'Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slip in his address to the Bhutan Parliament, where he said "Nepal" while praising the nation's royal family, became prime fodder for Twitter on Monday. Mr Modi, who is on his first foreign visit since taking charge as prime minister, said, "I want to begin with a tribute to the Nepal...Bhutan royal family that ensured democratic values and protected people's rights..." Later, he said "Ladakh" instead of Bhutan. The faux pas did not go unnoticed on social media, where hash-tags like #Bhutan #Nepal and #TravelTipstoModi started trending.
"Being trolled by Modi supporters can be a baffling experience because they often use words whose meanings only they can understand. The meek were supposed to have inherited the earth, but their time doesn’t seem to be here yet. In their stead we have got the Twitter Right: thousands of proud, patriotic, chest-thumpers whose dedication to Narendra Modi ensured his ultimate victory. Starting out as oppressed upstarts taking on the entrenched elite, the Twitter Right are now the triumphant establishment.
This blog recently commented that what makes Narendra Modi stand out amongst right-wing demagogues is a particular confluence of factors: his history, his governance style, and above all the mass movement which holds him aloft, with its vast membership and its portfolio of political, religious, vigilante, and terrorist activity. These, combined with some successful image management, have brought him to the brink of national power.
What is the scale of bogus voting and electoral fraud? Some BJP voters are boasting on twitter about the number of times they have voted, while some non-BJP voters are finding their votes have already been cast.
"An ever-growing online community of pro-Hindu, pro-BJP, pro-Narendra Modi, right-wing tweeters has taken over political discourse on the Internet... A mark of their overwhelming online supremacy can be found in the India Today Group's e-lection poll, a mock online General Election in which users were asked to vote in Lok Sabha constituencies across India. The ballot worked through one-time passwords sent to mobile phones, ensuring only one vote for every cell number to prevent rigging.
The Hindu nationalists have brigades of internet activists who chatter constantly to each other. There are thousands of them and some tweet tens or hundreds of times a day. Who are they and what can be heard amidst the chatter? I scanned about on Twitter for some insight. First, some of the cast with their self-descriptions...
