From Dadri to India's Daughter: The biggest outrages of 2015

There’s an old adage about a falling tree which has haunted physicists and philosophers alike: “If a tree falls in a forest, and there’s no one to hear it, does it make a noise?”  Similarly, if an incident occurs, and no one is offended and outraged about it, is it deemed to have occurred at all?

Of course, the all-pervasive nature of the world we live in where fire-breathing anchors collide with hash-tagging trolls meant that every single incident throughout the year got its fair share of outrage, but here are in our opinion the biggest outrages of the year:

India's Daughter

One of the top outrages of the year involved a documentary made by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin which instigated our nation’s top Chief Outrage Officer who demanded it be banned for being insulting to Jyoti Singh aka Nirbhaya, the victim of the horrific December 2012 rape incident. The documentary caused a huge outrage in parliament, where several lawmakers demanded its ban, for being offensive to women for interviewing Mukesh, one of the rapists, and the government obliged. While the ban was wrong, it must be said that the documentary was woefully made and highly biased, and it was only the Indian government’s trigger happy banning attitude that allowed it become popular across the world.

(Read: India's Daughter -- prepare to be disappointed)

Beef, cow and Dadri

While Sunny Leone topped Google’s highest searched list (as she has since the Indian public learned about her consciousness), Yahoo picked the ‘Cow’ as the ‘Personality of the Year’. To be fair, there’s been a huge debate about beef throughout the year. It started with Maharashtra government putting further restriction on the sale of bovine meat in the state, followed by that horrific incident in Dadri when a man was beaten to death for allegedly slaughtering a cow.

The Dadri incident was politicised beyond belief, as opponents of the current government considered it proof that Hindu fascists were going to take over the country. It didn’t help that many of those involved turned out to be involved in some way or the other with the local BJP unit. For a while beef became the most debated topic across studios in the country, while scores of individuals, including scientists, writers and poets returned their awards.

On 28 December, forensic evidence showed that it was mutton and not beef, which still begs the question, why was the meat taken for testing. It also led to the never ending debate with the I-word.

(Read: Is cow slaughter becoming the Hindutva equivalent of drawing the Prophet)

Intolerance Debate

After his Republic Day trip to India, Barack Obama spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast meeting where he spoke about the rise in religious intolerance in India, claiming that Mahatma Gandhi would’ve shocked with the acts of intolerance in a country famed for its diversity. Overlooking the fact, that Mahatma Gandhi had lived through riots during Partition, this lit the flames of a never-ending debate which keeps on getting restarted by each incident of communal violence across the nation.

While those who spoke for the motion claimed that the right-wing elements had become emboldened under the Modi government, claiming that each incident of violence was gospel proof of right-wing fascism, those supporting the government claimed that it was a widespread conspiracy to defame Narendra Modi and company. It came to the point where every single individual with two brain cells to rub together and opposable thumbs felt the need to give their two cents about it. 

Even people who didn't want to add to the intolerance debate - like Shah Rukh Khan - were forced to give a quote following which they faced backlash from a a lot of people. To be fair, the reaction of the both sides to the entire incident was over-the-top. It was wrong of people to create an atmosphere which suggested that intolerance was on the rise because of the current government while the government's (and their allies') response asking dissenters to go to Pakistan.  (Read: Why the intolerance debate is futile in India)
 

Porn ban

In a year of bans, there was mass hysteria when online users in India realised that porn sites were blocked. Never before had anything united the Indian masses to such an extent, as for the first time the Modi government felt the heat from every single angle. The ban was overturned in a couple of days, but not before the government learned that hell hath no fury like an audience whose porn has been taken away. (Read: Why a porn ban in India is futile)

The Vyapam Scam

Meanwhile, there were a couple of months during the year when every single death that took place in Madhya Pradesh, was linked to Vyapam, either for being a suspect or being accused. For the uninitiated, VYPAAM stood for Madhya Pradesh Vyavasayik Pariksha Mandal, which organises recruitment tests for a variety of professional courses. (Read:Vyapam Scam -- all you need to know)

National Herald Case

Congress’ old foe, Subramanian Swamy was back to haunt them again as the Delhi High Court directed Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to appear before a lower court, which had issued  summons, in a case of acquisition of The National Herald.  

This led the Congress to block most of the Winter Session of parliament and Rahul Gandhi said: “Let them do what they want. They can do whatever they want to. I am not going to budge one inch. The same questions I am asking the Prime Minister (Modi) or the government, I am going to continue asking them. Well I absolutely see a political vendetta. This is the way the Central government functions, the way they think.”

The loudest reaction came from Sonia Gandhi, "I am the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi. I am not scared of anyone. I am not disturbed.”

While her intention might have been to evoke the memories of one of India’s strongest Prime Ministers, what it did for most people was remind us of the nepotism that exists in the Congress. She might have meant to sound brave, but she ended up paraphrasing a popular Delhi quotes: “Tu janta nahi mera baap kaun hai (You don’t know who my dad is?).”

(Read: Why Congress needs to stop saving Sonia and Rahul)

The flipside of these 24/7 outrages was that a lot important events weren't covered by mainstream media, which has limited resources. Hopefully, we will mature as a a society and outrage about things that really matter.