Demonetisation Day 50: Feudal nature of criticising Modi is truly rotten, says NDTV's Ravish Kumar

While it is true that demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes may not have led to the rosy picture which the central government had been painting till now, some of the criticism against the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is truly rotten. And journalist Ravish Kumar hit the nail on the head in this op-ed piece in NDTV, where he writes about the feudal nature of the punishment which a section of people think the prime minister should face. There have been a considerable number of cheap posts on social media which directly or indirectly talk about throwing shoes at the prime minister.

Huge demand for old, rotten, second hand shoes, to be used tomorrow morning as#TimeUpModi
Modi ji, come without security ur punishment pic.twitter.com/GadrgIGH3M

— KilaFateh (@KilaFateh) December 30, 2016

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I have imported shoes 👠 for Modi , 31 December is coming 🙆🏼‍♂️🍷🍾🍡🎈🎉🍦🎊🐬🍸👨‍🎤 pic.twitter.com/0JrQS8hi5W

— 15 लाख दूंगा🎉 (@bhanugupta_9) December 29, 2016

Kumar pointed out how wrong it was to use such language against any person by explaining how this was linked with casteism. [caption id=“attachment_2635194” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Senior journalist Ravish Kumar. Screengrab from YouTube[/caption] “Hitting someone with a shoe is in principle anti-Dalit. If you investigate stories about hitting someone with a shoe, you will find that this sort of language was used only by those who were upper-caste. And this was done only against the Dalits or weaker sections of society. Hitting someone with a shoe is the language of hate. I hate the language of hate as much as I hate the politics of hate,” Kumar wrote in the article. Kumar, the senior executive editor of NDTV India, added that it was also true that the prime minister may have himself encouraged mob mentality when he said that he would “willingly stand at any public square you select, and accept any punishment the country decides to give me…” Ravish Kumar’s article raises a pertinent point: Criticism, even in its most severe form, is essential for democracy but any criticism which encourages violence, whether against the prime minister or the common man, is uncalled for.