To all my friends from Tamil Nadu, yesterday, my Prime Minister, and your Prime Minister too, visited Tamil Nadu for an informal bilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Keeping up with tradition, a bunch of people decided to once again trend the boring #GoBackModi hashtag.
PM Modi was not in Chennai yesterday as a contestant of an upcoming election. He was there to host the Chinese President for an informal summit. As such, we expected some modicum of decency from all those usual Modi baiters in Tamil Nadu.
For once, we were hopeful that every person of the state would keep his/her political biases aside, and welcome the Modi-Xi duo with open arms, and feel proud about the World Heritage site Mamallapuram being the venue for the high-value summit. Instead, we were disappointed once again. Come the morning of 11th October, tasteless hashtag was once again seen trending the Twitter charts.
The hate for PM Modi and the BJP among a section of the people from Tamil Nadu is not hidden. For some strange reason, it is only when PM Modi visits this state that such a hashtag is made to trend. PM Modi recently spoke in Tamil at the United Nations General Assembly. The media in Tamil Nadu, being sold out to certain political entities to such an extent, that is completely blacked out this news. When people are deprived of information in a state by the media, and are fed a constant false narrative about an individual, the people will have no choice but to believe it.
In fact, PM Modi is the only leader to ever give Tamil Nadu so much importance and bridge the gap which has been created for so long. The very fact that PM Modi brought this summit down to Mamallapuram, speaks volumes about how he doesn’t want Indian culture to only be identified with ‘northern’ components. He wore a traditional ‘veshti’ on the first day of the summit.
Not only will this summit lead to Mamallapuram being in the limelight, but it will also simultaneously cause a great boost to tourism in the region. PM Modi is trying to debunk the farce of a widespread north-south divide in his unique style. A leader like him, in non-election time, deserved better than a ‘Go Back’ trend.
But #GoBackModi is not a hashtag genuinely representing the sentiment of the people of Tamil Nadu, as it primarily received undue coverage and endorsement from the bought out state media which appears entirely in the hands of MK Stalin. It is a proven fact that every time this hashtag is made to trend, the maximum number of tweets in support of it can be traced back to Pakistan.
Hordes of Pakistani handles flood the #GoBackModi hashtag on Twitter with hateful tweets containing some or other vile ISI propaganda. In an earlier report, 58 per cent of the tweets were traced back to Pakistan while only 4 per cent were traced to Tamil Nadu. It’s a serious question as to why a DMK-run social media campaign appears to be outsourced from Pakistan.
Tamilians should have been out on the streets protesting against this hijacking of India’s digital space by a terrorist nation. The average Tamilian should rise against this narrative and disown the hashtag, as it is being propagated in their name even at a time when a democratically elected Prime Minister is hosting a bilateral meeting with a foreign superpower.
But not many speak against such trends. It is about time that the people who are involved in such trends from Tamil Nadu, stop indulging in such cheap political theatrics and instead help India and PM Modi make the world aware of its rich and diverse culture.
Truth about #GoBackModi trend
58% tweets from Pakistan
4% from Chennai
2% in Tamil & 23% in Urdu
Wow what a MahaGathBandhan – in name of Tamilians – ISI Bots + Congress + Commies + Pakis trend #GoBackModi against @narendramodi
Exposed on @TimesNow now @RShivshankar pic.twitter.com/w50zheTA6H
— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) October 11, 2019
The only significant political opponent of the BJP in Tamil Nadu is the DMK, which is headed by a person called Stalin. So much so for the party screaming about ‘Tamil Pride’, while its leader has an imported name from a brutal dictator. Now, it begs the question, why would Pakistan only target PM Modi when he visits Tamil Nadu specifically? Has Pakistan been told to make this bogus hashtag trend? This would imply Pakistan and some opponent of PM Modi in Tamil Nadu coordinating this trend as two working in tandem to attack PM Modi during his visits reeks of collusion, and foreign interference.
Who could this political opponent be? The common man is fooled by political parties with vested interests who keep stoking up the inflammable pot of ‘Dravidianism’, and keep their own fortunes safe. I will be honest. To me now, even the ‘Dravidian’ rhetoric is beginning to look boring. The Aryan Invasion or Migration theory, whatever it is called now, has been debunked. Yet, some politicians harp on to these regional identities as though they are above an ‘Indian’ identity. One can be proud of their regional identities as well, but must know when to toe the line. If regional identity calls for insulting the nation’s Prime Minister, when he is showcasing the rich culture of Tamil Nadu and the South to a foreign dignitary, I’d say nothing can be more shameful and is condemnable behavior on the part of all those who are involved in it.
