Distasteful, filthy: Netizens, neighbours protest against trolls, politics in tragedy

Kolkata: Following actor Rahul Arunoday Banerjee's death, social media was flooded with distasteful and offensive comments, prompting public outrage over trolling and the politicisation of tragedy.

Soumen Dutta, general manager at a multinational pharma company, was appalled by the way some were trolling the actor online. "Don't they know that the departed soul transcends politics? Political ideologies may differ, but how can they be so insensitive and post such distasteful messages? Some of the crude comments are strikingly similar in style, making it obvious they may have come from the same troll factory. How insecure must a party be to target the dead for political mileage?" Dutta said.

Actor Rayati Bhattacharya finds it "gut-wrenching" to see the kind of language being used. "We live in a society where the dead are not mourned but judged. I find that political belief screams louder than a drowning man's last breath," Bhattacharya said.

Actor Bhaskar Banerjee, who was shooting with Rahul on Sunday, had reached Chandipur when he heard that his co-actor passed away. "The incident was shocking for us. Rahul played my nephew in the serial. We all stayed at Sree Inn in Talsari. Before I left, there was a funny scene with Rahul where he came up to all of us and said that he found his wife. In that scene, only his feet were wet. In the serial, this scene is supposed to come after the one where Rahul met with the accident. I am utterly disgusted by the vicious politicisation of his demise. Here is a young man who has died. Nobody is bothered about the loss to his son or his mother. All they want is to get mileage before the elections," Banerjee said.

He is equally shocked to see how people from either spectrum of the political divide are equally involved in the politicisation of the death. "It is filthy to see the political war over a body. How can we stoop so low?" he asked.

On the ground, Rahul's Bijoygarh neighbours objected when some shouted political slogans outside the late actor's home on Monday morning, saying the family was grieving and such behaviour was inappropriate. Locals said they had no issue with political candidates visiting to share in the grief, but criticised the sloganeering as insensitive. Sanju, a local shopkeeper, said, "Campaign slogans should not be raised at a mourning household."

On Sunday evening, Jadavpur candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya met Rahul's mother and wife. On Monday, the political visits continued with BJP candidate Papiya Adhikari, and state minister and Trinamool's Tollygunge candidate Aroop Biswas. The latter had been with the family since Sunday.