Edit/Op-Ed

Singhvi Sex Video: Politics, Media and Netizens at War

Dilnawaz Pasha for BeyondHeadlines

The Abhishek Manu Singhvi Sex video Scandal scoffed not only the political class but also the mainstream media journalists. It embarked a virtual war between politicians, journalists and the Netizens.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a very senior Congress leader engaged in sex with a soon ‘to be Judge’ advocate in High Court Chambers. His Driver recorded the act with the spy cam, approached media houses but meanwhile Singhvi filed a suit in Delhi High Court. And the court granted a permanent injunction against the publication, circulation, dissemination and distribution of the video.

Almost all of the political, journalistic and High level Judicial class becomes aware of the scandal but no one dare to talk about it in open. Meanwhile Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who had earlier filed cases of threatening and blackmailing against his driver Mukesh Lal, managed out of court settlement with the driver and The Delhi High confirmed the injunction by stating that it was issuing “an order of permanent injunction in favour of plaintiffs and against each and all of the defendants, restraining them from publishing, broadcasting distributing or disseminating in any form or manner whatsoever any defamatory material including the purported CD.”

By the High Court orders reporting about the sex CD became illegal, media houses pulled back and the news was to be buried soon but the twist came on 19 April eve. At around 9 PM someone posted the sex act video on youtube and then viraled the video via facebook page named ‘Singhvi Video’, addressed at www.facebook.com/SinghviSexVideo. (Both this page and the first post video on youtube are deleted now, but the sex video is available at numerous sources by now)

And thus the war begins between the mighty politicians, the super mighty media and the much-much advanced netizens. The netizens posted video multiple time and every time it was deleted. In the cat and mice game the netizens proved victorious. The video which was subsequently downloaded by many and was uploaded every time it was deleted from youtube and facebook.

Within minutes the video appeared on youtube, Abhishek Manu Singhvi trended on twitter. Despite hundreds of tweets were generated per minute about the video, the mainstream media and the opposition parties kept their silence.   This gave netizens their chance of lifetime to express their true feelings about politicians and journalists.

Many tweets with hash tag paidmedia, laidmedia, and similar tags were generated. Seniour Journalists like Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Gowswami were questioned but none of them dared to speak.

Shoma chowdhary of tehelka wrote an article about moral ethics of using a spycam. The article landed tehelka in twitter trends with netizens cursing tehelka like never before. The netizens spoke in such harsh words as if tehelka has been sold out the Indian National Congress. A netizen tweeted ‘Kangress uses tehelka to do sting ops on opposition & also defend congress when they are caught in sting ops’. The same sentiments were reflected in many other tweets posted in thread to the issue.

The hindustan times comes up with other article saying that the driver of Abhishek Manu Singhvi has accepted that he has morphed the CD. The Newspaper published the statement of the driver but sentiments of thousands of Indians find no place in most of mainstream media reports. Nowhere in the report did newspaper mentioned that the video is by now viral on youtube and has been watched by lakhs of users.

The Story that was restrained by High Court, buried by mainstream media and neglected by the political class reached to common man, by their own media ie the social network.  The War is still on, the opposition is silent, the media helpless and the netizens at their best.

This scandal has also proved that no matter how best you try, you can not bury a sex scandal in this digital age. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is also spokesperson of World’s largest Democracy’s largest Political Party find it hard to speak for himself.

Video Linkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkJSdsq0eiE

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