Can 'dignified and decent' Congress defeat BJP on Twitter?

Having ceded the first mover advantage to Narendra Modi and his supporters, the Congress finds itself against considerable odds in the dog-eat-dog world of twitter.

“We are up against very strong right-wing propaganda on Twitter and Facebook, which has been indulging in very negative and disruptive communication for a long time now. Part of their strategy is to somehow drown out the moderate and reasonable voice on Twitter. We realised that we need to counterattack that. If we don’t counterattack the propaganda, over a period of time people tend to believe it,” says Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha, who has 21,327 followers on the micro-blogging site.

Jha jokes that he and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, receive the most abuse on Twitter.

Founder of hamaracongress.com, the former banker who is part a growing team of Twitter-happy party members, Jha insists that in the last couple of months, with the support of “passionate volunteers” most well-known for their #feku campaign, the Congress Party has “gathered tremendous momentum on social media… I think it is neck-to-neck now and hopefully in the next few months we would have far overtaken the BJP.”

The social media agenda of the Congress Party, says Jha, is to address the disenchantment in the urban middle-class by highlighting the government’s achievements and to counter claims and rumours by the Oppostion.

Asked what their social media strategy would be, Jha says, “Firstly, we are not going to hit below the belt. We are going to put facts in perspective. Every time there is an error or a malicious rumour, we will counter-attack that.”

“I will give you an example,” he says, “Every time, Modi makes his blunderous speeches where he quotes the wrong statistics or where he takes credit for Gujarat when he does not deserve it or when he generally makes outlandish accusations or claims, we as a party are going to question him.”

“Modi’s image has gone unchallenged for a long time and he has managed to bamboozle a lot of people into thinking he is a big development czar… Whether it is Congress spokespersons or volunteers, we will hereafter constantly watch everything that is being said. A lot of people have used social media by abusing it and we are going to challenge that,” he said.

While many Congress leaders are expected to make their debut on Twitter soon, the most anticipated debut of all remains uncertain. Are we going to see Rahul Gandhi on Twitter? “You will have to ask him that,” says Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi, who has 18,753 followers.

Someone who has been active on Twitter even before she became a Congress party member, Chaturvedi says, “Traditionally, not many people have been able to understand the importance of this medium. Congress should not shy away from this medium of communication, we should be out there. It is a medium that cannot be ignored.”

A popular target of the trolls, Chaturvedi relates how she began tweeting for the party. “There was lot of negativity out there. People were spreading lies and getting away with it on Twitter. As I got more involved with the party, I felt it was my responsibility to rebut things that were not true… If we are present on these platforms, we can immediately clarify our stand and set the record straight.”

Leveraging the social media formed a big part of the two-day media conclave called by Rahul Gandhi earlier this week, where he addressed 200 spokespersons from across the country. The conclave also saw the launch of an internal social media platform called Khidkee.com, which Jha describes as “Congress party’s own Facebook and Twitter”.

Going by the Gandhi’s ground rules on communication — “speak positive” — the Congress is keen on branding the party’s online profile in stark contrast to that of Narendra Modi and his supporters.

Rajeev Gowda, Congress spokesperson and co-founder of hamaracongress.com says, “If you paid attention to Rahul Gandhi’s speech he was also setting the agenda for the tone, for what the party’s perspective should be. There were a few mantras. We are going to take the high road. It is not going to be trolling, not going to be abusive, not what the other side does. We are going to stick to the truth, to the core party issues. It is going to be dignified, decent, informative, respectful and in-depth.”

Describing Twitter as having “revolutionary potential”, Gowda says, “If you can build it in a well enough manner, you can change the economics of communication, the economics of politics.”