Senior BJP leader and External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has actively used Twitter to address grievances and complaints of distressed Indian citizens across the globe. But on Sunday, she witnessed another side of the virtual world – trolling.
The 66-year-old minister was in the line of a Twitter firestorm over the transfer of a passport official who was accused of harassing a Hindu-Muslim couple during the passport application process.
Swaraj, who returned from a five-day long foreign tour on Saturday, was relentlessly subjected to hate messages and abuses by a number of Twitter users. A lot of users trolling Swaraj were questioning the transfer of passport official Vikas Mishra in the aftermath of inter-faith couple controversy.
Biased decision #ISupportVikasMishra shame on you mam…is it effect of your islamic kidney??
— Indra Bajpai (@bajpai_indra) June 22, 2018
Sushma ma’am was out of India from 17-23rd June.
Expectations of Bhakts/BJP Supporters : Ma’am will come back, cancel the passport issued by ministry avoiding every procedure, bring justice to Vikas Mishra.
Reality : okay, Forget investigation, i will first name&shame u trolls.
— NATIONALIST JOKER
Swaraj Replies
Facing a barrage of hateful tweets, Swaraj took to Twitter to express her displeasure over trolling. In an indirect reference to abusive tweets, the External Affairs minister said she was “honoured” with some tweets. Swaraj also retweeted some of the tweets that were even abusive and communal in nature.
In order to shame these trolls, Swaraj liked the abusive tweets and shared them with her followers. She also clarified that she was unaware of the Lucknow inter-faith couple controversy since she was out of the country.
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.
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) June 24, 2018
Congress comes to Swaraj’s support
Hours after Swaraj’s tweet, it was the opposition Congress which came to her support. According to a tweet from Congress’s official Twitter handle, the opposition party supported her “decision to call out the heinous trolls” of her “own 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.https://t.co/qcB0qemRGZ
— Congress (@INCIndia) June 24, 2018
Interestingly, there was no reaction or condemnation from any of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders over the vicious trolling of Swaraj.
Not the first BJP leader to get trolled
Last year, Home Minister Rajnath Singh was viciously trolled for praising Kashmiris for condemning a militant attack on Amarnath Yatris in the valley.
The people of Kashmir have strongly condemned the terror attack on Amarnath yatris. It shows the spirit of Kashmiriyat is very much alive.
— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) July 11, 2017
Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn’t escaped the wrath of trolls. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trolled for tweeting Ramzan greetings in Urdu language.
سبھی کو مقدس ماہِ رمضان کی مبارکباد ! ہم پیغمبر حضرت محمد ﷺ کے
مقدس پیغامات کو یاد کرتے ہیں، جنھوں نے ہم آہنگی، رحم دلی اور سخاوت
کی اہمیت کو اجاگر کیا ۔ رمضان کریم کا مقدس مہینہ انہی اعلیٰ قدروں کا
علمبردار ہے ۔https://t.co/BHnO8BdgCA— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 17, 2018
Inter-faith couple controversy
Last week, a Passport Seva Kendra official, Vikas Mishra, in Lucknow was transferred after an inter-faith couple from Lucknow Tanvi Seth and Mohammad Anas Siddiqui, alleged that he humiliated them when they went to the office with their passport applications.
According to the couple, he asked the husband to convert to Hinduism and pulled up the wife for marrying a Muslim.
Mishra had said in his defence that he was secular and had told the woman that her ‘nikahnama’ showed her name as Shazia Anas, which should be endorsed in her file.
“For this she refused. If she had consented… we would have sent it to the ‘A’ section for data modification. We have to see which person is taking the passport in what name. There is documentary proof, how can we ignore that. I am secular and I have myself had an inter-caste marriage,” he told the media.
(With PTI inputs)
