In an 'initiative' to take Kannada language and Karnataka culture abusers to task, Bengaluru-based civic society group Samanya Kannadiga has tendered a video apology from the two abusers.
Two Facebook users named Garv and Dhruv (names changed) were asked to send a video apology after a few Samanya Kannadiga cadres on Sunday allegedly found posts which according to them offended Kannada language and, people of Bengaluru and Karnataka.
According to Sandeep Parswanat, president of the civic society group, there was an alleged vulgar comment made by Garv tagging Facebook page Kannadabhimani. He removed it after he was contacted by Samanya Kannadiga, who threatened him with dire consequences.
Pavan, editor of Samanya Kannadiga Facebook page said,“We did not immediately threaten him, one of our followers even asked him for the reason for such hatred, he had replied very arrogantly saying he would do this and more. So we were forced to track him down. We went to his office and they gave us Garv’s contact details.”
“He was apparently given a warning by the company after which he contacted us. Not only did he remove the post, he also claimed that someone had hacked into his account in his video,” Sandeep said.
Dhruv, the group alleges posted an alleged vulgar comment on a Logical Indian post on Tanzanian assault incident. While going through his profile the Samanya Kannadiga members found that he had also posted a Deccan Chronicle article on the assault incident on February 3, and had paired it with a status apparently insulting locals. He also said that “the police should be beaten to death” on his status.
Like Garv, Dhruv too was approached by the group through his company HR. He also gave video apology on February 8 to Samanya Kannadiga.
“Another message we want to get across is that Facebook pages for that matter should warn users against such abusive comments. They must have extra admins who monitor such things,” Sandeep said.
Asked when the constitution guarantees freedom of expression, is it justified to force people to retract and give apologies, Sandeep counters it saying, “Saying that one does not like a particular community to a group of friends is freedom of expression, but putting it on a Facebook wall is like painting it and showing it to the whole world and that is racial and offensive. Constitution of India does not allow it.”
"Your right to swing your arm ends just where the other man's nose begins," Sandeep adds.