MS Dhoni captain of Chennai Superkings and Rohit Sharma captain of Mumbai Indians during the toss.
MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma show unity and friendship before an IPL match in the UAE. Image Credit: Vipin Pawar/Sportzpics for BCCI
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Very rarely do we see Mahendra Singh Dhoni being trolled in India. Sadly, this has been the case in the past few days.

This time around, the lowest of the low — hiding behind their keyboards - have aimed abuse at the former India skipper’s wife and young daughter, even sending disgusting rape threats to five-year-old Ziva on her mother’s Instagram account. Their fault: why has MS Dhoni not been able to do what Dhoni does, win games for the Chennai Super Kings, while in action in the Indian Premier League in the UAE?

Dhoni has tried his best every game and he and his family have been abused and threatened. Why has he, the man with the Midas touch and multiple IPL titles under his belt, not able to win games this time round? Every cricketer has faced the wrath of social media for not doing well and Dhoni’s case is up there with the most extreme these trolls have reached.

We don’t need Dhoni to validate himself on social media by these cowards. And why bring Dhoni’s family into this? Sakshi and Ziva are no way involved in it and yet are being abused and defamed. Much like the way Virat Kohli’s wife Anushka has been targeted time and again online.

TIME TO ACT

It is time to act against these trolls. Stop this once and for all. Peddling hate is the new India we are seeing and that’s not the idea of India we stand for. It is not what we believe in and we will not tolerate this as a society. It is a cricket match that’s in question and there will always be a winner and a loser. It has nothing to do with one’s family, wife or daughter and anyone who violates this norm deserves the highest punishment.

To issue a rape threat against a five-year-old is the lowest form of abuse one can stoop to. Such people are either delusional or not fit for civilised society. In fact, since reading this piece of news, I have been engulfed by a sense of rage that I haven’t felt for a long time and may be it comes from the fact that I have a daughter of six.

DANGEROUS TREND

This is a seriously dangerous trend, that people have started to feel they are entitled to saying anything and get away with it. After all, social media is faceless. With time, social media has become a domain of unmediated abuse and that’s the worst that it can get to.

For example, Sachin Tendulkar was trolled for donating less than Suresh Raina at the start of the Covid pandemic and Ajinkya Rahane was trolled for donating 10 lac rupees only. While this is outrageous and vulgar at one level, it is alarming at the other. It shows the deep anxiety, jealousy and anger people have for the successful and it is as if they need to always do things that are expected of them. If they don’t they deserve to be abused and punished. Issuing a rape threat is an act of crime and it is of paramount importance that this is nipped in the bud. Frankly, we have already let this persist for way too long and the discourse on prime time television is a reflection of what we have gotten ourselves into.

This is a slur against humanity and such trolls go against the very grain of what we stand for — the idea of India. My India deserves better from my fellow Indians and in this day and age of crisis that’s the least we can do for our countrymen. No human being can ever be given a rape threat leave alone the iconic MS Dhoni’s daughter. Anyone who violates the basic human code is a real disgrace and the sooner we realise this the better.