As Congress launches Bharat Bandh, Modi supporters trend '#CongressDividingIndia' from bank of tweets

That the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party probably has an army (NaMo Warriors) of trolls manipulating public perception in favour of the Narendra Modi government and against the Opposition parties including its favourite brickbat, Congress, is not new. An evidence to both appeared once again on Monday as the party’s supporters took a cue from BJP president Amit Shah's speech  at the party national executive meet to trend the keyword #CongressDividingIndia. As Congress launched a nationwide bandh on Monday against rising fuel prices and inflation along with several other Opposition parties, on Twitter, at 9 am onwards, the hashtag #CongressDividingIndia emerged as one of the top 10 trends in India. By 10.30, there were 4,653 tweets under the hashtag. [caption id=“attachment_5152771” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Twitter trends at 10.0 am. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption]   Modi supporters blasted the Congress with a series of tweets giving examples of how the Grand Old Party has been dividing the country since the time of the British and continues to do even today. Some examples of these tweets (from unverified Twitter users) are: 1. India had a Divide and Rule strategy which was followed during the British Raj & After independence #CongressDividingIndia 2. Congress always appeased minorities but never even thought of anything like Tripple talaq ban for Muslim women who were suffering because of this. Think #CongressDividingIndia 3. Lingayat community has remained the core vote bank of the BJP. Therefore, the idea behind granting them a separate identity is to try and make a major dent in Hindu votes #CongressDividingIndia [caption id=“attachment_5153041” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A screenshot of sample tweets that appeared on Twitter today[/caption] Interestingly, these tweets are part of a sample document (tweet bank) that anti-fake news platform, AltNews’ Prateek Sinha shared on Twitter on Sunday night, stating that the Twitter trend at 9 am is going to be #CongressDividingIndia. Though the origin of the documents listing the sample tweets was not mentioned, the goal was clearly defined: “Let’s support our Narendra Modi government and not allow Congress to succeed in their loomed conspiracy. To spread this aura #CongressDividingIndia on 10 September, 2018. Timing 9 am onward.” These sample tweets champion BJP, vilify Congress and go on to make emotional appeals to save Hinduism, distort facts and history included to support the arguments. See for yourself:

#CongressDividingIndia is the Twitter trend for 9am tomorrow. Sample tweets can be found in the attached screenshots. Happy trending. 😉 pic.twitter.com/XD3daCPLjN

— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) September 9, 2018

This is not the first time trolls have made a #hashtag trend. In April 2018, ahead of the Karnataka elections, according to a Times of India report, “‘Namo Twitter Warriors Group’, which ostensibly functions from the US, provided several sample tweets that were put out on social media” to ensure " #ShahSaffronSurge was trending on Twitter" and managed 12,000 tweets. In politics, public perception makes a government. And BJP seems to have quite a handful of them doing the job. In fact, according to a report in Mumbai Mirror, “Modi follows a substantial number of accounts that belong to laypersons, some of whom have been characterised as trolls and been accused of abuse and harassment online”.