TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: It all began in March. It was that fateful month that a 33-year-old Devu Chodankar, a marine engineer working in Mumbai, wrote out a post on the prime minister designate on Goa+, a popular Facebook forum consisting of over 47,000 members. In his post, Chodankar argued that if elected to power, Modi would unleash a ‘holocaust’.
Although, he deleted his post and apologized for his choice of words, Chodankar continued to justify his statement. This however, proved to be his undoing. Acting on a complaint from a local business man, a former chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industries Atul Pai Kane filed an FIR against Chodankar under sections 153(A), 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 125 of the People’s Representation Act and 66-A of the Information Technology.
The social media went viral with comments on the incident, attracting views and opinions from different sections across the society after the national media started reporting on the incident from May 23. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai alumnus Dr Samir Kelekar, who has been campaigning to draw support for Devu was one of the early voices arguing: “No one is justifying what Devu wrote, but it is draconian to put someone behind bars for a mere FB post which had no affect on the society-at-large.”
After Herald reported the issue in its May 24 edition, Goan youth took to Twitter and Facebook to express their opinion on the issue.
While responding to Aditya Dessai’s post on Goa Speaks (A Facebook group with more than 28,000 members) Alison Morenas commented, “U can’t run after the miners or do recovery who looted but ur people can file cases and ask for custody. ache din aahh gaye !” This comment was liked by 19 people.
Agnelo Fernandes from Quepem, commented on the same post by terming the issue as Chamchagiri of politicians. Another member of the same group, Brian Simoes posted, “guys those who are against NAMO and the BJP government don’t post anything against them otherwise u will land in jail… this is the BJP government it’s their rule now..”
After observing the tweets and FB comments pouring in from every corner of the State, it appeared that the society was divided on three opinions: 1. Those who condemned Devu and supported the police action against him, 2. Those who condemned Devu’s Facebook post but didn’t feel the need for police to interfere and 3. Those who were in favour of ‘freedom of speech’ went all out to support Devu.
While in the morning session the third section was a clear majority, the scene started changing by afternoon as more anti-Devu comments started pouring in, primarily on Facebook. One Milind Barve posted on Goa+ in support of the complainant Atul Pai Kane saying, “We are with you bab Atul Kane and I promise you that as far as possible I will try to counter the propaganda by some yellow journalists that the accused is charged for speaking against BJP when the fact is he is charged for hate speech. Further, let the court decide.”
Considering the fact that Chodankar’s post in Facebook warned the Catholic community of South Goa about losing its identity under Modi’s rule, it was surprising to see few Catholic members of the same FB group also comment in favour of police action against Chodankar.
Joaquim Goes commented, “There is a fine line between freedom of speech and the freedom to say anything you want. When individuals use their freedom of speech to incite fear, hatred and anger, especially among people who feel vulnerable and threatened, they are messing with the very foundations of freedom that they grew up enjoying. Devu crossed that line, not once but several times. Freedom isn’t free. It also comes with responsibilities.”
