Hey, would you like to lynch a rapist? Times Now wants to know

“Time for ‘debate’ is over. India says ‘lynch rapists’,” Times Now declared on Twitter today, urging users to vote whether or not they “endorse the demand”. This, remember, is “India’s most watched English news channel”, not a street thug, although given the toxicity that issues from this channel, and others, on a daily basis you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. 

And, mind you, “India” isn’t asking to lynch rapists, or anyone for that matter. It’s just one person of some renown, Jaya Bachchan. How Times Now essentially conflated the Samajwadi Party MP with the nation is a real mystery. (She is certainly not in Indira ji or Modi ji’s league, Times Now!) Somebody at the channel probably too realised they had gone a step too far given that they later edited the tweet to read, “MPs demand ‘lynching of rapists’”. As if that was the only problem with the pinned tweet, not its normalisation of mob violence.

Such incendiary language as frames this poll is insidious – see the accompanying hashtag, #LynchRapistsDemand, which remains after the edit – but also absurd. Since Times Now has decided to go full crazy, we thought they shouldn’t stop at calling for lynching. Here’s other polls we thought they could run over the next few days. You’re welcome, Times Now. 

If you have similarly deranged poll suggestions for the TV channel, leave them in the comments section or tweet to us with the hashtag #TweetLikeTimesNow.