In 2024, the horrifying R G Kar Medical College rape case shook India to its core. Social media was filled with posts demanding justice. People reposted stories, conducted candle marches and the news spread like forest fire.
Around the same time, I was talking with a friend about the brutality of this incident. When everybody was posting and reposting the atrocity on instagram, I asked them why they weren't doing so , to which they replied, “everyone is already aware’’.
Cut to 2025 , I observed that same friend actively attacking an infamous YouTube show ,which was being slammed and cancelled for its inappropriate use of language and also became the hot topic of many news channels, on social media platforms. When asked why , they answered - “it is good to speak up about the right thing .”
The above incidents got me thinking — how do we determine what really is worth speaking up about?
Do we really give as much attention and thought, as required, to every crime or just the ones that become viral memes ?
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India's spoonfed activism
India is a democratic nation based on the principles of free speech and accountability, yet it now sees that selective activism has turned social justice into a social media moment.
As of 2024, 362.9 million Indians were active on Instagram—and we till date make the world's largest user base. But what do we consume? Dance trends, memes, celebrity gossip—and well, sometimes, social justice. But are we guilty ? or the algorithm?
Coming to a wider age bandwidth, 635 million Indians engage in watching television news every day, but most just skim through, picking stories that harmonize with their own interests.
Maybe not all blood is equal. Some spills into the cracks of the streets and goes unnoticed, drying, forgotten, while some makes it to the prime-time slot, flashing across a hundred million screens, dissected, debated, monetized. Who decides this? who’s invisible hand decides whose death is worth mourning, whose suffering is profitable, whose tragedy trends.
Only horrendous abominations attract media’s attention and that is when we are finally suddenly reminded to feel waves of outrage and blood boiling anger and we retweet and re-share posts, expressing "authentic" compassion and concern , yearning for justice. But do we ever actually care ? or are we just stuck in a labyrinth ?And even if we do care, for how long?
Think about it - does any of us really know if the culprits in the RG kar medical college case or any other infamous case , were taken into custody ? and if they were, did they ever atone for their crimes?Do we really know the actual punishments for theft , murder and rape cases ? How many years do they spend in jail? Are they ever sentenced to death or not ?
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What Crimes Do Not Attract Attention?
Alright,time for a quick game, no cheating allowed ! Let me set a one minute timer , and challenge you to name 3 recent criminal cases that you’ve read about or come across.
Now, I am not sure about you since I unfortunately cannot read minds yet , but I can predict that , at least we , the GenZ ,will most probably respond with the news of the provocative youtube show . So, + 1 for your amazing GK ! But what about these crimes ?
1.A 13-year-old girl was brutally murdered, her mutilated corpse left in a field of sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri.
2.A minor girl was abducted from Uttar Pradesh, raped for almost two months in Karnataka, and rescued only afterwards.
3.A girl was abducted and raped by the friends of her father in Uttar Pradesh's Hapur.
I’ve put a lot of emphasis on rape cases in the above sections, but guess what, that is just the trailer! There’s much more to it, and that’ll be talked about in this section. Endless incidents are witnessed daily, from road accidents to acid attacks, from thefts to dowry, from frauds to murders and from fake bomb threats to real bomb blasts.Yet, if you surf through most news channels , they’ll be talking about the daily routine of a big politician , why? Haha ! you guessed it right , TRP. Let’s take a moment to reflect upon what really goes on in the heart of India.
Temple Donation Box Theft in Tamil Nadu: In February 2024, miscreants broke into a famous temple in Tamil Nadu and stole lakhs of rupees from the donation box.
Family Massacre in Uttar Pradesh: In a shocking case in early March 2024, a man allegedly killed five family members over a property dispute in Prayagraj.
Mumbai Acid Attack on Woman: A 24-year-old woman was attacked with acid in Mumbai on March 1, 2024, by a stalker after she rejected his advances. The accused was arrested.
Multiple Bomb Threats in Delhi Schools: Several schools in Delhi received hoax bomb threats via email on March 6, 2024, causing panic among students and parents. Police later declared them false alarms.
You must be wondering why your media doesn’t bring this side of the country forward in news , well ,surprise surprise! , it actually does - buried under layers of distractions and with much less emphasis on it and hence it goes unnoticed.So, are we slowly realizing that the media feeds us what we enjoy watching and gossiping about?
A child is bombed in one country, and it’s a tragic loss. A child is bombed in another, and it’s collateral damage. One protest is an uprising for justice; another is branded as anarchy. The same act, different labels, tailored to fit the story they want to sell.
And people buy it. Not because they’re blind, but because they’re drowning—drowning in a flood of information that has long stopped informing.
We are drowning in crimes that demand attention, yet we choose spectacle over substance. Justice takes a backseat while TRP-driven narratives dominate our screens.
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First the colours, then the humans
News was supposed to be a mirror—a reflection of reality, raw and unfiltered. But mirrors crack, and the fragments show only what they want us to see. What was once a race to find and reveal the truth has now rotted into a greedy chase of TRP, a game of narratives and who controls it the most, a circus where facts are dressed up, repackaged, and force-fed to a public which is too exhausted to question them.
India has seen several occasions when media reporting gave more importance to drama than to the truth, resulting in misinformation, public outrage, and ill-informed judgments.
Aarushi Talwar Murder Case (2008): The media ran wild with baseless theories, prematurely branding Aarushi’s parents as guilty without substantial evidence.They accused the murdered 14-year-old of having an affair with domestic help turning her murder case into a soap-opera. Us being the emotional fools we are were fueled by a public perception that was later proven flawed in 2017.
Kathua Rape Case (2018): Though the horrific rape and murder of an 8-year-old child were gruesome, political and communal narratives came into play, and the tragedy became an ideological arena instead of a battle for justice.
Sushant Singh Rajput Death Case (2020): At first, an inquiry into his supposed suicide, the case very soon turned into a media showpiece with conspiracy theories, drug controversies, and arguments regarding nepotism dominating valid investigations into mental wellbeing and justice procedures.
India is an emotional country and our fourth pillar, being well aware of that, feeds on it.
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Reaping what we sow
God always repents his creation.Doing something that shouldn’t be done always has its consequences and ill effects, and so does being ignorant.Here are a few consequences that we are facing , due to neglect of crucial issues that deserve attention.
1. Misdirection of Public Attention:
When news channels put our minds to some unserious controversies about politics, it is often to overshadow some real deep seated problems in the system. Fake activism shifts focus away from real, pressing issues like poverty, unemployment, environmental degradation, and social justice. While India’s youth is busy making memes, it is secretly robbed off of its solutions to such persistent problems.Example:During the COVID-19 pandemic, while migrant workers walked thousands of kilometers home without food or transport, a section of social media was more focused on trending hashtags and performative gestures like banging plates and lighting lamps instead of demanding systemic healthcare improvements and better facilities for all.
2. Superficial Social Change and decline in accountability:
Many people participate in activism only for social validation. This creates an illusion of change but only for a short period . Then comes the endless night after the fleeting sun, the ground reality- immutable India.The government and institutions face less real pressure to bring about meaningful reforms and hence more time to promote their parties, conduct PR campaigns and waste the money you pay as TAX.
Example:Renaming places (like Allahabad to Prayagraj) was done in the name of cultural activism, but it did nothing to address actual development issues like lack of education or healthcare in the region. Similarly ,politicians and corporations often plant trees as a PR stunt, but deforestation for highways and real estate continues unchecked.
3. Suppression of Genuine Activists:
Real activists who fight for justice, human rights, and social reforms often face suppression, defamation, or even legal action. The noise created by fake activism drowns out their voices, making it harder for real issues to gain traction.
Example:The anti-corruption movement of 2011 (led by Anna Hazare) initially had massive support, but once it became politically inconvenient, media and fake activists distanced themselves, leading to its decline.
4. Erosion of Critical Thinking:
People become accustomed to reacting emotionally rather than thinking critically. This leads to a culture where people jump onto trends without analyzing their authenticity or long-term impact.
Example:The Kashmir Files controversy—instead of focusing on justice for Kashmiri Pandits, the conversation became about political polarization, reducing the issue to a social media war rather than a call for actual justice.
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Is justice just another trend?
Based on the annual report prepared by the NCRB titled “Crime in India”,the crime rate in India is decreasing. The crime rate per lakh population dropped from 445.9 in 2021 to 422.2 in 2022, indicating a downward trend.
India’s 2025 crime report shows a small decrease in overall crime, down by 0.6% from 2024. However, rape cases rose by 1.1%, and kidnappings increased by 5.1%. Crime is still higher in cities than rural areas.
The decline in overall crime is due to a stronger police presence, better law enforcement, and increased public awareness.
Lastly , all this constantly sparks up a nagging question in my head, and I'm pretty sure in many others too, that Do we truly care about these issues, or has it just become another trend?
Do we repost or reshare justice demanding posts because we truly understand the situation and want to be supportive or are we just trying to impress our crushes?
The news doesn't shape reality anymore; it manufactures it. It decides what you should be angry about today, who you should hate, what should make your heart ache, and what you should forget by tomorrow.
What does this do to a mind? A mind that is fed grief selectively and is trained to feel only when instructed withers, and it withers quietly, until it’s completely gone. It loses its ability to see beyond the frame of the screen, beyond the carefully curated suffering that is deemed worthy of attention. And when the truth does arrive, naked and unpolished, it is met with apathy, disbelief, or worse—indifference.
India is not completely blind to the real issues, it just chooses its stories.
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