‘Fake News’ is turning India into ‘Lynchocracy’

 ‘Fake News’ is turning India into ‘Lynchocracy’

Syed Ali Mujtaba

There is spate of lynching incidents reported from different parts of India. Many of them are attributed to fake news that is discovered much after the damage is being done.

The Supreme Court of India has become agog to such frightening reality and had ordered the Centre and the State governments to take immediate steps to stop the dissemination of misinformation causing mortal harms to the individuals.

This phenomenon is reaching alarming levels forcing the government to direct the social media to control its fake content. It’s even contemplating to make legislation to arrest this growing trend.

The phenomenon of fake news which  is caught in the cesspool of blame game. The court is asking the government, the government is asking the state governments and social media and the social media is putting the onus on the public.

In this blame game, fake news is having a fields day. The civil society is a spectator to the lynch mobs that is on prowl at the drop a hat taking innocent lives.  It appears the phenomenon of fake news has acquired persuasive power with a tendency to whip up mob frenzy. It appears Indian democracy is being converted into mobocracy and lynchocracy. This is a serious issue and has to be dealt with all the seriousness it deserves.   

The very concept of fake news is the intentional spreading of misinformation. There are many sources of fake news. This can be individuals, lobbies, groups and even governments.  Invariable, all have their own selfish axe to grind. The motive behind fake news is to whip up emotions and reap the benefits of its cascading effects.

Fake news can be extremely dangerous if one cynical believe it to be true. The mother of all ‘fake news’ was the 2003 Iraq War, when the fake news was circulated that the then Iraqi dictator possessed weapons of mass destruction. Never in recent memory such chicanery of fake news was created that caused so much havoc in the world.  This misinformation lured the Bush administration to go to war with Iraq. And we all know what happened in its aftermath.

In hindsight, if the then US administration had bothered to check the reliability of such information and have not blindly have become susceptible to such fake news, perhaps world would have been a better place to live.  

Here, one wonders what would have been the trajectory of events, if social media, which are now considered to be the biggest carriers of fake news, was present at that point of time. Could it have exacerbated that fake news or it had deflated.

Well that is past, let’s talk about the pros and cons of the Supreme Court’s order to the governments  to find ways and means to control this horrifying trend. The government can either make legislation with punitive action to punish the culprits of the fake news or strengthen its vigilance over social media. 

The fear is any legislation made the government to control “fake news” could prove to be counterproductive. It may be used to target its critics and penalties in such case may stifle legitimate social discourse and divergent opinions. Many a time the governments itself are the chief source of fake news. In such case can governments be entrusted with the responsibility to control the fake news?  

Notwithstanding the facts,  it’s now an accepted fact that the social media platforms are the biggest source of ‘fake news’ generation.  This is because the online news industry is facing stiff competition  and the digital media revenues are dwindling. Unable to shore up its revenue Social Media are dishing out fake content to attract more page views.

This is a survival tactics of the online news industry which have adopted a certain kind of approach towards journalism that thrives on flashy ‘click-bait’ stories.Aimed at shoring up advertisements, it is creating contents that can go viral and can create maximum amount of page views. As a result, fake news have become a necessity on the social media platforms.

Thanks to the US President Donald Trump who has blown the lid over the fake news industry. Now this problem has acquired a global dimension and countries are waking up to this reality. Each country in their own way are trying to grapple with this menace but have yet to find a tangible solution to this problem.

Since a great deal of fake news is disseminated on social media platforms, the onus is on the social media outlets to control the intentional misinformation. The focus should be more at the tech platforms like Google, Apple and Facebook, where a great deal of information is generated. These tech platforms have the technical capacity to identify and delete inappropriate contents. Closing bogus accounts, blocking obvious offensive content and expanding third-party fact-checking are some options available to them.

People‘s expectation is since these tech companies control smart-phone operating systems they can reinvigorate  their commitment to creating built-in opportunities for affirmative creation of civically useful news. 

Further, there is need to educate people how to consume news and to report abuse, or stories that are fake or disputed. The social media platform needs to educate users to identify disinformation and to block them making use of their filters.

Lastly, all stakeholders have to bear a personal responsibility for the dissemination of truthful information, including governments, the traditional press, the new media and the citizens at large. The ultimate defense against fake news is the people who have to develop critical thinking and to be vigilant against fake news.  

The issue of fake news has created another problem in its wake and that is restoring public trust in the news itself. This is a huge issue that has cropped up since the advent of social media. So there is a big challenge before the news media industry to build public trust and living up to the expectation of news consumers.

In order to restore rebuild public trust, there is need to re-evaluate the way the  content strategies is being made, how a story is built, how the news is formulated and how its formatted, and what are the mechanism to distribute the news.


The need of the hour is instead creating fake news content, the focus should be on content generation that that is civically useful. The news outlets should take a fresh look at what they should have that’s valuable to its readers.

For this there is a need to have better understanding of its readers. The best possible way to win over public trust is to be relevant in the new era of information communication technology. It requires a vigorous re-evaluation of the content development and news production. Perhaps that's the only possible way to go forward to tackle the problem of fake news. 

As far as India is concerned, two websites; AltNews.in and SMHoaxSlayer are doing a huge service to fight the menace of fake news.  However, the task is monumental and all the stakeholders should generate greater amount of resolve to address this issue.  

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com



 

 

Movie ‘Sanju’- A Fascinating Real Life Story

Movie ‘Sanju’- A Fascinating Real Life Story

Syed Ali Mujtaba

‘Sanju,’ the movie based on the real life story of actor Sanjay Dutt, is so far the best release of the year 2018. Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra and director Rajkumar Hirani, the big names in Hindi film industry, have done a commendable job. ‘Sanju,’ is undoubtedly an exciting, entertaining and gripping movie.

Ranbir Kapoor’s stupendous performance as Sanjay Dutt and rookie, Vicky Kaushal as Kumar Gurav, (Sanjay Dutt’s real life best friend) has made the movie reach to some dazzling heights.

‘Sanju’ is based on colourful lifestyle of the actor Sanjay Dutt. It depicts the tale of the trail and tribulation of stars son born with silver spoon. Sunjay Dutt is son of iconic star couple Nargis and Sunil Dutt. He has hogged the limelight since he is born and his life story that is an open book that millions of his fans envy and relish.

Sanjay Dutt was launched as hero by his father Sunil Dutt in the movie ‘Rocky’ (1976). It took quite a while for him to get out of the shadow of his star parents and he had to struggle a lot to carve out his own place in Hindi cinema. His films like; Sajan, Kalnayak, Vastaw, Munna Bhai, all are known for his stellar performances.

Since the beginning, Sanjay Dutt has been a cynosure of all eyes. When he was an adolescent and growing to be a young man, he lived a lifestyle of a drug addict and alcoholic. His wayward lifestyle made into headlines and his freaky tales filled the gossip columns.

Sanjay Dutt’s connection with underworld was a much talked about topic in the media. That was a time when many film stars had to develop connection with Mumbai’s underworld to remain safe because they held sway over the Hindi film industry. However, it was Sanjay Dutt’s connection that was more talked about amongst all.

As Sanjay Dutt was climbing his ladder of success in the Hindi flim industry, his father Sunil Dutt, entered into politics. He became Member of Parliament on Congress ticket. Since then the Hindu right wing political elements started targeting him. This was because Sunil Dutt married, ‘Nargis’ a Muslim and his secular ideals were not received well the Hindu right elements.

When all this was taking place, then some of the most tragic moments gripped India. The ‘Babari masjid’ was demolished in Ayodhya, UP in 1992. This triggered a wave of Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai. Muslims were targeted in a pre-planned manner in those riots. Sunil Dutt came out to help the riot victims of Mumbai and he was targeted by the Hindu group as they viewed him as pro Muslim.

.In this atmosphere of hate and revenge, some members of underworld group in Mumbai, engineered a series of bomb blasts to counter in the city to the mosque demolition and the subsequent riots.

The Mumbai bomb blasts which took many innocent lives not only shook the megapolis of western India but the entire country. What followed in its aftermath were arrests of the criminals and enemies of the nation.

In this whirlpool of real time hatred and revenge drama, Sanjay Dutt was sucked into it quite innocently. He and his father were under the life threat from Hindu fanatics. In order to protect himself and his family, Sanjay Dutt procured unlicensed “assault rifle” from Mumbai’s underworld. This revelation came when the criminals made confessional statements AND Sanjay Dutt’s folly came to limelight. The national media branded him as terrorist. He was arrested imprisoned and lived in jail like a hard core criminal.

When Sanjay Dutt, was out on bail many film makers cashed on his new found image. Movies like ‘Khalnayak’ and ‘Vastav’ etc cashed on his negative image.

This chapter of Sanjay Dutt’s life ended when the Supreme Court exonerated him from all criminal charges, except the gun possessing case. And for that he had to serve three years in jail, He is now a freeman absolved of all such charges.

This story of Sanjay Dutt is a real potboiler. There is lot of drama, conflict and internal trauma in this real life story. A biopic on him is something that was long overdue. Rajkumar Hirani, exactly did what people were expecting from him.

Hirani in his movie ‘PK’ attacked the fake ‘Godman,’ and in ‘Sanju’ he trained his gun the fake news. He has taken the problem head-on and by narrating the story of Sanjay Dutt, he exposed the nefarious designs of the unscrupulous media. How media can go to any length to manufacture fake news is the larger point that Hirani makes while telling the story ‘Sanju.’

Even though the movie ‘Sanju’ has tried to paint a positive image of actor Sanjay Dutt, the point of difference is, it has deliberately tried to cloak him as a playboy, to sell the movie, which in fact not true about Dutt’s real life.

Another piece of Sanjay Dutt is his marital life’s that is totally ignored in this movie. The mercurial actor is a victim of his own fate, when it comes to having his life partner. His first wife Richa Sharma (1987–1996) died of cancer leaving behind a daughter. His second wife Rhea Pillai (1998–2008) took divorce to marry Leander Paes. Sanjay Dutt at last found marital bliss in Manyata, his third partner with whom he has two children.

The narration of the story in the movie ‘Sanju’ is flawless and gripping. The screenplay and dialogues is of top notch. The technique of flash back and flash forward is conveniently used as its Hirani’s forte.

A sizable portion of the film is shot in America as Sanjay Dutt’s real life association with that country. This have given the look and feel to the movie and has made it look grand.

Performances wise, Ranbir Kapoor has proven the point that he is chip of the old block, and his acting genes comes from his great grandfather, Pirthvi Raj Kapoor.

Vicky Kaushal who enacted the role of Kumar Gaurav, (Sanjay Dutt’s real life best friend) has put a life in this character. Anuska Sharma and Sonam Kapoor are visual delights.

The only weak point of the film is Parash Raval. He is unable to fit into the character of Sunil Dutt and looks more like himself than Sunil Dutt. If the filmmakers had done more brainstorming on finalising a suitable cast for Sunil Dutt’s role, the movie ‘Sanju’ still could have been more gripping.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com