The countdown for the polls has started and Twitterati have taken it upon them to be the pseudo-political analysts. We have an influx of amateur users and insignificant politicians deployed by certain political parties to pass statements that may be construed as borderline defamatory. In the list comes a new name, that of Divya Spandana. She is handling Social Media & Digital Communications for the Congress party. In furtherance to her position, Divya Spandana is passing comments on the citizens on India, calling them stupid.
My favourite! Aren’t they adorable? 😂 pic.twitter.com/YZ52s48Y9o
— Ramya/Divya Spandana (@divyaspandana) March 13, 2019
Looking at the statistics, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government won the largest majority of 38.5% total vote share with BJP alone accounting for 31.3% votes. BJP and its allies won the right to form the largest majority government since the 1984 general election, and it was the first time since that election that a party has won enough seats to govern without the support of other parties. Over 171,660,230 people had voted for BJP. For the Congress party, it was the worst defeat in a general election. With 8.1% of the total seats, Congress was unable to gain even 10% of the seats in the Lok Sabha, due to which India remains without an official Leader of Opposition.
Congress has been criticising and condemning the current government headed by PM Modi for quite some time. They have fabricated issues which they use to attack PM Modi and its policies. However, this time they have gone beyond what is expected in a free and fair democratic election. The statement of Divya Spandana is aimed at the citizens, abusing them out rightly by calling them stupid.
This is similar to the time when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had stated that PM Modi practiced ‘neech rajniti’. Criminal case was filed against her under the various section of IPC for defamation, assertions prejudicial to national integration and insult with the intent to promote enemity and provoke breach of peace. Moreover, it was a false statement in connection to the election.
It was hoped that Congress would learn from that incident but apparently not. Not only have they again made a derogatory false statement during the elections but have upped it a notch by speaking ill about 31% of the total voters.
This inspiration has been probably drawn from the US 2016 election when Hilary Clinton called Trump’s supporters, “a basket of deplorables”, calling them, “the racists” and “the haters”. This was a very controversial statement, widely criticised by Americans during the entire election campaign and went on to become one of the key factors due to which Hilary lost the elections; a fact she herself wrote in her book ‘What Happened’.
If the Hilary Clinton is any indication it is that the people in a strong democracy just don’t sit quietly and take hate for their choices. The point of a democracy is having the freedom to choose who governs you and voters will not bear criticism or abuse for exercising their fundamental right. Congress has long since succumbed to practicing dirty politics, but insulting the very voters whom they hope to sway is not just inherently wrong but also is an imbecile move on their part.
