We, Indians, get offended way too soon.
We can’t have people mock our Gods, our religion, our prophets, our space program, and what’s more, we can’t have people say anything about our country, unless it is flattering.
Someone makes a joke and we look for our pitch forks. The CEO of Snapchat calls our country poor – which it is, to be fair – and lynching of Snapdeal starts. Why? Well the pitch fork has to go up someone’s ass, who cares what colour the ass is – white or brown?
First of all, someone claimed that Mr Spiegel said what he said, I don’t think that there is any undeniable proof of him doing it, anyway. Even if he did, so what he called our country poor? Does he not have a right to decide which country he wants to expand into? More importantly, is India a rich nation? I know that once our country was called “Sone ki Chidya“, but that bird has long flown away.
The users of Snapchat have every right to boycott the app, if they think that the comments made by Mr Spiegel were in anyway hurtful to their national sentiments. I am quoting this particular case just as an example of how harshly we react to trivial things.
Not that a joke cannot ever be in bad taste, but it is, after all, a joke – forget and move on.
Do we have such low self-esteem that we need to punish people who mock us? In my opinion, this stems from our desire to get validation from others – the west, primarily. A mission to mars is not an achievement enough for us, unless ISRO is praised by the media all over the world.
Get a sense of humour, my fellow citizens.
PC: https://pixabay.com/en/smartphone-screen-social-media-2123520/