For an average Malayali netizen, the solar panel scandal was a honeytrap and Saritha S Nair a sex symbol, if search giant Google is to be believed. The ‘auto-complete’ feature of Google that gives suggestions as drop downs while you enter the search term throws light on the voyeuristic curiosity of Malayalis, netizens in particular.
Scrolling through the autocomplete suggestions, it could be found that a majority of the netizens were curious about the ‘sexy’ part of the multi-crore financial fraud.
According to Google, the suggestions in auto-complete feature are “a reflection of the search activity of all web users and the content of web pages indexed by it.”
If one googles to know about Saritha S Nair, who is believed to be the linchpin of the scam, the suggestions listed would be ‘Saritha S Nair hot’ and ‘Saritha S Nair hot photos.’
If you type ‘Saritha S Nair and’ or ‘Saritha S Nair with,’ the auto-complete suggestions are the names of a former minister, her husband and the partner-in-crime Biju Radhakrishnan and a mega star, in that order. If you type the letter ‘b’ after her name, the suggestions are ‘Saritha S Nair blue film’ and ‘Saritha S Nair biodata.’
The suggestions are limited, thanks to the Google policy of “applying a narrow set of removal policies for pornography.” Interestingly, there are many who have dug deeper for minor details regarding Saritha. While thousands of Malayalis combed online for her age, date of birth and details of her mother and children, some others seemed to befriend her, as they fished for her email and Facebook IDs. It also looked as if many were unimpressed by the performance of press photographers, as they searched yearningly for a ‘full photo’ and even a ‘photo gallery’ on Saritha!
Moreover, the letter ‘H’ stands for ‘Hot,’ if added to the name of the lady who has been giving sleepless nights to many political bigwigs in the ruling front. If you google suffixing ‘H’ to Saritha, the suggestions would be ‘hot photos,’ ‘hot videos’ and even ‘hot navel.’
Many also searched for ‘mms’, ‘video’, ‘phone talks’, and of course, for any ‘leaked videos’. Barring three alphabets, all others, when typed with her name, give a handful of suggestions that provides a better idea on the ‘doubts and concerns’ of netizens on the solar scandal. However, Google gives some solace to some of the Union Ministers whose names were linked with the lady, as their names do not appear anywhere in the suggestions, as the previous searches were nil or negligible.