Cctvs cellphone cameras show entitlement and boorishness in gurgaon and noida highrises but the camera can also hide

Cctvs cellphone cameras show entitlement and boorishness in gurgaon and noida highrises but the camera can also hide

It is easy to get swayed by the current of justifiable outrage at the reprehensible behaviour displayed in the videos.

By all accounts, Varun Nath was mildly inconvenienced for a few minutes. At around 7 am on August 30, Nath was stuck in a lift in his posh Gurgaon highrise for 3-4 minutes. When the lift operator, accompanied by a security guard got him out, he proceeded to slap them both. The CCTV footage that caught him in the act does not have sound. But it appears from the video that while his victims were trying to speak, Nath’s first response was the violence of the entitled. Earlier this month, Bhavya Roy was caught on camera, with audio, abusing security guards at a Noida condominium. Unfortunately, both incidents are not infrequent. What has changed is that with the ubiquity of the camera — CCTVs, cellphones — the entitlement and casual violence that marks Indian society is now there for all to see.

Is the camera, then, so often seen as an instrument of “Big Brother”, a way to bring to light daily injustices that are otherwise ignored? It is easy to imagine how — given the relative privilege and power of the residents of a high-rise vis-a-vis the staff — incidents like the ones involving Roy and Nath would be brushed under the carpet had it not been for the “viral videos”. Yet, as with all era-defining technology, the assessment of mass surveillance and recording needs a nuanced approach.

It is easy to get swayed by the current of justifiable outrage at the reprehensible behaviour displayed in the videos. Yet, outrage alone is not enough to fix an unequal society and an ineffective criminal justice system. That requires an honest conversation about class, caste and the forms of violence used to police their boundaries. And the camera, as much as it is a tool for shining a light on dark places, can also be used to breach the boundaries of personal space and tell stories without context. The abusive behaviour in Gurgaon and Noida are instances of the former. But, the hidden camera — or the colony and office CCTV — can be used to great detriment too.