Digital Disconnect: Vigilante-Led Communal Violence In Nuh Casts Dark Shade On Social Media. But There’s Nothing New About It

Be it a self-titled 'gau rakshak' or the former US president, when it comes to social media post-incited violence, rapt monitoring appears to be the only solution.

Social media could be a lot of things. It could be a way to connect with your friends (new and old). It could be a way for creative-minded people to earn considerable money (if you’re Kim Kardashian, that amount could go up to $1.4 million per Instagram post). However, more often than we’d care to admit, social media has turned into a breeding ground for fear-mongering and hatred. The recent communal clash in Nuh, Haryana, only further proves the point. 

Who Is Monu Manesar? How Did His Social Media Post Incite Violence In Nuh?

On Monday, a religious procession dubbed ‘Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra’ was flagged off in the Nalhar region in Nuh. The Hindu procession was expected to pass temples across the Muslim-dominated district and wrap up by evening. 

Now, a day before, self-proclaimed 'gau-rakshak' (cow vigilante) Monu Manesar posted a video on social media, claiming that he would join the ‘Yatra’ and called for the participation of his followers in huge numbers.

If you don’t know who Manesar is, well, he is linked with the killing of two alleged Muslim ‘cow smugglers’ in an incident that took place in Bhiwani in February this year. Born Mohit Yadav, Monu hails from the town of Manesar and has tasted great notoriety as the head of Goraksha Dal, Bajrang Dal’s Haryanvi chapter of its cow protection task force. 

Manesar’s style of vigilantism is quite simple — get a tip from his network about alleged cow ‘smugglers’ and report them to the police. If law enforcement isn’t able to take timely action, Manesar and Co. would take a personal approach and nab the alleged smugglers and hand them over to the police. 

On February 15, two residents of Ghatmeeka in Rajasthan — named Nasir and Junaid — were allegedly abducted by so-called cow vigilantes and their bodies were found a day later inside a torched vehicle in Loharu, Bhiwani. A chargesheet was filed against Manesar by the Rajasthan Police. However, the accused has denied charges of kidnapping or murder and had since been absconding — only to rear his head before the procession on Monday. 

As per media reports, Manesar has over 2 lakh followers on YouTube and over 83,000 on Facebook (none of the accounts could be accessed at the time of writing). His social media MO is even simpler — put up livesteams of his team and himself chasing vehicles of alleged ‘cow smugglers’ and follow them up with celebratory (read: inflammatory) speeches of conquest. 

In a similar tone, Manesar said he would join the ‘shobha yatra’ on Monday and asked for his supporters to join in good numbers, which provoked a staunch reaction from the Muslim community, with some people reportedly threatening Manesar as well.

Incited by his probable presence, a group of people halted the procession near Khedla Mod at around noon. This is where things turn murky. A round of slogan chants was reportedly followed by stone-pelting, which almost immediately sparked off major clashes all across the region, as reported by the media. 

Police stations, petrol pumps, and vehicles were set ablaze. As per reports, some people even hijacked a bus and rammed it into the walls of the cyber police station in Nuh. 

By evening, mobile Internet and SMS services were suspended. Gurugram deputy commissioner urged everyone to “refrain from posting content on social media that could hurt religious sentiments of threaten harmony”.

Six persons, including two home guards, were reportedly shot dead and dozens more were injured in the clashes. 

Where was Manesar all along? Interestingly, he didn’t attend the procession. As per a report by Hindustan Times, anticipating that his presence would create tension, the Vishva Hindu Parishad asked him not to join the ‘yatra’.

As per Nuh MLA Chaudhary Aftab Ahmed, rumours of his presence were enough to add to the violence. “I believe that it is a failure of the administration. Before the atmosphere got tense, we went to the authorities and told them they should take steps before it escalated. If the right steps were taken at the appropriate time, this would not have happened. The rumour that Monu Manesar is here also added to it,” Ahmed was quoted as saying. 

The Bane Of Social Media

Unrest incited by posts by influential personalities on social media is nothing new. Let’s dial our clocks back to January 6, 2021, when a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, right after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. 

The reason behind this recall is simple — it led to a congressional inquiry into a tweet posted by Trump. According to testimony from a congressional inquiry, the former president's tweet played a significant role in mobilising far-right extremists who gathered on the day of the Capitol riot. The tweet was posted after what was described as "the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency", as recounted by a lawmaker on the panel.

Despite being repeatedly informed by aides that he had lost the 2020 election to Biden, the then-president proceeded with a rallying call to his supporters. The select committee conducting the investigation accuses Trump of attempting a coup to maintain power.

On January 6, supporters of Donald Trump violently stormed Congress while lawmakers were in the process of certifying Biden's victory.

In response to the ongoing investigation, Trump, a Republican, dismissed the Democratic-led House of Representatives panel on his Truth Social social media platform, referring to them as "Political Hacks and Thugs" involved in a "HOAX".

The committee's latest hearing, the seventh since June, focused on a tweet sent by Trump in the early hours of December 19, 2020, and a stormy six-hour meeting at the White House that occurred before the tweet was posted.

Trump was eventually banned from Twitter and reinstated 22 months later by new owner Elon Musk in 2023. Why was his account reinstated, you ask? Well, Musk ran an online poll on bringing back the account, and Trump’s supporters won by 51.8 per cent votes.

Closer home, this year in May, the Maharashtra state cyber department found that provocative social media posts have resulted in communal violence in the state over the past 12 months. 

As per Maharashtra state cyber department superintendent of police, Sanjay Shintre, he proposed the deletion of 22 social media posts that could spark violence. He added that the cyber cell department has recognised a concerning trend related to social disharmony and communal riots, which can be attributed to provocative and inflammatory content posted on popular social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

In May 2023, clashes between two communities in Maharashtra's Akola resulted in the death of one person and left eight others injured, including two police officers. The root cause of the violence was reportedly attributed to a provocative social media post related to the movie The Kerala Story.

To prevent further escalation of violence, Akola District Magistrate Nima Arora took the decision to suspend Internet services until noon on May 16. According to Akola's superintendent of police (rural), Sandeep Ghuge, the clashes were sparked by the viral spread of the provocative post, leading to stone pelting and violent confrontations — does that remind anyone of the confrontations and stone pelting seen during Nuh violence?

A similar situation occurred in Gajrajnagar, Ahmednagar, on April 5, 2023, where seven people were injured due to clashes resulting from a WhatsApp status post that caused conflict between two groups. Authorities arrested around 19 individuals on charges of rioting, violence, and vandalism, booking them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

In earlier incidents in November 2021, stone-pelting and damage to public property occurred in Nanded, Malegaon, and Amravati during protests against alleged violence in Tripura. However, investigations conducted by the state police later revealed that communal elements had fabricated images and misinformation on social media to incite violence.

So, if this author is to draw a conclusion, social media is proving to be more a bane than a boon — especially when posts could lead to the loss of lives, as seen in the aforementioned instances. Rapt monitoring of posts — especially ones with violent undertones — from platform-owning companies rather than just cyber law enforcement departments, appears to be the order of the day. 

Digital Disconnect is an ABP Live-exclusive column, where we explore the many admirable advancements the world of tech is seeing each day, and how they lead to a certain disconnect among users. Is the modern world an easier place to live in, thanks to tech? Definitely. Does that mean we don’t long for things to go back to the good-ol’ days? Well, look out for our next column to find out. 

[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal.]