By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
Soon after the assassination of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh, several tweets by right-winges openly abused her, claiming that Gauri Lankesh “paid the price for her deeds”.
But what is even more shocking is that some of these tweets came from people who are followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Not only this, people behind such profiles also showed their proximity to BJP leaders by sharing their images with several BJP leaders and union ministers.
As a retaliation to these trolls, Twitteratis have started to block Narendra Modi’s personal handle @narendramodi. People have also resorted to reporting the profile of Narendra Modi as a gesture to protest his act of following the abusers.
#BlockNarendraModi was trending on twitter on Thursday until early evening.
Nikhil Dadhich, a garment manufacturer by his Twitter profile posted a tweet shortly after the Lankesh’s murder, saying: “Ek kutiya kutte ki maut kya mari, saare pille ek sur mein bilbila rahe hain.”
Nikhil Dadhich’s Twitter handle is being followed by the Narendra Modi. Another example in this series came Ashish Singh, a person followed by Narendra Modi, who wrote on his twitter: “After Burhan Wani Gauri Lankesh also killed how sad”, soon after the assassination of Lankesh. Ashish too went on a spree on hateful tweets at a time when the entire nation was shocked at this incident.
Another controversial profile which Narendra Modi follows is of Rita who goes with username @RitaG74, who claims to be a former All India Radio presenter. Rita introduced Gauri Lankesh in her tweet: Leftist, Naxal Sympathizer, anti-establishment, anti-Hindus.
Many of the Twitter users could not digest the Hon’ble Prime Minister following these handles and soon resorted to what they called ‘Twitter Satyagraha’.
Who Follows & Encourages Abusers, Hate Spewers & Bigots Who Celebrate Human Deaths
Deserves to be Blocked. #BlockNarendraModi pic.twitter.com/ZqZCMijJXb— Amey Salvi (@ameysalvi81) September 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/deshbhakt_129/status/905666673889263616
Felt so ashamed to follow a PM who follows nly troll handles n handles which spread hate…SHAME on him #BlockNarendraModi pic.twitter.com/lxco2hB35c
— ZeBa SaLiM✨ (@neena_zeba) September 7, 2017
#BlockNarendraModi because he lies to the country. Repeatedly. Zero apologies, zero accountability, deliberate lies misleading country. pic.twitter.com/JB4MGuAS7C
— Vidyut (@Vidyut) September 6, 2017
On Tuesday, Gauri Lankesh, a 55-year-old journalist was shot dead at her apartment in Bengaluru. Lankesh was critical of the Hindu radicalism and had been receiving death threats for quite some time.
While this ‘Twitter movement’ is unlikely to dent the massive following of Narendra Modi, it certainly questions Modi’s ideas of ‘following’ people who regularly abuse people, especially women, who disagree with their stance.
[Tweet screenshot courtesy – AltNews]