One is the media—both social media platforms and conventional media—and the other is the Maratha on the street with a mobile phone. On 9 August, Sakal Maratha Samaj, an umbrella body of Maratha groups, held its first silent protest march in Aurangabad to demand the death penalty for the men who allegedly raped and killed a 14-year-old Maratha girl in July. Jaisingh Dhage, a 58-year-old auto-rickshaw driver in Pune, is a typical marcher, who says the conventional and social media have transmitted his grievance. Bhayya Patil, who works for the social media support team of Sakal Maratha Samaj, says: “We discovered the power of social media when the Maratha Kranti webpage that we developed received more than 4.1 million views in a short span. Mumbai-based social media analyst and commentator Anay Joglekar, said WhatsApp can be a great platform to raise funds and resources with their potential for localized content sharing, messaging and faster networking.

Source: Mint September 25, 2016 16:50 UTC