As the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are approaching, the attacks on the Prime Minister have gone aggressive on social media with humiliating trends such as #जुमलों_की_बारात (rally of fake promises), #JumlaMan, #FekuModi, #ModiInsultsIndia, #ChowkidarHiChorHai etc.
When AV asked BJP IT Cell member Suresh Nakhua about these trending hashtags on social media he expressed, “Congress has been name-calling the Prime Minister since the time he became Gujarat CM. He has been abused by senior-most Congress leaders in the past and is being abused even today. What is being done by oppositions and its supporters on Social Media is nothing but an extension of their “Abuse Modi” policy. This name-calling is not going to affect the morales of BJP and its karyakartas who are committed to return in 2019 with a bigger majority.”
It appears that even the oppositions have braced up themselves on the social media with the nearing of upcoming elections and playing smart with their political game. The Congress’s victory in the Assembly elections has been credited largely to the Congress president, who it appears, is not shying away from being snappy and cheeky on Twitter.
Congress MLC Bhai Jagtap called the social media trends as the raising concerns over Modi’s unfulfilled promises. He said, “Whatever he promised in the past, right from the day he took charge as the Prime Minister of this country, he has not fulfilled any of it and for the last four and a half years, he is just working in favour of a few industrialists. The farmer’s problems were totally ignored, the employment issues are still pending, so, the social media is not attacking, on the contrary, it’s asking where have his promises gone? The BJP and the Prime Minister should come out with the reality.”
Earlier, Modi in one of his speeches had commented that people used to lament about what sin they had committed in their previous births that they were born in India and that there used to be a point in time when people used to regret being born in India and businessmen wanted to leave the country for better opportunities abroad. But now, those people are saying they are ready to come back even if their incomes are lower than that in other places. “The mood has changed,” he added, going on to assert that his government had changed sentiments within one year of assuming office. That didn’t go well with opposition party which was voted out in 2014 due to corruption. More disgrace followed on Twitter, with a lot of back and forth between the so-called “adarsh liberals” and the right-wing proponents and humour was only a by-product waiting to be unleashed. Within a few hours of the speech the hashtags #JumlaMan #ModiInsultsIndia and #जुमलों_की_बारात was trending, while #WahModijiWah started trending on Twitter from June this year, after reports on the increasing Indian money in Swiss banks surfaced.
BJP cadre from Latur, Ramling Shere told this newspaper, “These trends are out of frustration, opposition knows it well that they cannot defeat BJP and Modi by any means. They are already humiliated by people in 2014 and thereafter, such trends won’t make sense and we the BJP supporters don’t pay much attention to these practices, we trust in people’s mandate.”
Meanwhile, the Congress did not leave stones unturned to attack the BJP with a series of pictures and a spoof news video, calling the promises made by the party in power as “Jumlas” and PM Modi is “Jumla Man”. Congress and other opposition IT cells on social media are hell-bent on ridiculing PM on each occasion.
BJP MP Sunil Kumar Gaikwad stated, “This is how Congress Party is empowering the youth on social media. They are given paid tasks to attack BJP and the Prime Minister in every possible way. I strongly condemn such humiliating trends but I am sure people will talk for PM when time comes.”
However, the gap between the followers of PM Modi and Rahul is still very high with the Prime Minister commanding a strong following of 44.9 million yet showing his popularity among the netizens for his witty tweets, prompt response to the grievances from across the globe keep his account buzzing, while Rahul Gandhi is slowly climbing up the ladder with the current 8.15 million followers and activities on Twitter have soared exponentially.
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