29 November 2013, 02:29 PM IST
Following the accusation of sexual assault made by a young woman journalist against Tarun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka – and his subsequent attempts to intimidate the victim and members of her family – will many readers of the publication, which bills itself as being frank and fearless in its reportage, stop subscribing to it? Quite a lot, possibly.
Already a number of senior staff members including the managing editor, have resigned, and others might follow in their footsteps, not wanting to be associated with a product whose promoter stand exposed not only as a sexual molester but as a hypocrite, as is ironically underlined by the fact that the latest issue of Tehelka features a lead story about the rape and murder of a young woman.
Thanks to the disgraceful behaviour of its editor-in-chief, Tehelka could become the target of a boycott, a mass action which remains one of the most effective ways for the public to punish wrongdoers.
The other day I came across another case of boycott, when at a lunch get-together a fellow guest refused the offer of a popular brand of beer made by the company owned by Vijay Mallya. "I refuse to patronise a product made by a man who's called the 'King of good times', owns a yacht and palatial houses all over the world and has swindled the employees of his now defunct Kingfisher airlines of their salaries," said the guest, turning down an empty glass to the proffered beer.
Robber barons must have thick hides, and it's doubtful if Mallya would even feel the tiniest sting of remorse at such token protests. But if enough customers of his products were to do it, it could eventually hurt him where it matters most – in his royal lifestyle which costs a king's ransom to maintain.
Arvind Kejriwal has also brought the concept of boycotting in the news by founding his Aam Admi Party and so giving voters an opportunity to reject – or boycott – parties like the Congress and the BJP who have been accused of corruption. Indeed, the Election Commission itself has embraced the idea of a boycott by allowing voters, for the first time, to reject all the candidates in a particular constituency by punching the button marked NOTA – None Of The Above – on the electronic voting machine.
Named after a 19th century officer, Captain Boycott, who was shunned by his neighbours for political reasons, the collective refusal to have anything to do with an individual, institution or any other entity, was most successfully used by Mahatma Gandhi when he urged his fellow Indians to spin their own cloth and stop using fabric made in the spinning mills of imperial Britain. This impeccable lineage gives the boycott a moral legitimacy and authority at a time when such legitimacy and authority are so singularly notable for their absence in almost all spheres of public life, be in the realm of politics, media or business.
What can make boycotts particularly effective today is social networking through the internet, Twitter and similar facilities which enable individual protest to snowball into collective action.
So join the boycott club. And if the first thing you decide to boycott is this blog, that's fine. Because it'll prove just how effective boycotts can be.
jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Many boycotts now
Dengan url
http://osteoporosista.blogspot.com/2013/11/many-boycotts-now.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Many boycotts now
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar