Skip to main content

Modi held reception for social media trolls who use abusive language, they are there in PM's official residence: Shourie

In a major confirmation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi directly backs social media trolls who use abusive words against anyone criticizing him, BJP's top dissident leader Arun Shourie has said, Modi had “a reception for them” after they abused him for being critical of Modi in a TV interview with Karan Thapar.
Shourie said this in an interview with Swati Chaturvedi as part of her research for the book “I am a Troll” in response to the question as to how he felt when pro-Modi trolls abused him and his son, who suffers from cerebral palsy. The trolls had gone so far as to say that Shourie deserved his son's illness as his “karma” for criticizing Modi.
Worse, Shourie reveals in the interview that one can receive “the same fellows in the Prime Minister’s official residence”. One of them has been made “the chief of the BJP’s IT cell”, he says. Calling pro-Modi abuse online attacks “obviously … a governmental operation, a party operation”, he underlines, the trolls are “one of the many instruments being used to silence voices in the whole country.”
Characterizing what is happening in India today as "decentralized emergency”, where a “decentralized mafia state” operates, with “local goons” belabouring “anyone" who they think are doing something wrong. “The central people provide a rationale for the goondas at the local level, like gau rakshaks”, providing “rationale … to beat up anybody”, he adds.
The “big difference” with Indira Gandhi's emergency of 1975-77 and the one under Modi is that, says Shourie, while Gandhi “used” law, Modi doesn't. “Now it is not law. These people are acting outside law. This is true fascism”, he insists.
“All this action is being done outside the government, worse, things are being done inside the government to choke the existing laws – for instance the Right to Information (RTI) is being choked, the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is being denigrated unless it’s in your favour”, notes Shourie.

Not just this, he says, “The judiciary is being denigrated, therefore you keep the vacancies going the same way, probably about a hundred vacancies. The judiciary keeps saying, and these people keep denying on one ground or another.”
“Anybody who opposes Modi is immediately embroiled in cases – like Pradeep Sharma, IAS official in Gujarat, and Teesta Setalvad”, says Shourie, adding, the same is being done with NGOs, who are being “put in the dock" and then are "intimidated and troubled.”
Shourie says, Modi refuses to “control” his ministers like Mahesh Sharma, as also “important party figures”, and here there is “a clear pattern”: “A statement is made, an incident is created. A campaign is launched. He remains silent. Everybody says, please speak. When the campaign has been milked or that abuse has been milked, then at last, three months later, he makes some ambiguous statement, like motherhood is good.”
Saying that Modi “will do anything to win elections”, Shourie says, whether it is Muzaffarnagar killings, or what happened in Kashmir, a situation is created in which the Muslims are being “reminded” that there is no place “for them here.”
Things have gone so far, says Shourie, that Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal “has been led to conclude” that he will be killed, and there are people who are “asking for his murder”, adding, “And those are persons being encouraged by Modi."

Comments

TRENDING

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.  

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members.  As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

Remembering Vijay Rupani: A quiet BJP leader who listened beyond party lines

Late evening on June 12, a senior sociologist of Indian origin, who lives in Vienna, asked me a pointed question: Of the 241 persons who died as a result of the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad the other day, did I know anyone? I had no hesitation in telling her: former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, whom I described to her as "one of the more sensible persons in the BJP leadership."

From SECI CMD to #OpenToWork: Gujarat cadre ex-IAS RP Gupta’s curious LinkedIn journey

Recently, I wrote a blog on retired Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat RP Gupta, with whom I used to interact during my Gandhinagar Sachivalaya days as the Times of India man. Written in the backdrop of the Government of India controversially easing him out of his position as CMD of the PSU Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a special purpose vehicle to promote solar energy, the title of the  blog  — "RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?" — is self-explanatory about the blog’s contents.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.