Editorial: And This is Why Rumour Mongering is Dangerous

The assurances of the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister, Chief Minister of Karnataka, the DGP there and the State’s Home Minister [who addressed fleeing North Eastern people at the Bangalore railway station] have collectively failed to assuage the paranoia spread by rumours. People from the North East, in fact even people who look like they may be from the North East, remain unconvinced and the exodus continues from such cities as Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. While there have been incidents of targeted violence against people from the North East in Pune over the past week, and one reported incident in Hyderabad, the exodus has been triggered not by these specific incidents, but instead by a rumour that people from the North East will eventually be targeted in retaliation to the communal violence played out in the Kokrajhar district of Assam last month. Rumours have pushed the flight, not on ground incidents; and that is why rumour mongering is so dangerous. As for the incidents in which people from the North East were targeted in retaliation to the Kokrajhar madness [and it is one because a month since the first incident of violence on 19 July, more than 2 lakh people continue to live in 279 refugee camps there], even those were instigated by doctored MMSes claiming to show the depravity with which Muslims were targeted in Kokrajhar. The same allegedly doctored images are believed to have triggered the violence which spurted in the Mumbai protest of last week against the communal violence in Kokrajhar. In fact, the protest march itself may have been forced by these pictures; why else would a rally be taken out on 11 August against a situation where calm had already reigned for more than two weeks?
And now, the monster is out of the bag. Thankfully, rumours have a limited shelf life and phase out faster than those foisting them would want. The latest lapse of reason might however play out for slightly longer because people with vested interest in fuelling communal distrust and the maybe well-meaning but definitely poorly informed and short-sighted do-gooders have gotten into the act. The angles with which right wing groups are addressing the issue at hand and the dangerous hyper-ventilation of some sections is likely to keep uncertainty in air for longer than is healthy. One must bear in mind that the entire fiasco started because of these reasons and the monster should not be allowed to slink away, but must be confronted and resolved when normalcy returns and these issues can be discussed without the rhetoric which defeats it. The original acts of violence [Kokrajhar in the present case] were reprehensible and just as there should be no attempts to try and justify it, so should no attempts be made to try and justify retaliatory attacks either [like were reported from Pune]. The immediate challenge is to return normalcy, but the long-term goal should be to ensure that rumours do not win again. This can happen only if the marginalised and the minorities are made to feel more secure. Rumours do after all feed on insecurities. Rumours also feed on lack of information, and all out efforts should be made to ensure that issues and incidents are addressed and explained instead of being overlooked or papered over. Groups that join issue with incidents should also inform themselves better and choose their words carefully. Off-hand mentions like “its an outrage that our childrens are dying out there...” [by the Sikkim RTI Forum in a press release on Thursday] are not only incorrect, but also potentially provocative in an already tense environment. At a time when authorities are trying to convince scared people from the North East that they are safe in the metros, statements like “...we are tagged NorthEasterns too and our childrens too are in danger” [again by the Sikkim RTI Forum] does very little to reassure worried parents or friends back home and claims that the Sikkim Government would be held responsible if something were to happen to students from Sikkim outside the State seeks to deflect attention from the real issue at hand. Come to think of it, it is not so surprising that rumour mongering continues to win...