Swapan Dasgupta
As a platform, the social media - and particularly Twitter - appears to have been purpose-built for expressions of outrage, both real and fanciful. In India, the past few weeks witnessed an explosion of outrage directed against the media in general and a popular television channel in particular. And both centred on a very emotive issue: national honour.
A TV channel thought otherwise. Hoping to tap into the vast reservoir of bitterness that invariably accompanies a defeat, it packaged the Melbourne encounter as a case of India losing a match it was destined to win. The defeat was blamed on bad captaincy, bad performances and the non-application of mind. A rigorous post-mortem may have found elements of truth in all these charges and, in any case, armchair experts are always wiser after the event.
The only occasion the Yemen rescue intruded into the news channel consciousness was in connection with a sarcastic aside by General Singh. This became the talking point of one channel, prompting the General - who has still to acquire the tact of a professional politician - to tweet his exasperation. Arguably, Singh should have found other synonyms for "presstitute" but considering the strains and tensions of the rescue operation, his indiscretion is understandable. The channel didn't think so, but it is reassuring that there was a wave of counter-outrage in the social media questioning the tone and priorities of the sanctimonious media.
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