Trolling MakeMyTrip for its co-founder's beef tweets shows cow bureaucracy trumps Digital India
The past three years have seen a significant spike in the number of times disgruntled online mobs take things in their hands after having their sentiments hurt. While angry mobs have been there on both fronts, for and against the ruling BJP government, the pro-government, pro-Hindutva lot have seen a lot more action.
And not just on ground. There have been a significant number of online protests and boycotts over hurt religious and nationalistic sentiments. The latest victim of the online Hindutva wrath seems to be MakeMyTrip.com, the popular travel website.
What happened?
Keyur Joshi, the co-founder and chief strategic advisor of MakeMyTrip.com, one of India’s leading online travel companies, incurred the wrath of the masses after he tweeted about an imminent bovine bureaucracy. After the cattle trade restrictions were notified under the Prevention of Animal Cruelty Act (Regulation of Livestock Markets), Joshi tweeted, “#Beefban I am a strong supporter of Narendra Modi & a vegetarian for life. But I will now eat beef only in India to support freedom for food.”
That’s not all. It was followed by another tweet that said, “#Beefban if Hinduism takes away right to choice of food, I rather not be a Hindu. Narendra Modi, BJP cannot decide what people eat”.
Whoa!
A strong reaction like that seems almost normal now, considering the kind of rebellion Kerela has been exhibiting in response to the cattle trade notification that severely crunches the scope for purchase and sale of bovine animals at livestock markets. New rules require that cattle cannot be bought or sold for slaughter, and only for agricultural purposes such as dairying, or farming, that too with five times the paper work.
So much for maximum governance, minimum government.
But as Joshi soon discovered, every strong reaction has a greater, almost terrible counter-reaction on the internet. Joshi’s tweets were obviously never going to win him any fans among the Hindutva brigade. But what he might not have foreseen was that the highly emotional response would surpass him and affect the company he co-founded.
MakeMyTrip.com was quick to distance itself from Joshi, as they issued a tweet that read, “The views expressed by Mr. Joshi on Twitter are his personal thoughts & do not reflect the views of MMT. He is not a current employee of MMT”.
How terribly convenient?
Not quite, because soon enough it was discovered by Twitter users that according the MakeMyTrip website, Joshi was listed under “Board of Directors and Advisors”. So much for the attempt.
Bluffs don't work hereHe is associated as "Board Director and / or Advisor" as off now. pic.twitter.com/GBUAglKIKF
— Suresh Nakhua (@sureshnakhua) May 31, 2017
With the backlash intensifying, Joshi deleted his previous tweets and tried clarifying his position on the matter. He said that his “opinion was limited to the addition of buffaloes as non-tradable animals”, and that he would be happy if anyone shunned meat, be it beef or chicken. Trying to appease a clearly angry mob of Twitter users, Joshi further tried to cool things down by saying that his bravado stemmed from buffalos being added to the list and he hoped that this move would benefit cows. Additionally, he apologised for his previous tweets, saying that he intended to hurt no religious sentiments.
Of course, this U-turn did not work and Joshi ended up deactivating his account. But the damage was already done. An angry mob with hurt Hindu sentiments now went for the other kill: MakeMyTrip.
A hashtag by the name of #BoycottMakeMyTrip took shape and soon people began to post negative comments about the MakeMyTrip app on the Play Store, in addition to uninstalling it. Thousands of people in an invisible online army started tweeting about their hurt sentiments and boycotting the company.
How can he be vegan for life after vowing to eat beef? Btw he deleted his account.. #BoycottMakeMyTrip pic.twitter.com/H0HWBJx3lT
— Vishal Naik (@Vishal_VN) May 31, 2017
How many Idiots do V have in India rather how many idiotic Hindus among us ? Ready to hurt Hindus for a Secular tag #BoycottMakeMyTrip pic.twitter.com/sqtrX9KVxM
— Shivaani K Talwar (@ShivaaniKTalwar) May 31, 2017
Look who is talking about peace ??When has Butchering of innocent animals become peaceful ??#BoycottMakeMyTrip@makemytrip pic.twitter.com/oyJsXOKvi3
— Raushan Raj (@AskRaushan) May 31, 2017
Uninstalled app make my trip #BoycottMakeMyTrip pic.twitter.com/ePnUWaadqc
— Ahana (@ahana247) May 31, 2017
I Am A Avid Traveller Across India & Around the Globe, I Pledge To #BoycottMakeMyTrip Seeing Callous Attitude of @KeyurJoshi_ @makemytrip pic.twitter.com/vEH9nAOZKM
— JAY (@YesIamSaffron) June 1, 2017
But was this boycott sporadic and organic? Or, was there a force driving this?
Déjà vu
As it has been evident from previous outrage boycotts on the internet in India, like in the instances of Snapdeal, SnapChat and Amazon - all three of which successfully managed to offend the patriotic sensibilities of Indians – the attacks seemed rather well coordinated.
In her book I am a Troll, senior journalist Swati Chaturvedi talks about an online troll factory that manufactures faux outrage to benefit the hypetrnationalistic, pro-Hindutva narrative that has reigned supreme under the NDA regime.
In her book, she specifically talks about how a covert BJP social media cell that organised online troops to pressurise the e-commerce company Snapdeal to drop actor Amir Khan as its brand ambassador, after the latter made strong comments criticising the government in 2015. These are allegedly the same people who try to silence any liberal voice that dares speak against the prime minister, rising fascism and the negative effects of an intolerant Hindutva regime.
Is MakeMyTrip going to pay badly for the personal opinion of one man? Possibly. But is this retaliation - which looks terribly organised and calculated - justified? Not at all.
Even if it is not an organised effort by a covert social media cell, it does still pose a rather difficult question. Are we living in such terrible times when a simple opinion is crushed by waves and waves of anonymous accounts simply because it does not align with the beliefs of the majority?
Either answer is a turn for the worse.