Dilip Cherian, an image and communications consultant talks to senior journalist and The Wire founding editor Sidharth Bhatia about the increasingly coarse nature of public discourse in India. Politicians and influential people are using insulting labels – cockroaches, termites, presstitute, dimaagi Naxal – which are setting the tone for their supporters and the citizenry, says Bhatia. And the bar is getting ever lower.Bad language is not the same as physical abuse, but how much room is left before abusive people also come to blows? That is a looming worry, as seen in the recent slapping incident in Delhi, but the balance of wisdom lies on the side of moderation in speech, Cherian says. In countries where people are mislabelled or face verbal abuse, those at the receiving end may find that both the moral high ground and [political] safety lie in choosing words carefully, he says.In earlier periods of political conflict, such as the Mandal Commission era, which sparked widespread protests as well as abuse centered on caste identity, abusive language was still not as widespread or intense as it is now.In this context, Bhatia and Cherian also discuss the younger protesters (Gen-Z) who used cuss words and more generally abusive language about the establishment. In a way, while they were abusive, they were also reclaiming such language from those in power and directing it back at them or “owning it”.