How Congress derailed the discourse on Gauri’s murder

Despite the party’s denials, Digvijaya Singh’s recent tweet of a poster, which issued abusive words against Prime Minister Modi, suggested that it was part of a carefully thought-out strategy by the man, and possibly by the Congress too.

When Singh — the man always ready to fire the first salvo — tweeted the offensive poster, he, quite predictably, raised eyebrows and received outrage. And when he got the attention, he pointed out what he had been wanting to point out all along: “Look at the abusive tweets regarding the deceased journalist Gauri Lankesh — and look who is following those abusive tweeters on Twitter. It’s our own Prime Minister.”

This ‘post-truth Twitter’ strategy of first rousing the voter to anger and then attempting to direct that anger towards the PM appears flawless. By doing so, Singh attempts to cast aspersions on the Prime Minister’s large Twitter fan base and also to hijack a popular issue by trying to portray his party as the ‘rescuers’ and ‘champions’ of Gauri’s cause.

By putting the Prime Minister and the tweeters he follows in the spotlight, Singh wanted us to forget the fact that a senior Congress leader willingly tweeted an offensive poster of the PM. And if we were to remember it, we were to recall it as an action of a person — with possibly the backing of his party — ready to fight hard for people and institutions they believed in. As Singh tweeted addressing the media, “When Modiji & those he follows have used abusive language against Soniaji, Rajivji, Indiraji, Nehruji, Gandhiji why they remained quiet?”

Many of you might be wondering what the big deal is. Politicians have abused each other in the past, so why should we bother. But it does matter and here’s why.  

First, this is not some rabble rouser but a senior respected Congress leader who willingly, and not by mistake, tweeted a poster that contained offensive language against the Prime Minister. Earlier, such language was used by fringe elements and certainly did not target another political leader, let alone the Prime Minister, in this manner. So by doing so, Singh allowed the Congress to be open to attack by everyone — the BJP, other parties, right wingers, liberals etc. Not only that, the Gauri issue has now turned into the ‘Prime Minister’s issue.’

Second, Singh’s language, or rather his endorsement of such language,  is far from desisting ‘Gauri’s haters’, rather will actually embolden them. They will be happy at having received such a reaction from a senior political leader, and thus, will counter him and those who condemn the killing all the more vigorously. In other words,  it’s a free for all situation now with the discourse likely to turn even uglier should another similar incident come up.

Third, Singh’s actions push the liberal into a tight corner. By the virtue of his seniority and the fact that he is a politician, makes him — whether the liberals want him or not — the head of the ‘liberal’ brigade. His actions will have the haters say, “Look at the language he used, it justifies our language and actions.”

By trying to hijack the ‘liberal’ agenda with regard to the murder of Gauri, Singh, and the Congress by default, have actually done a great disservice to the liberal who they were trying to woo. Next time, should another Gauri-like incident occur, the best thing political parties can do is go offline, speak soberly at events, stand in solidarity with people at candlelight marches, and talk about the measures they can take to bring the guilty to book — let’s not forget that Gauri Lankesh was killed in a Congress-ruled state. This Twitter war hasn’t helped anyone but the hater.