Social media today was abuzz with speculations whether the self-proclaimed ‘neutral comedian’ Kunal Kamra was supported by Congress in furthering his propaganda.
Here is what happened. Congress IT cell head Divya Spandana late last night shared a Narendra Modi meme, calling his supporters ‘stupid’ on her Twitter account. While IT cell head of any political party sharing a meme barely makes the cut as ‘news’, it came as a surprise for many when the news agency ANI carried a story on the meme. Especially when it was not even a particularly funny one.
Spandana, who appeared surprised at a story based on her meme, tagged ANI’s Live Services Editor, Ishaan Prakash, trying to take a dig on ANI. However, Ishaan soon shared a screenshot of a conversation between the two where she had shared the meme. Ishaan said since she shared the meme with him on WhatsApp, to a journalist, he thought she probably wanted the news agency to report on it.
https://twitter.com/ishaan_ANI/status/1106088096301568000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It is a standard practice where communications personnel send out emails, messages to journalists working on the beats story leads.
However, what was surprising was the fact that just above the meme which Divya had shared, she had shared a YouTube link of ‘comedian’ Kunal Kamra’s propaganda masquerading as comedy. This led to a lot of speculations amongst the Twitterati.
https://twitter.com/losmonrekha/status/1106205721895424000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/MrSinha_/status/1106141089491283969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Some even wondered if Congress is officially promoting Kamra.
https://twitter.com/iAnkurSingh/status/1106163003102126080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Later, in Divya tried to make light of the situation by saying how while she forwards a lot of things to Ishaan, she knows why he picked this one up.
https://twitter.com/divyaspandana/status/1106091221422931968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“Don’t worry your secret remains intact with me,” she joked.
Some even questioned whether it is due to Congress’ support that Kamra’s videos on YouTube gets so many views despite lack of humour.
https://twitter.com/AkshayKatariyaa/status/1106173009977466880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Earlier, questions were also raised about pro-AAP propagandist Dhruv Rathee who also runs his propaganda through YouTube through paid promotion. When Dhruv was caught advertising his propaganda on Rafale, at first he had refuted the screenshots provided of his paid campaign saying that they were ‘Photoshopped’ and then claimed that perhaps it was someone else who might be paying for his videos.
Also: Dhruv Rathee speaks the same language as the terrorist who killed 40 CRPF jawans in Pulwama attack