Congress hits rock-bottom with a distasteful and crass meme on FM Nirmala Sitharaman

A couple of days ago, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, made a statement about the automobile sector while addressing reporters in Chennai. She said, “The automobile and components industry has been affected by BS6 and the mindsets of millennials who now prefer to have Ola and Uber rather than committing to buying an automobile.” The Twitter warriors, newly converted industry experts, and opposition parties like the Congress created a furor over the statement of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. It is important to mention here that over the last few years, there has been a plethora of research which vindicates the statement of finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on slowdown in automotive industry. However, Twitter trolls seem to have fallen for misleading, petty memes as distinguished from real empirical data and views of industry experts, when it comes to Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement.

The latest to join this bandwagon of social media users making uniformed remarks about the Finance Minister’s remark is the Congress, and it does not disappoint if you are looking for distastefulness. The national party not only belittled the critical issue by posting a series of memes over her remark but also posed a highly derogatory, objectionable and misogynist meme from its official handle about the Union Finance Minister.

This has not gone down well with the Twitter users who have questioned how the grand old Congress party could stoop to such a level. One of the users tweeted, “Poor joke. How has @INCIndia descended to this level?” Another user tweeted, “I thought congress couldn’t stoop any further but boy do you guys have sheer talent to prove me wrong time & again.” Yet another user expressed shock at how such a tweet could have actually come from the offical handle of the Congress.

This goes down as one of the most disgusting remarks made at such a high political level. When such remarks are made about the female Finance Minister of the country, from the official handle of a party which likes to see itself as a national level party, it does not really set a good precedent. Such misogynistic and derogatory remarks have no place in India’s democratic set up. What is even more disgusting is the fact that the Congress has neither deleted this meme nor has it come out with a clarification about the entire controversy even after facing severe criticism on social media.

After such remarks, the continuous fall in the performance of the grand old party at all levels does not come as much of a shock. The Congress is only losing out in terms of popularity by acting more like an online troll rather than a responsible political force which could contribute to the growth story of the nation.

Even as Nirmala Sitharaman is the first full-time female finance minister of India, the last time a woman held the finance ministry, it was Indira Gandhi. It is shocking how the grand old party that still claims to be a pan India party has posted such a meme, to disparage an honest and capable woman who has risen in ranks out of sheer talent. It must be kept in mind that the party’s official Twitter handle represents the Congress as a whole. This is not about a party leader or any single motormouth making a misogynist or derogatory remark which could have been repudiated by the party leadership. This meme poses a big question about the top leadership of the party itself. The Congress will have to come out clean on this issue solely on account of the kind of outrage, this misogynistic and distasteful meme has generated. The Congress and its leadership must issue a clarification about whether this meme was within the knowledge of those occupying top positions in the Congress party.