Those who hacked Barkha Dutt, Ravish Kumar lack guts, ethics

A large section of the online Indians was highly amused this morning when they discovered that the Twitter accounts of NDTV's Barkha Dutt and Ravish Kumar had been hacked. The hackers, going by the name 'Legion', posted the usual collection of juvenile tweets and tried to spread a dump of Barkha Dutt's emails. 

They promised to target Lalit Modi next before hightailing out of the accounts. Also, they made a claim - "We are ready to go to jail. If anyone of is arrested then 1 TB of data will be released,". 

Statements like this make it obvious that despite the group's ridiculous claims that they were 'targeting' the corrupt and all, they are little more than blackmailers, using the anonymity of the internet to bully those they want. If they have data, stolen or otherwise, let them put in the public domain and tell us who they are - if they have the guts. 

The attack comes a few days after the same group, allegedly, hacked the official account of Rahul Gandhi. 

These attacks on those people whom large sections of the country consider the foremost 'enemy' is some vague war for the fate of India, has, as expected, generated widespread grins from many quarters. Jokes aplenty are floating about, and of course, there is high interest in seeing the emails. 

But it is a great irony that the same section, who spend all their time online, fail to see the danger of celebrating a bunch whose set up is to attack people online. Is this what India's discourse has come to? When we don't like someone, we celebrate illegal activities against them? 

While 'hacking' is seen as something funny, it is little different that breaking into someone's house and then spreading out their personal belongings on the road. And remember, the burglar you applaud today will be breaking your home's locks tomorrow. 

Who are these people? And who gave the mandate on whom to attack? Their targets seem to be chosen via those most spoken about person on the streets of India this week. 

And the what is perhaps most hilarious is their claims of some honour in such deeds. Right. If the idea was to attack the 'corrupt', there are quite a few politicians on the list. And yet the really powerful (or in power currently anyway) seem to be mysteriously overlooked. 

As a citizen of this country, I am perfectly capable of attacking the ideas, words or actions of my fellow citizens in public. As it should be, my name is attached to my accusations - if I make any. 

I do not need some 'group' hiding behind the veil of the internet to pretend their illegal actions have some sort of unsaid sanction from me. They do not. 

Do you want to be an 'exposer'? Do what hundreds of people in this country have done - find proof for your accusations. Do you want to 'lead' something? Put yourself up to the same scrutiny you are putting up the others. And it is possible to be political in this country without doing illegal things - perhaps it should be practised more. 

• Viinayak Hegde
• Barkha Dutt
• Ravish Kumar
• Legion
• Twiiter