Trolls Turn On Their Own

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has literally been ‘worshipped’ as a demi-god by his fans, even before he himself declared his ‘divine’ origins. He is also often hailed by his supporters as ‘hindu hriday samrat’ or the king of Hindu hearts.

However, he is yet to utter a word to condemn the vile abuses that the Hindu voters are still facing weeks after the General Elections 2024 ended, and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell way short of its ‘400 paar’ ambitions, and resorted to form a coalition government with multiple regional party’s support.

The abuse by self confessed ‘Modi bhakts’ and ‘supporters’ of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindutva, began soon after the party’s two-time MP Lallu Singh, was defeated by the 78-year-old, nine-time Samajwadi party MLA Awadhesh Prasad in Faizabad.

The loss of the Faizabad seat, which includes Ayodhya, where the Ram Mandir was inaugurated with much fanfare by the Prime Minister, has hit some BJP supporters' egos at a deep visceral level. So much so that an ever growing contingent of them are still abusing fellow Hindus who they say “did not vote for the BJP despite the Ram Temple’s inauguration, and ‘development’ in Ayodhya’”.

They called the voters ‘hijda’ a derogatory term used for

However, the PM and his team are yet to make a statement condemning such abuse that continues to circulate online and is aimed at the poor Hindus who are now facing the ire of Hindutva groups. Some of the posters carry the PM’s photo too. This one purportedly aiming a dig at West Bengal where the BJP was routed.

Apart from abuse, the non BJP voters are also being threatened with an economic boycott by right wing supporters. This section of the trolls is egging people to visit Ayodhya carrying their own ‘prasad’, floral offerings for the temple visits and not buy anything from the local vendors there. The upset right wingers see this as a good way to ‘punish’ the local voters for BJP’s loss. Some abusers and rabble rousers circulated video statements and reels and asking people to boycott the small shops and vendors around Ram Mandir area.

The posters accused the voters of being “bad Hindus” who did not even wear the religious symbols of ‘tilak’ on their forehead, nor did they chant the sacred mantras.

The Prime Minister and his team had promoted the Ram Mandir inauguration as their biggest achievement this tenure. Locals had prayed for economic development of the area and of adequate compensation for the land they had to surrender.

However, the voting pattern revealed that the voters wanted a change as they did not see the incumbent government doing much. Caste equations, too, played their part.

Social media had made popular BJP’s election anthem “‘Jo Ram ko layein hain hum unko layenge’ (We will reinstate those who have brought back Ram)”. However, in many places, the voters rejected the BJP’s Hindutva plank, and voted for those who promised employment and developments.

As soon as the June 4 results declared the saffron party’s loss in Faizabad, and many other places, the troll army got activated. Abuses like “Hindu traitors", “Divided Hindus", “Ungrateful Hindus” were hurled at the voters of the constituencies which had rejected BJP’s communal rhetoric. Some even blamed “rajput anger” for the Rajput candidates’ loss.

Social media, and whatsapp groups were flooded with hateful posters and slogans.They accused Hindus of “forgetting the Babri demolition”, suggesting that they should have been grateful instead.

Some others like Dhirendra Raghav, a Hindu man, pretended to be a Muslim and released an abusive video. He was arrested after the video went viral.

The man wore a skullcap and scarf, and makeup to pretend to be a Muslim and abuse Hindu voters of Ayodhya. Bad acting apart, his communal rant was called out by many social media users. Raghav was soon arrested and New Agra Police charged him with “provoking and breaking religious harmony and inciting hate.”

Last week, Ghaziabad police also arrested two men who allegedly publicly abused voters of Faizabad constituency.

Meanwhile a lawyer from Bihar, with the same name as a Bollywood singer, Sonu Nigam, claimed “the government which beautified the whole of Ayodhya, gave a new airport, railway station, built the Ram temple after 500 years, created an entire temple economy, that party is having to struggle for the Ayodhya seat. People of Ayodhya are ashamed!”

He, however, had to backtrack and issue a statement clarifying that he was not the singer Sonu Nigam. The singer Sonu Nigam had reportedly threatened legal action against the lawyer for impersonating him, when news reports carried his tweet.

Meanwhile, according to a report in ‘Firstpost’ Bollywood actor and BJP supporter Anupam Kher wrote a “cryptic post” this shocking after the result, “‘Kabhi kabhi sochta hoon ki imaandaar vyakti ko bahot zyada imaandaar nahi hona chahiye. Jungle mein seedhe tane wale ped he sabse pehle kaate jaate hai. Bahut zyada imaandaar vyakti ko he sabse zyada kasht uthane padte hai. Par phir bhi woh apni imaandaari nahi chhodta. Isliye karodo logo ke liye prerna ka stotra banta hai’.” This loosely translated means that an honest man should not be too honest as they have to suffer the most. This is being seen by many as a comment on PM Modi of who Kher is a fan. Other Modi fans in Bollywood have so far steered clear of any controversial comment on the results.

Meanwhile, according to a report in ‘The Hindu’ the economic impact of the loss is being felt in the aviation sector already. SpiceJet airlines has discontinued its direct flight from Hyderabad to Ayodhya, from June 1. SpiceJet had launched this route two months ago.

According to the news report it was Telangana BJP Chief G. Kishan Reddy, who was then the Union Minister for Culture and Tourism, had written to the Minister for Civil Aviation requesting a connection between Hyderabad and Ayodhya.

“As of February, the airline was connecting eight Indian cities to Ayodhya but since then it has terminated direct flights from six of those eight cities which are Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur, Patna, Darbhanga, and Hyderabad. Currently, SpiceJet only offers direct flights to Ayodhya from Ahmedabad and Delhi,” the news report stated.