It is a striking indication of the tense times we are living in that an unassuming, yet highly talented, young youtuber and independent journalist Thulasi Chandu found herself a subject of death and rape threats from a trolling army that boasts of religious values and patriotism. The three-year-old youtube channel run by her has earned the wrath of the so-called supporters of Hindutva politics and the BJP and she was subjected to trolling including disturbing vulgar comments, abuses, death and rape threats. The opponents have taken it as their sole duty to ridicule and humiliate her so much that at least four youtube channels and websites are exclusively working overtime to defame and abuse her.
Beginning her career as a trainee journalist with Eenadu, she moved on to work with ETV, ABN, Sakshi and Velugu for about 16 years before launching her own independent youtube channel in September 2020. “I worked in the mainstream media but the objectives with which I became a journalist could not be fulfilled completely. Thus I started this journey on youtube with a desire to have a platform where I could express my views on any social issue. This platform does not believe in caste, religion and there would not be any gender discrimination. If you have content, nobody can stop you. That’s why here I want to put out content from inspirational stories to social, political and humanitarian narratives with the required perspective” were the beginning words of her channel.
Indeed she stood up to her promise and made about 330 video stories in the last 33 months, averaging 10 per month. Every story she produced has been made with solid data, impeccable arguments and humanitarian and scientific perspective. That’s why she earned the love and affection of tens of thousands of viewers across all sections and built a formidable 1.82 lakh subscriber base. The channel has a wide variety of stories including culture, history, life styles, people’s movements, economic issues, administrative misdeeds and of course comments on politics of hate. As a commentator on contemporary events she could not escape from taking a stand on the policies and practices of both the Central and state governments as well as the political parties.
For example, a few of her recent videos are concerned with Manipur carnage and the government’s inaction, Balasore train accident and the apathy of the government, wrestlers’ protest against Brijbhushan Singh’s sexual harassment, people’ struggle against Chittanur Ethanol factory, Delhi liquor scam, TSPSC exam paper leak, films like Adipurush , Jaibheem and Balagam. It is indeed a wide range and the research that gone into the production, her presentation and her conclusions drew the attention of people. Within two years, she became a force to reckon with.
Attempt to silence her voice
Yes, the powers that be recognized her voice, her popularity and her impact. They wanted to silence her just like all the other powerful voices in the country and the state. However, in this case it was not the government directly, but the forces that support the government at the centre came forward. Whenever she posts a video on the inaction or the inadequacy or the deliberate action of a government on a pressing social issue, the supporters of the government, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi come baying for her blood. In a deluge of choicest abuses, insults, innuendos against her, her family and her companion an organized witch hunting begins. They start her character assassination. She gets abused as a Muslim offspring, an urban Naxal, a Muslim acting as a Hindu, etc. Like hounds they go on threatening her with rape and murder and post her morphed pictures. The organized troll army of the powers that be have even set up at least four parallel youtube channels to continuously stream hatred against her and her morphed images.
All this is simple organized crime punishable under several sections of IPC and the IT Act. Outraging the modesty of a woman, using technology to spread venom against a particular person could be sufficient actions to take a suo moto action by the law enforcing agencies. But, they not only did not do that, but also ignored the previous complaints filed by her. Indeed, when similar threats emerged a year ago, none other than K T Rama Rao, the IT minister of the state tweeted to Home Minister and DGP to take action against the trollers and the culprits. Even that powerful tweet was ignored.
One year down the line, the insinuations and threats continued and reached high pitch and Thulasi wrote a fervent, emotional appeal to people at large and posted on her facebook page on June 24. This 1200-word appeal stirred the hornet’s nest.
She equated BJP and MIM
Titled ‘Why do I make more videos on BJP?’ the appeal was a detailed and perfect reasoning of her stories. In that note, she challenged all her trollers with fake accounts and fictitious names who cannot even show their real identities. She exposed their vulgar comments and humiliating messages. She traced this trolling to her two-year old video made before GHMC elections appealing to people to stay away from religious bigots. In fact, she equated BJP and MIM and asked people not to fall prey to religion and divisive politics. She said it is dangerous to entertain these tactics of political vested interests. She appealed to people to think about their development and the future of their children. She talked about a range of issues including Kerala Story and missing girls in Gujarat, Man ki Baat and Manipur. She questioned the policies adopted by the Central government in price rise, unemployment and outright sale of PSUs in the name asset monetization. She asked them not to fall prey to the lies propagated by Whatsapp universities.
“When so many crores of minds are filled with this religious venom, you are disturbed with one or two voices like me who question communal parties. I know mine is a dangerous journey. Some day some innocent youth, filled with the venom by his beloved party, might use a knife or a bullet to attack me. But, I cannot stay back from communicating what I have to, when crores of youngsters are drugged into this communal poison. You are hating me, abusing me and morphing my pictures for telling you that religious hatred is harmful for the youth of this country. OK, carry on. No party would come forth to defend me since I do not subscribe to any party. No caste association would support me since nobody knows what my caste is. Since I don’t even have a journalist accreditation card from the government, no group would stand for me. Really I am powerless and I cannot but give this kind of explanation whenever I feel like. Someday I will fall, I will be silenced. Let it be. But let me record my own solitary voice and my agony before that.”
This moving appeal stirred the conscience of Telugu society and there was an overwhelming response and solidarity expression with hundreds of meetings, demonstrations, statements from all corners of both Telugu states. She formally made a police complaint, but even after seventy two hours, there is no news from the tech-savvy Telangana government and Telangana police about apprehending the culprits, even as the pace and venom of the trollers reached new heights in the last three days.
| Posted by Sameer Khan | 
