India Divided

“India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters…” so went the pledge we took in school. But years later, I don’t see these thoughts resonating in our people.

In recessionary times like these, rumours and speculation are no longer confined to the corridors of IT companies; these half-truths become published as news on mainstream websites. It’s a pity that without adequate authentication or getting their facts right, panic and hysteria is being created.

This piece of news was as quickly circulated in our organization as it was published by rediff. But what is sadder is how our countrymen responded to it.

Now when I read a piece of news or an article, I generally browse through the comments section to know what other people like me feel about it. It helps to get a better and often varied perspective to the issue at hand.

A masala news as this was bound to get a lot of comments considering IT guys have ready access to the internet. I scrolled below to read the comments and was shocked to read how people had reacted to the posting. As if accusing Narayanmurthy and Azim Premji for recession wasn’t enough, the responses to the comments were no longer even in the context of the article; they had taken their own life.

People who negated the news met with brickbats and were asked for their employee id. Even though some of these comments were comic (increasing lines of code to fake productivity), others were downright abusive. As I moved to the next page of comments, the topic veered to religious conversions, Brahmins, Mayawati, Dalits, Devegowda and everything unrelated to the article.

It is heart-aching to see people in India condemn their fellow citizens at the slightest pretext. We often talk of racism against Indians, whereas in reality we ourselves need to set our act right first. By dividing India on the basis of caste, religion, state, region, we are doing more harm to us than a slowing economy or job layoffs can do.