Indian social media users have launched an online campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi after it emerged that he is following via his Twitter account users who appeared to celebrate and justify the recent murder of a prominent journalist.
Gauri Lankesh, editor of the weekly Gauri Lankesh Patrike publication, was shot dead by unidentified attackers outside her house in Bangalore on Tuesday. Her death sparked shock and outrage across the country, with journalists, politicians and activists sharply denouncing the murder.
Modi has yet to condemn Lankesh’s death.
When news reports surfaced that many of the trolls were followed by leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including several claiming Modi as their follower, many Indians decided to block the prime minister.
#BlockNarendraModi was the top trend in the country on Wednesday night through to Thursday, with users demanding that Modi un-follow the handles and apologise.
One of the tweets in question was sent by user Ashish Mishra, who wrote in response to a news story about Lankesh’s death: jaisi karni vaisi bharni (you reap what you sow).
Another Twitter account followed by Modi, Nikhil Dadhich, equated Gauri, an outspoken critic of right-wing groups, to a “bitch”. His tweet, written in the Hindi language, was apparently deleted later. Its closest translation read as: “It took a bitch to die a dog’s death, for all pups to howl in the same tune”.
Several groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), have demanded a thorough investigation into the killing, while a Special Investigating Team has been tasked with probing the murder.
The comments against Lankesh drew the attention of Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister of law and justice and of information technology, who condemned the trolls, many of them ruling party supporters, for expressing happiness at the killing of the journalist.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, defended Modi for following trolls.
Amit Malviya, BJP’s head of IT Cell, refused to comment on the issue but referred Al Jazeera to a party statement released on Thursday that dubbed the controversy as “mischievous and contorted”.
“PM Modi is the only leader who freely engages with people on social media platforms,” the statement said.
“The PM following someone is not a character certificate of a person and is not in anyway a guarantee of how a person would conduct himself.”
Modi supporters continued to defend him and criticise his opponents for politicising Lankesh’s murder.
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