Love it or hate it, social media is a great leveler. Gone are those days when highly placed Civil Servants use to manhandle folks in public and get away with impunity. Nowadays such a person will think hundred times before enacting misuse of power act in public - lest some one records it on smartphone and takes it to the next level by making it viral. Beware, now anyone with a smartphone on hand is a citizen reporter.
During my REC (Now in NIT) days one fine morning there was some skirmishes between students in front of our hostel. A professor nicknamed DADA (for his habit of bullying students and staff alike) suddenly barged into the hostel to take the situation into control. He was greeted with a volley of expletives by the students, provoking him by alleging him of having not so healthy relationship with his mother and sisters. It was akin to showing a red flag to the Bull. The loud mouthed professor got mad and went around the hostel corridor, returning the compliments by immensely praising the mothers and sisters of the boarders.
Fast forward to present. A student could have easily recorded the professor's act and put it live for Facebook viewers. That would have been sufficient to turn our DADA into a KHUDI (Feminine Dada) irreversibly from that day, defanging him forever. Now a professor will think a dozen times before doing such utterance in public.
What's the difference between a defunct clock and a clock which runs 5 minutes late ? The defunct Clock shows the correct time twice a day. But the clock which runs 5 minutes late never shows the correct time. Similar analogy can be made between Social media versus the mainstream media. Social media at least gives correct news sometimes. The mainstream media, most of which has become lapdog of vested interests rarely do their job.
Now let's forward our clock a bit further. This incident from the late 1990s was narrated to me by a relation of mine from Civil Services posted at that time in the township of Barhampur, Odisha. After a late meeting with his colleagues he was returning home, following the car of a Senior Police Offical.
Suddenly he saw some commotions ahead and went out of his car to quench his curiosity. A few feet ahead he saw the police officer forcing a couple of students in front of Khallikote College to do sit ups holding their ears in unison (A humiliating punishment commonly practiced in India). Their fault - they were drinking beer sitting on a culvert in front of the College, not unusual for students. This was not palatable to the police officer who was hellbent on showing off his power. A military personnel (there is a Naval base close by) standing by who objected to this blatant misuse of power was scolded by our law enforcer.
The Police Official, now retired was seen recently giving a long lecture on a local TV Channel - how the government officials should serve people in a polite manner, shouldn't take law into their own hands etc etc. No wonder Our Babus are world's champion hypocrites. If hypocrisy was an event in the Olympics our Babus will win Gold medal hands down.
Fast forward to today. Unless drunk with power or otherwise, the same police officer in the same situation will think multiple times before punishing the students. Because some passerby may record the event and make it viral on social media. Next day Arnab Goswami will do a thorough verbal rape of the police officer on his program, summoning him to answer to the nation. He may not have to answer on Arnab's show, but the policeman definitely will have some answering to do to his superiors.
Social media is the real game changer, a double edged sword. Love it or hate it, better learn to live with it - for it is real and going to stick around. It may not have stopped all nuisance makers go scott free, certainly has acted as a huge deterrent.
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