Did the Congress Party hold a conclave for abusive trolls?

Recently, BJP’s Mumbai spokesperson Suresh Nakhua had posted a twitter thread in which he exposed how some of the most abusive social media users were seen taking photographs with the Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The Congress and its entire ecosystem has always been trying to malign the BJP for using indecent language in political discourse, and even claimed that Prime Minister Modi has been actively following social media trolls who use extremely profane language. However, going by the photographs in the said tweet, it appeared that the Congress as well as its president shares a close association with highly abusive congress supporters active on social media. In his list, Suresh Nakhua had exposed a number of such abusive social media trolls, the prominent ones being Sanjiv Bhatt, Abhishek Mishra, Abdul and Suryanarayan Ganeshan.

The claims made by the BJP have turned out to be quite genuine and Times Now has now reported that Rahul Gandhi had held a conclave to plan the social media strategy for 2019. The conclave included social media trolls listed above, as reported by Times Now. These trolls were briefed by the Congress leadership itself. This goes on to show that the Congress can stoop to any level for campaigning against the BJP. It is now hands in glove with those who use social media as a means of spreading fake news and openly abusing the BJP, its leaders and even its supporters.

https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/982266312985427979

It is necessary to quote a few instances of the kind of language that these individuals employ to understand their mentality and by extension, the kind of political strategy that the Congress believes in. It is necessary to make a background check of these social media trolls. Sanjiv Bhatt, who has been closely associated to the Congress in the past and never minced any words in showing his hate towards Prime Minister Modi, is infamous for his relentless and baseless attempts to defame the BJP and Prime Minister Modi. When cabinet minister Smriti Irani had mentioned that some goons had chased her, Sanjiv Bhatt had unabashedly uttered that the criminals did not deserve punishment but “psychiatric counseling” and “eye test”. This is indicative of the Congress’ mentality, and how their propaganda of women empowerment is just a political gimmick. Sanjiv Bhatt was also rebuked and exposed by the apex court way back in 2015 for misleading the court, and his plea to investigate Amit Shah’s involvement in the 2002 Gujarat riots was rejected. The then Chief Justice of India HL Dattu had observed that Bhatt was not acting bona fide and catering to vested interests. This is a significant observation, and hints at the involvement of the whole Congress cabal trying to mislead the country about the involvement of Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Amit Shah during the 2002 riots. This also exposes how a key strategist in the ranks of Congress has been caught red handed in the past for misleading the highest court of the land and making highly misogynist comments about a cabinet minister.

Another social media troll, Abhishek Mishra, named in the tweet by Times Now is known for sharing fake news over the internet. He was even detained by the Madhya Pradesh Police in the past. During demonetization, one of his posts where he falsely stated that a youth had committed suicide owing to demonetization, had even been shared by the Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal. However, as it would later emerge, the youth did not commit suicide by hanging himself due to any problem created by demonetization. He was robbing a bank and committed suicide upon being caught by the authorities.

Interestingly, this Times Now report has come at a time when the Congress, along with the entire opposition, is busy giving moral lessons to the BJP and its president. Amit Shah had earlier stated that the campaign of the opposition to unite against the BJP was like animals climbing trees to save themselves from a massive flood. The opposition in general and the Congress in particular, soon resorted to moral policing and started laying down guidelines as to the kind of language that should be used by political leaders. The fact that the Congress has now chalked out a social media strategy with those who use unmentionable abuses in political discourse, is a shocking manifestation of their hypocrisy. The Congress which till yesterday claimed moral superiority over the kind of language used in political discussions now boasts of those who are infamous for abusive posts, fake news, misogyny and spreading social hatred. The Congress seems to have set the lowest benchmark for social media campaign in the run up to 2019 elections.