Trolls supporting Modi call for Sushma Swaraj’s assassination; Minister fights back
In a shocking development, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj faced unprecedented trolling by the supporters of her own party when the BJP’s troll army posted nasty and abusive comments against her on social media.
It has been reported that the right wing workers were not happy with Swaraj over her ministry’s decision to fast-track the passport application process of one interfaith couple, who had alleged harassment by a Lucknow-based passport officer, Vikas Mishra.
It may be recalled here that the MEA had acted swiftly and ordered Mishra’s transfer after receiving complaints from Tanvi Seth and her husband Anas Siddiqui, the interfaith couple. This attracted the anger of the fanatic elements within the BJP, who immediately chose to communalise the issue. They first trolled the minister in her absence as she was on a foreign trip and then launched a concerted campaign to downgrade Swaraj’s Facebook rating, forcing the minister to remove the ‘Reviews’ button from her page.
On Swaraj’s Facebook page, BJP’s troll army posted nasty and abusive comments against the minister while reviewing her page negatively. Such was the campaign that the rating of Swaraj’s page went down from 4.3 (out of 5) star to 1.4 star in just a few hours.
However, far from being fazed by the nasty trolling, Swaraj took to Twitter to not just announce her return but also name and shame her trolls. Her tormentors on Twitter included some, who are followed by high-profile BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In her tweet, Swaraj even sarcastically wrote that she was ‘honoured with some tweet’ adding that she was sharing them with her followers.
It read, “I was out of India from 17th to 23rd June 2018. I do not know what happened in my absence. However, I am honoured with some tweets. I am sharing them with you. So I have liked them.”
Notable among them was a tweet by one Captain Sarbjit Dhillon from Punjab, who astonishingly mocked Swaraj’s health condition. His tweet, retweeted by Swaraj, read, “She is almost dead woman as she runs on only one kidney (borrowed from someone else) and any time that can stop working.”
Dhillon, many journalists pointed out, had served in the Indian armed forces and was associated with the BJP in Punjab. He was referring to Swaraj’s reported kidney transplant that she underwent in 2016 in Delhi. Another tweet by one Indra Bajpai, a resident of Haridwar, wrote, “Shame on you mam” before asking if her ministry’s decision was an “effect of your Islamic kidney?” Interestingly, Bajpai’s Facebook profile describes her as an ‘artist’ who owns ‘3D Mural Arts.’
The biggest shocker came from a user called Bharat1, who called for the minister’s assassination. Using a morphed photo of the external affairs minister, being portrayed as someone with a soft spot for Pakistan, the user issued a chilling warning. Calling people to assassinate her, Bharat1 wrote, “She will come out in public sometimes- Must finish her ASAP wherever & whosoever spots her.”
Meanwhile, the Congress party tweeted from its official account applauding Swaraj’s decision to call out the ‘heinous trolls of your party.’ “No matter the situation or reason, nothing calls for threats of violence, disrespect & abuse. @SushmaSwaraj ji, we applaud your decision to call out the heinous trolls of your own party,” the Congress party’s tweet said.
Journalist Sagarika Ghose wrote, “Unbelievable. @SushmaSwaraj is a natural-born leader from the Vajpayee @BJP4India which always abided by parliamentary democracy.”
However, some analysts believe that the vicious campaign against Swaraj was created by a design within the top leadership in the BJP, which plans to contest the next year’s Lok Sabha polls using the hardcore Hindutva narrative. This, according to experts, will help Modi hide his failures in governance in the last four years.
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Hemant Soren to take oath as 14th CM of Jharkhand on Thursday
Ranchi (PTI): Hemant Soren is set to take oath as the 14th chief minister of Jharkhand in a grand ceremony here on Thursday, which will be attended by several top political leaders, including AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Soren at 4 pm.
This will be the 49-year-old JMM leader's fourth stint as chief minister.
Soren retained the Barhait seat, defeating BJP's Gamliyel Hembrom by a margin of 39,791 votes in the recent assembly polls. The JMM-led alliance stormed to victory, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, while the BJP-led NDA managed 24 seats.
Posters for the event can be seen across the city, while security has been strengthened and traffic regulations put in place.
Schools in Ranchi city are shut on Thursday in view of the swearing in of the Hemant Soren government.
Jharkhand in-charge and Congress general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir said Soren is likely to take oath alone, and expansion of the cabinet will be held after a vote of confidence in the assembly.
Other senior political leaders likely to be in attendance are NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, a JMM leader said.
CPI(ML)L general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti and Bihar’s Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav are also likely to attend the oath-taking ceremony.
"It’s heartening to have such esteemed leaders join us for this important occasion," said Soren, who along with senior officials paid a visit to the Morabadi ground on Wednesday evening to take stock of the arrangements.
