because it's ad promoted communal harmony.

To boycott Mirzapur webseries because it criticised the government.

To boycott the Chhappak movie, because the protagonist of the film, Deepika Padukone supported the JNU students who were attacked by Sangh Parivar workers.

So many more incidents.....

Most of such campaigns have a strong right wing and pro-government propaganda.

You can find hashtag trendings which spreads hatred and split people. Most of the time, religion becomes the reason. 

Cultivating a mob mentality in social media is not difficult task. The "blind followers" begin with a hashtag against what and who they target. The like minded people back it and others who just 'go with the trend' makes it trending.

The truth is, most of such campaigns recieve a passive support from political leaders.

Also it has another objective, which is, distracting the attention from the real issues.

The drowning economy, growing unemployment, pandemic, people protesting against 'black' laws,...  also happens in this country.

This whole idea of hate campaign and #boycott are put forward just for, to silence the opposition. Existence of diverse opinions is what democracy all about. 

Remember, India will be a democratic country until we criticise it.