Sports broadcaster Sanjana Ganesan clapped back at trolls after a section of social media mocked her and cricketer Jasprit Bumrah’s one year and seven month old son Angad over his facial expression at Sunday’s Indian Premier League match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai as Jasprit scalped four wickets.
The 3-second video clip went viral on X, with many trolling the young child.
Taking to her Instagram Stories, Sanjana, 33, addressed the trolls in a strongly worded message. “Our son is NOT a topic for your entertainment. Jasprit and I do everything in our power to keep Angad away from social media because the internet is a despicable, vile place to be and I completely understand the implications of bringing a child to a cricket stadium filled with cameras, but please that Angad and I were there to support Jasprit and nothing else,” she said.
She also said that the couple has “no interest” in their son becoming viral internet content or national news, with “unnecessarily opinionated keyboard warriors deciding who Angad is, what his problem is, what his personality is, from three seconds of footage.”
She also condemned trolls for using terms like mental health and depression for the child.
“Throwing around words like trauma and depression in reference to a baby says so much about who we’re becoming as a community, and it’s honestly really sad. You know nothing about our son, nothing about our lives and I request you to keep your opinions online true to that,” she asserted.
Clinical psychologist Divya Ratan condemned the trolls, calling it entirely unnecessary. “Anything and everything anyone does or doesn’t do is a big thing nowadays. And with celebrity status, one tends to come under the radar of faceless, nameless trolls. But a 1.5-year-old kid? This is beyond comprehension,” expressed Divya.
It does affect the parents at some point, she said. “While they are in the public eye with heightened scrutiny, at a certain point in time, it becomes difficult for them to manage too, because it is their child that you are talking about. It affects their self-esteem and confidence in bringing their child out. No one likes their kid being spoken ill of. No one has a right to use deep words like trauma and depression for a child who has not even yet spoken or been able to express. It is so wrong. It is so unnecessary,” remarked Divya.
Bumrah picks a 4-fer and Angad is still not impressed 😭😭
— Div🦁 (@div_yumm)
Talking about the repercussions, the expert noted that considering the “incessant trolling, some parents may even start to micromanage things around their child, which stifles their freedom growing up”. “They may take to their head which don’t even exist. While Sanjana has addressed the trolls most humanely, not everyone may be able to,” shared Divya.
