India may not be anywhere close to China when it comes to mind-boggling infrastructure and technological advances but on one parameter, China is just like us — Chinese trolls can give their Indian counterparts a run for their money.
Online hate is currently being directed towards a 54-year-old school bus attendant who lost her life last week while saving a busload of children from a knife-wielding assailant. He had already lunged at a mother and child waiting at the bus stop, and was trying to enter the bus when the attendant grabbed him. Yet, the attendant has become reviled as a traitor and a spy because the victims were Japanese, and the bus was ferrying Japanese children home from their Japanese school.
This display of inhuman hatred apart, the way the horrific incident was handled reveals one crucial difference between India and China. The attendant was honoured by the government with the title, Model of Courageous Action, and apart from students who were travelling on that bus, ordinary citizens, too, have been laying wreaths at the site of the attack.
Imagine all this being done in India for someone who gave her life to save Pakistani children from an Indian assailant.
That’s not all. Social media sites have started taking down venomous posts. Almost 1,000 such posts have been deleted so far, and official media has condemned the display of hatred, asking readers to rein in their ‘extreme nationalism’.
For some time now, apart from the general anti-Japan sentiment that seems to lie deep in the country’s consciousness for historical reasons, Japanese schools have been the target of much resentment. Why are Chinese children kept out of these schools, and where do the Japanese students work after they finish their studies, some online influencers have asked suspiciously. The simple explanation — the fact that the government does not permit schools run by expats to admit Chinese children — is deliberately ignored. One website even had a ‘skit’ showing a violent confrontation between Japanese teachers and Chinese students.
It is being speculated that the 52-year-old unemployed assailant was brainwashed by such influencers into targeting Japanese schoolchildren. Which is why the bus attendant’s courage in stopping him without thinking of her own safety has created such an impact. The Japanese embassy flew its flag at half mast; the Japanese school held a memorial service for her where, reportedly, the headmaster and parents were sobbing. A similar service was also held in a bookshop in Japan, where a Chinese national expressed her gratitude to the bus attendant: her sacrifice, she said, had ensured the safety of her compatriots in Japan. Indeed, the attendant’s heroism is being seen as having saved China’s face internationally. Interestingly, the Japanese business giant, Sony, started a fund for her family to which other CEOs have also contributed. However, her family has declined all aid.
Netizens are angry with the authorities for having played down the incident as a “random attack”, especially seeing that it came close on the heels of a similar attack on four American teachers. That attack, too, was played down, with the authorities asserting that “China is safe for foreigners.” Commentators have also pointed out that the very websites and official media outlets now deleting hateful posts have, in the past, encouraged anti-Japan and anti-US sentiments. As one commentator wrote: “If there hadn’t been years of indulgence and guidance from the top leaders, where would there be so much hatred and evil deeds?... You think that the dog you raise only bites the enemies, but you don’t know that when a dog gets mad, it will bite anyone it sees, regardless of whether they are masters or servants.”
That is sage advice. But is the Indian government listening?
