As the supreme court’s verdict, putting the lid back on Section 377 of IPC, flamed a cross-country rage, we tried to gauge the popular mood by trolling some Facebook fan pages and Twitter handles since very little these days is said – it’s written, Facebooked and Tweeted.
Disclaimer: fans’ opinions are extremely opinionated and rather personal, and have nothing whatsoever to do with the ceiling from where they hang; sorry, the person they are fans of. Over to excerpts from the outpourings:
Rahul Gandhi fans: Homosexuals need the escape velocity of Jupiter to escape SC’s wrath.
Narendra Modi fans: Shehzada schadenfreude is showing. He should pull up his socks. NaMo in power would drive out the judge, petition and petitioners. Na rahegi baans, na bajegi baansuri.
Ramdev fans: Seeking justice for an unjust cause is a disease. All diseased people should come to the Baba’s clinic – a yogic pose a day keeps sickness at bay.
Anna Hazare fans: Only the Jan Lokpal bill can solve the vexed issue. The Lokayukta should have power to rule over love.
Asaram fans: Conspiracy. How can Asaram do anything bad to 377 ashram girls? (Then they drive away all opinion-seekers).
Aam Aadmi Party fans: There’s too much corruption in existing political parties. They cannot see beyond their own section. How can they look at the 377th section and undo the wrong?
BJP fans: The court has said what it has to say, we will say what Narendra Modi will say. NaMo for PM; hip hip... (and they all went back to their smartphones to check NaMO’s tweet feeds, and see if any 140-character message from the medium has arrived 3 days after the SC judgment).
Congress fans: Rahul Gandhi has spoken! Rahul Gandhi has spoken!! Rahul Gandhi has spoken!!! (not having any Twitter feeds to check, as Rahul Gandhi – of the ‘spoken’ variety – is not on Twitter, they around singing Hallelujah: Rahul Gandhi has spoken!!!!)
Left fans: A non-BJP, non-Congress government at the centre can deal best with all issues – 377, 378, 379 or what have you. Manmohanomics has left the country struggling amid a hound of barking dogs, and communal politics of the Right has left the country hounding and barking at the pack of dogs. Only the poor who are united against the anti-people policies of UPA and communal politics of NDA can deal the needed blow to 377 (the few people standing under that banner were left scratching their heads).
Digvijay Singh fans: Everything bad happens due to fascists. We challenge the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate with a stubble and receding hairline and decked up in short kurtas (see, we are not taking names) to debate on Section 377, Article 370 and the Riots Act.
Mamata Banerjee fans: Everyone in this case, in fact in any case, is a Maoist. They are all conspiring to bring down the Didi’s government. (When told that the case on Section 377 has got nothing to do with West Bengal’s governance, whether good or bad, they called this correspondent a Maoist and left.)
Rajnikanth fans: Oi Rascala, that judge-a hasn’t met-a Thalaiva. He would have run to the arms of his friend from his diaper days if he saw Thalaiva striking a matchstick to light a candle in support of people who spread love.
Tarun Tejpal fans (Shoma Chowdhury, in the absence of anyone else): The judge must do the penance that lacerates him. He should issue an unconditional apology to the people left high and dry by his obtuse judgment for any misconduct to the concerned party and should feel impelled to atone further... (had to be cut off at this point due to paucity of space for further words).