The Election Commission has ordered that the trailers of a Mamata Banerjee’s biopic should be removed from four online platforms. The EC has initiated steps to ensure that the trailers are removed after the chief electoral officer of West Bengal submitted a report on the biopic, which is titled Baghini: Bengal Tigress.
According to the EC, the film violates the directives issued by them. On April 10, EC had issued an order stating “any biopic material in the nature of biography/hagiography subserving the purposes of any political party or any individual entity connected to it, which is intended to, or which has the potential to disturb the level playing field during the elections, should not be displayed in electronic media including cinematograph during the operation of model code of conduct”.
According to the producer, the Bengali film titled Baghini: Bengal Tigress is to release on May 3. But the Election Commission has found that the film is yet to receive a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification. The Commission has received a report on this and would be examining it.
This decision comes after the Vice President of BJPs West Bengal unit, Joy Prakash Majumdar, had written a letter of complaint to the EC stating that the biopic must be reviewed as it was done in case of PM Modi’s biopic. EC has taken action against two biopics on PM Modi, one is a movie and the other is a TV series.
Many political rivals of the TMC including the CPI(M) have called for a ban on the film. One of the leaders has been quoted saying that they are hopeful that the EC would remove the trailer of the film after having taken action on PM Modi’s biopic.
This election season, the Election Commission has taken action on various mediums of mass expression including stalling Vivek Oberoi’s biopic on PM Modi, issuing show cause notice on JNU’s ABVP for a book launch, issued an order against TV serials for praising government schemes and had also issued another notice to a citizen who had printed “No gifts, please vote for PM Modi” on wedding invitation cards. According to EC, 574 Facebook posts, 49 tweets, two Youtube videos and three WhatsApp messages have been deleted on the orders of the poll panel for violation of rules.
Three phases of the make-or-break 2019 Lok Sabha Elections have concluded and while on the ground, the Modi wave seems to be going strong, even in states like West Bengal, the Lutyens’ media is forever hopeful of the ‘wave’ dwindling and making way for their crowned Prince, Rahul Gandhi. Leftist portal The Quint, published an article headlined “Modi wave over? Why pollsters are scaling down projections for BJP” based on CVoter data and an opinion article by CSDS. The article was written by a bigot and fake news peddler Aditya Menon and hence, the data certainly deserves a closer look.
The article banner is as follows, showing upset/worried PM Modi and Amit Shah with a downward arrow:
The Quint banner for the article
The article says:
On 7 March, the Modi government’s approval rating was at 62.06 percent. Despite a minor decrease, it remained in the 50s till 22 March. But on 12 April, a day after the first phase of polling, the Modi government’s approval rating had fallen to 43.25 percent, a fall of almost 19 percent in about five weeks.
The article follows this up with a graph that tracks the popularity of PM Modi right from January 1st 2019 to April 12th. However, the focus of the article is how post-Balakot, his popularity has declined by 19%.
According to Quint, on 1st January 2019, Modi’s popularity was at 32.4%, peaking on March 7th to 62.06% and then falling to 43.25% on April 12th.
OpIndia got access to the CVoter data that The Quint has based its article on, and the results are rather damning.
The data presented by CVoter makes it amply clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is miles ahead of any other contender to the chair of the Prime Minister. We will try and dissect The Quint’s jugglery armed with this data.
The Lie
The CVoter approval rating data is divided into several questions. For example, what is the satisfaction with the current government led by BJP? What is the satisfaction with the current Prime Minister? Who would they choose as the PM, Narendra Modi or Rahul? Satisfaction with Sonia Gandhi, etc.
The approval ratings for every parameter is different. For example, the satisfaction with the current government led by BJP may throw up a completely different approval rating as compared to the satisfaction level with the Prime Minister or even, when one asks respondents to choose between Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Modi.
According to Quint, on 1st January 2019, Modi’s popularity was at 32.4%, peaking on March 7th to 62.06% and then falling to 43.25% on April 12th. Let us look at these three data points date wise.
1st January 2019
The Quint mentions in its graph that PM Modi’s popularity stood at 32.4% on 1st January 2019. This approval rating seems to have been taken from the question ‘Satisfaction with current Prime Minister Narendra Modi?’. In the CVoter data, the nett satisfaction rating stood at 32.37% which was rounded off to 32.4% by The Quint.
(49.59% of people were very much satisfied, 23.66% of people were somewhat satisfied, 32.88% of people were not satisfied and 1.87% people couldn’t say. 6154 people were surveyed for this question on this date).
March 7th 2019
Interestingly, on 7th March 2019, to the same question ‘Satisfaction with current Prime Minister Modi?’ the nett satisfaction according to CVoter data is 63.47%. This is also the peak satisfaction level with Prime Minister Modi. However, in The Quint article, mentions PM Modi’s peak popularity as 62.06% on 7th March. How did this discrepancy come in?
Actually, The Quint craftily took this number from another question that asked people about their satisfaction with the central government led by BJP. In that question, that peak popularity is on 7th March, standing at 62.06%.
The Quint, essentially, mixed up 2 data sets just to ensure Modi’s peak popularity appeared a few percentage points lower.
April 12th 2019
The Quint says PM Modi’s popularity stood at 43.25% on 12th April 2019. Interestingly, this number is also taken from the ‘satisfaction with the central government led by BJP’ question. The Modi popularity question throws up a satisfaction percentage of 48%.
In this too, The Quint interchanged the data sets to get a lower satisfaction percentage for Prime Minister Modi.
How satisfied are people with PM Modi?
As on 20th April 2019, the nett satisfaction with PM Narendra Modi is 47.39%. 50.78% of people are very much satisfied, 22.47% are somewhat satisfied, 28.86% of people are not satisfied.
While PM Modi’s popularity did peak right after the Balakot airstrikes, to assume that any adjustment in popularity according to pollsters since then is a ‘downgrade’ and to conclude that this is an indication of PM Modi’s dwindling popularity is asinine, to say the least.
if one looks from the perspective of 2019 Lok Sabha elections and takes the larger picture into account, Modi’s nett popularity has only grown this year from a 32.37% on 1st January to 47.39% on 20th April. That is an upswing of nett 15 points in less than 4 months.
Does that seem like PM Modi’s popularity is on the downfall? Not to someone who wants to see the data for what it is.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi
A crucial element that is missing from The Quint analysis is what people said when they were asked who they would choose as the Prime Miniter – Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi?
When one looks at the CVoter data, it is no surprise that The Quint chose to quietly leave this part out of their ‘analysis’, considering it would puncture a rather large hole in their propaganda.
To the CVoter question about who people who choose as the PM – Rahul Gandhi or Prime Minister Modi, an overwhelming majority opted for PM Modi.
According to CVoter polls, Prime Minister Modi, as on 20th April 2019 has a whopping 24.65% lead over Rahul Gandhi. The green graph you see there is the approval rating of PM Modi as compared to Rahul Gandhi. That blue graph that appears miles below the green graph, is that of Rahul Gandhi.
CVoter graph on approval ratings of PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister
As on 20th April 2019, 58.40% of people would prefer Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister as opposed to 33.75% for Rahul Gandhi. The lead comes up to a massive 24.85% in a country of over a billion people.
On 1st January 2019, 50.90% of people wanted preferred Modi over Rahul and 38.60% of people wanted Rahul over Modi. PM Modi, therefore, had a lead of 12.30%.
In less than 4 months, that lead has increased and become double of what it was in January, taking it up to 24.85%.
People who preferred Rahul Gandhi over PM Modi fell from 38.60% to 33.75% and people who preferred Modi over Rahul Gandhi rose from 50.90% to 58.40%.
This crucial data when commenting on the prospects of either of the leaders in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were summarily left out by The Quint. One can only guess why, but we will certainly not need a pollster to tell us that The Quint has an agenda against the Prime Minister and twisting, selectively quoting and mixing up data sets is a tool to satiate that agenda.
The Quint leaves out a subjective answer that widens the gap between Modi and other leaders
A subjective question was also asked by CVoter. The survey asked ‘who do you think is most suited for the post of the Prime Minister’. In that, respondents were free to venture answers and no options were given to them. In that, PM Modi has a decisive lead over every other leader in the country today who might harbour hopes to become the PM.
Modi vs all according to CVoter
According to the CVoter poll, a whopping 56.43% said that they would want to see Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister. Followed by a 22% for Rahul Gandhi, 0.99% for Sonia Gandhi, 2.71% for Mayawati, 1.41% for Manmohan Singh, 1.67% for Mamata Banerjee, 1.40% for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, 0.08% for Lalu Yadav, 1.67% for Arvind Kejriwal, 0.15% for Chandrababu Naidu and 4.83% for others.
The conclusion of this data: EVERY leader combined in the entire country, whether from a national party like Congress or a regional party like TMC, AAP etc don’t even come close to the nation’s choice of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister who in this segment, gets an approval rating of 56.43%.
In this segment, from 46.73% on 1st January 2019, PM Modi’s rating has come up to 56.43% on 20th April 2019. Rahul Gandhi rating has gone down from 26.04% in January to 22% on 20th April.
This data too was maliciously left out by The Quint that has declared that the Modi wave is over and, in fact, that PM Modi might end up getting even lesser seats than what pollsters predict currently.
Some interesting state-level facts that The Quint didn’t bother including either
There have been several articles written about how Rahul Gandhi is the most preferred candidate for the Prime Ministerial post in Kerala with a whopping 54% wanting to see him as the Prime Minister (as per the subjective question spoken off in the previous segment).
However, The Quint and most other portals miss a crucial observation. PM Modi is the most preferred in states where the regional leaders are pegging themselves as the PM contenders.
In West Bengal, where BJP has traditionally had no base whatsoever and many pollsters believe is poised to bag 15 to 18 seats this time around, 51.21% of people prefer PM Modi as the Prime Minister as opposed to 14.18% for Mamata Banerjee and 27.24% for Rahul Gandhi.
In Uttar Pradesh, PM Modi stands at 54.85% whereas Mayawati stands at 13.55% and Rahul Gandhi stands at 17.79%. Akhilesh Yadav is not even an option in the minds of the voters.
In Jammu and Kashmir, PM Modi has an approval rating of 48.02% and Rahul Gandhi has that of 32.20%. The regional leaders are not even an option for the people of JK.
In Bihar, where a mahagathbandhan is underway, PM Modi’s approval rating is 67.10%. Rahul Gandhi’s is 19.42% and the regional leaders don’t even come close. Lalu Prasad Yadav bags a 0.72% with his offsprings not even featuring as an option.
Conclusion
When discussing one leader’s popularity and what impact it might have on the elections which are already in progress, there are two important factors to consider:
Politics is extremely dynamic and rankings and percentage popularity could change on a regular basis. To get a true picture of how a leader is doing electorally, one must look at whether his popularity has been on a consistent rise, consistent fall, just consistent and how the ratings have increased or decreased over a substantial period of time.
How one leader measures up against the other leaders who are in the race to become the Prime Minister. In this case, to reach a concrete analysis which is devoid of bias, one would have to look at the popularity ratings of the Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi and the other regional leaders who are hoping to stake a claim as the PM or at least, play a significant part in national politics. Mamata Banerjee, for example.
Interestingly, The Quint article fails on both counts, whether inadvertently or deliberately is a matter of opinion.
The Quint article focuses only on the events after Balakot airstrikes without taking into account the larger picture over several months and intriguingly, doesn’t really compare PM Modi’s popularity with the other leaders who are hoping to take his place, thereby, making the analysis a shoddy piece of work. In fact, even in taking a skewed narrative of the data, they lie just to ensure Modi’s popularity can be shown as a few percentage points lesser.
In every single question that was posed to the people, Prime Minister Modi has emerged as the undisputed leader in the minds of the voters. The adjustment post-Balakot is by no means an indication of the ‘Modi wave’ being over and is a conclusion that can be drawn only if one is torturing the data to say what they really want it to say. The only question now is – what was The Quint’s agenda in lying, obfuscating, twisting data, quoting data selectively, and peddling a false, malicious narrative in the midst of 2019 elections.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday refused to restrain Pragya Thakur from contesting the Lok Sabha elections stating that the issue does not come under its jurisdiction. The court also added that it was the domain of Election commission to look into the issue.
According to reports, the special NIA court was hearing a petition filed by Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, a 59-year-old resident of Malegaon, Nashik seeking directions to restrain Pragya Singh Thakur from contesting elections.
Special NIA Court: In ongoing elections this Court does not have any legal powers to prohibit anyone from contesting elections,It is job of electoral officers to decide. This court can’t stop the accused number 1 from contesting elections, this application is negated https://t.co/00zQNRqxME
“In ongoing elections, this Court does not have any legal powers to prohibit anyone from contesting elections, It is the job of electoral officers to decide. This court can’t stop the accused number 1 from contesting elections, this application is negated,” said the special NIA court.
Last week, the Special NIA Court while hearing the Malegaon Blasts case had asked for the response of the NIA. On Wednesday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its response, stated it has no jurisdiction to decide on the issue of whether Sadhvi Pragya Thakur should be allowed to contest the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections.
In his application, Bilal has argued that Pragya was released on bail on the pretext that she is unwell and “a patient of breast cancer.” The applicant said that on the contrary, she has been participating in various programs while giving objectionable and instigating speeches since her release from Jail.
The applicant had sought directions from the court to ban Pragya Thakur from contesting elections and also to attend Court in Mumbai as the trial is still underway.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who is widely believed to be one of the victims of the Congress party’s attempt to invent Hindu Terror, has officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. She will be contesting the Lok Sabha Elections from Bhopal against Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on a BJP ticket. The NIA had given her a clean chit in the Malegaon Blasts case in 2016 after years of brutal torture in prison.
On Thursday, Advocate Utsav Bains filed an affidavit where he allegedly submitted evidence of a conspiracy to frame the Chief Justice. According to Bains, the allegations are part of a conspiracy by corporate houses and ‘fixers’ to get CJI Gogoi to resign. He handed over materials in a sealed cover which purportedly contains a CCTV footage that will reveal “many things”. In a Facebook post made him earlier, he had alleged that a “lobby of disgruntled judges” was also involved in the plot.
The Supreme Court proceeded to summon the chiefs of CBI, IB and Delhi Police after Bains made his submissions.
The Court also expressed solidarity with the CJI. Justice Mishra remarked, “CJI Gogoi was trying to clean up the system. No CJI has shown the courage to take action against certain elements. He was acting without fear of anyone.”
Allegations of sexual harassment were levelled against CJI Ranjan Gogoi recently by a former female staffer at the Supreme Court. Responding to the allegations, CJI Gogoi had denied all charges and alleged that there was a larger conspiracy in place to undermine the Judiciary and the seat of the Chief Justice.
The woman’s affidavit, addressed to more than 20 judges, reportedly reads, “He hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms and by pressing his body against mine, and did not let go. He told me ‘hold me’, and he did not let go of me despite the fact that I froze and tried to get out of his embrace by stiffening and moving my body away.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday felicitated Amit Mali, the youth who did a ‘surgical strike’ on Congress leader Digvijaya Singh by answering a query on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh in the accounts of citizens, reports ANI.
On Monday, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh was left humiliated after his political stunt during a public rally backfired massively. Singh, while addressing a public rally had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had tauntingly asked the people whether they received the amount of Rs 15 lakh in their accounts.
In his response to Digvijaya Singh, Amit Mali had said with a smile on the face, “Surgical strike kar ke Modiji ne atankvadiyo ko mara” (PM Modi conducted surgical strike to kill terrorists).
After Amit Mali’s response, Digvijaya Singh was seen severely embarrassed. The youth, Amit Mali was interrupted in between and was later pushed down the stage by a party member.
“He (Digvijaya Singh) had asked who all got 15 lakhs in their accounts, so I raised my hand, then I went to the stage and told him about the surgical strikes, he made me step down from the stage. Nobody misbehaved with me afterward,” said Amit Mali.
Speaking to the media on the necessity of bringing up the reference of surgical strikes during the incident, Amit Mali said, “I am inspired by Prime Minister Modi. 15 lakh rupees have been paid off to me by carrying out surgical strikes. The promise has been fulfilled for me.”
It is notable here that the ’15 lakh rupees’ is a fake narrative peddled by Congress and their supporters where they claim that PM Modi had promised that he will give each Indian 15 lakh rupees in his/her bank accounts. In reality, PM Modi had mentioned Rs 15 lakhs for giving an estimate of how much black money is stashed abroad by corrupt political leaders.
“Prime Minister Modi stands for the unity of this country and he takes everyone along without any discrimination, hence I am inspired by him,” said Amit Mali. He also confirmed that he neither belonged to any political party nor intends to join any of them. Amit Mali also wished to meet Prime Minister Modi someday.
Digvijay Singh was one of those opposition politicians who had questioned the Balakot airstrikes and had asked the government for proof. His statement against the government was used by the Pakistani media to support their case. He is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Bhopal seat where BJP has fielded Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.
In their blind hate for Prime Minister Modi, propagandist Dhruv Rathee has graduated from speaking the same language as that of terrorists to mocking a dead man. Taking a dig on former Goa Chief Minister who was suffering from cancer and passed away last month after a prolonged illness, Dhruv Rathee said that the ‘chowkidars’ will now have to ‘find an excuse’ why ‘Parrikarji could not try gobar recipe to cure his cancer’.
I feel bad for Chowkidars of Modi
– First they had to defend the fact that Bomb Blast accused is BJP candidate
– Now they have to justify that eating Gobar does cure Cancer
– Then they’ll have to find an excuse why Parrikarji could not try this Gobar recipe to cure his cancer
Rathee was trying to mock the BJP and its supporters for having chosen Sadhvi Pragya, was given bail after 8 years in custody in a case where the NIA has given her a clean chit. To mock her, he again displayed his Hindu hate by mocking the Hindus by claiming that ‘chowkidars’ have to ‘justify’ that ‘gobar’ (cow dung) could cure cancer. Sadhvi Pragya, while listing out benefits of cows and cow urine had mentioned how cow urine has chemicals that could cure cancer. While cow urine can cure cancer or not could be debatable, doctors have agreed that it contains medicinal value.
However, in his bid to mock Hindus, Rathee twisted the statement to say that Sadhvi Pragya consumed cow dung to cure her cancer. He then further mocked former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and wondered why he did not use ‘cow dung’ to cure his cancer.
By this time, his tweet has been retweeted almost 5,500 times and ‘liked’ by almost 19,000 people. This just shows how much hate people generally have against Modi that they are willing to let go of their basic human decency and mock a man who died of cancer. Many people on Twitter called out his vile and obnoxious tweet.
What an utterly vile human being. Say a lot about the gutter he was reared in. https://t.co/cHij4bwKu7
Twitter users, especially those who have lost their near and dear ones to the deadly disease expressed their dislike for this distasteful tweet.
This language mocking gobar & gau mutra (which may not be magical cures but do form an imp. part of the rural infrastructure/economy) is something we’ve also seen elsewhere, such as from the Pulwama terrorist.
Every passing day, I believe more that Urban naxals by choice exist.
The ‘gau mutra’ and ‘gobar’ references by Rathee stink of the language used by Ahmed Dar, the terrorist who carried out the Pulwama terror attack. Dar had vowed to kill those who drink cow urine.
Rathee was not the only one to suggest how Parrikar could’ve been given cow urine to cure his cancer.
Cow urine cured my breast cancer: Sadhvi Pragya.https://t.co/7gbDBQviFL Pity it was not given to Parrikar…
Jairaj P runs to participate in trending anti-BJP trending hashtags and is followed by various Congress leaders as well as official Congress account on Twitter.
Bhakts are annoyed with me for some reason, because Gau Mutra didn’t cure #ManoharParrikar. He did run to the Christian West for help, of course, because Hindutva doesn’t help when you’re dying. ???
Earlier, Congress-supporting troll Sanjukta had also stooped low and mocked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s kidney ailment and suggested why did she take help of modern medicine instead of ‘cow urine’.
I want to know, if Gau mutra, gobar so good, why Sushmaji went to Western allopathy for kidney failure? Why not Ayurveda hospital in Guj? https://t.co/9avoo0JsHu
We are finally getting Cow tourism! It will be organized by Gujarat State govt and will offer 2 day trips to Cow shelters to learn about Cow Urine and Cow shit.
Without Nehru: rampaging hindutva fundamentalism throughout India, gau shalas, manuwadi pathshalas, no widespread modern education, superstition and rituals above values, no striving for excellence, India in darkness
We have seen time and again how the argument of “Brahminism” has been used to demean Hindus. We have also seen how whenever the “secular” cabal tries to shield Islamists by deriding Hindus, referring to Hindus as “cow piss drinkers” is not uncommon.
And now, it is used to mock those undergoing treatment or died of cancer.
After the objections against Rahul Gandhi’s nomination from Amethi alleging discrepancies in educational detail and nationality were rejected by the Returning Officer, fresh objections have been raised against his nomination from Amethi and Wayanad. According to a report by Organiser, Rahul Gandhi has lied in his affidavits filed at both the constituencies while mentioning the cases pending against him.
In the affidavits, Rahul Gandhi has mentioned that he has not received any summons in a defamation case filed against him by Mumbai based Lawyer Dhrutiman Joshi. The affidavit also mentions that Rahul Gandhi came to know about the case only through media reports. It states that process issued but summons not received yet.
Rahul Gandhi’s affidavit
The case was filed alleging that Rahul Gandhi had defamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh while speaking about the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh. But according to the report, document tracking report of India Post has shown that the summon were delivered at Rahul Gandhi’s Delhi residence on 1st April, several days before the affidavits were filed at Amethi and Wayanad.
A Mumbai residence named Gurupreet Singh Anand has written to the Election Commission complaining that Rahul Gandhi has lied under oath in the affidavits filed with the EC. In a letter with the subject line “Complaint against compulsive liar Mr. Rahul Rajeev Gandhi for deliberately filing of wrong information in Election Affidavit filed in Amethi”, it is alleged that Rahul Gandhi told two lies in his affidavits. They are, Rahul Gandhi became aware of the case through media reports, and that he has not received any summons in the case.
Gurupreet Singh Anand has attached a copy of the IndiaPost tracking report, which shows that the summon was sent from Mumbai on 29th March via consignment no. EM193297365IN, and it was received at Rahul Gandhi’s residence on 1st April.
Moreover, after receiving the summon, Advocate Kushal Mor has appeared for Rahul Gandhi in the case 624/SS/2018 at the Metropolitan Magistrates Court, Mazgaon, Mumbai on 5th April. As per Roznama of the court, a Vakalatnama on behalf of Rahul Gandhi was submitted in the on that day. A copy of the Roznama has also been made available, the case filed by Dhrutiman Joshi was taken up by the court, and Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer had filed the Vakalatnama and an application for exemption of Rahul Gandhi in the hearing. The document states that lawyer for accused No 01 Rahul Gandhi was present in the court, and next date for hearing in the case has been fixed as 22nd April.
These two facts prove that Rahul Gandhi is completely aware of the case but he is deliberately making false statements in his affidavits, alleged Gurupreet. He further wrote, “Mr. Rahul Gandhi is hell-bent on subverting all Indian systems like the Election Commission’s office, The Judicial System, Defence forces through his false and defaming statements. There is also a likelihood of breach of peace and communal harmony in view of his derogatory and provocative statements made in respect of the RSS.” He urged the Election Commission, “In view of the above i the undersigned request you to take strict action against Mr. Rahul Rajeev Gandhi as per law.”
Advocate Dhrutiman Joshi, the complainant in the case, said that summons were sent to both accused in the case Rahul Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury, and India Post records show that the summon was delivered at Rahul Gandhi’s address on 1st April. Therefore, Rahul Gandhi has lied in affidavits filed at Wayanad and Amethi that he has not received the summon, which is a blatant lie. “I suspect that by lying he is buying more time till the results of the elections and not respond to the summons where he is expected to be present in person to defend himself”, Dhrutiman added. He has also written to the EC to action against Rahul Gandhi as per Representation of People’s Act since he has lied after taking oath.
In a candid and non-political conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, actor Akshay Kumar asked Prime Minister Modi if he actively follows people on Twitter and the conversations taking place on the social media.
During the conversation, Akshay Kumar asked Prime Minister Modi whether he himself follows and interact with the people on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Responding to Akshay Kumar, PM Modi brought up the name of the actor’s wife Twinkle Khanna and shared his experience regarding the criticism he receives from the former actress.
“I follow you (Akshay Kumar) and Twinkle Khanna Ji on Twitter. From the way she targets me, I understand there must be peace in your family life,” said PM Modi, leaving Akshay Kumar in splits. “She takes out all her anger on me, so your marital life at home must be peaceful,” joked PM Modi.
The apparent reference of Twinkle Khanna’s tweets by PM Modi comes as a response to the usual criticism mounted by the former actress against the NDA government, particularly against PM Modi. On one side, while actor Akshay Kumar acknowledges the positive transformation that is being brought in the country under the leadership of Narendra Modi, his wife Twinkle Khanna holds a rather opposite view on the present government.
The PM also mentioned that he had known and interacted with Khanna’s maternal grandfather in the past when some Mumbai-based businessmen had provided help to run buttermilk kiosks in Gujarat for the poor.
In the past, Twinkle Khanna has attempted to mock Prime Minister Modi but only to be embarrassed for making such comments. Last year, Twinkle Khanna had mocked the idea of Acche Din by claiming that how every day is April Fool’s day for us and that we Indians just call it as ‘Acche Din’.
Twinkle Khanna, daughter of former Congress MP Rajesh Khanna, in the past has used false equivalence to ridicule some of the initiatives of Prime Minister Modi. In one such issue, she had tried to attack the NDA government for taxing sanitary pads with misleading facts and narratives.
Following the interview, Twinkle Khanna reacted on Twitter, “I have a rather positive way of looking at this – Not only is the Prime Minister aware that I exist but he actually reads my work.”
Sensing a fall in clout for Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress has now resorted to pressurising wedding venue owners to promote and campaign for Trinamool Congress by playing TMC party theme songs instead of wedding music, reports India Today.
According to a report in India Today, the Trinamool Congress has instructed owners of marriage venues to play the campaign songs of the party in the events. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has allegedly instructed them to play these songs in between the shehnai music.
In one such incident in a community hall in Jadavpur, the Trinamool party had instructed the owners of the venue to play songs that celebrate different projects launched by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“While renting out we told the hosts about the condition. Those who agree to it get the banquet hall. After all, we don’t want to take any risks,” said an owner to India Today.
Reportedly, the party workers of the CPIM also revealed that how Trinamool Congress controls community halls in the area. According to CPIM workers, the wedding venue owners do not have a choice and are under compulsion to do whatever Trinamool Congress asks them to do. They added that playing TMC songs during the wedding is not surprising.
The report states that it is not limited to weddings. Even several Durga Puja committees had played Mamata Banerjee’s new album. Shockingly, the local police had distributed the cassettes and asked the puja committees to play them.
Apart from music, Mamata Banerjee’s promotions have also reached eatery shops as some of them in South Kolkata are selling food items like masala muri and fish fry by naming it after Mamata Banerjee. Reportedly, one of the owners of an eatery shop said that “Didi” in the menu card is an innovative way to reach out to voters, who know both these items are Mamata Banerjee’s favourite.
“Casting vote is just like celebrating a festival like IPL matches and World Cup matches. If we can have cocktails and mocktails named after IPL teams, why can’t we have recipes dedicated to polls?” the owner asked.
The entry of BJP into West Bengal has changed the political equation in the state, which has pushed Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress into a corner. Desperate to secure as many seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool Congress seems to be engaging such desperate measures to influence voters.
The blue regions of the country show more interest in BJP, whereas the red regions show an interest in Congress.
If you could ever capture the big Congress revival in one single image, this would be it.
So, how does this image tie-up with the headline of this post? That’s because this is a snapshot of Google trends from Sept 1, 2018, to Dec 1, 2018: the three months that led up to the big Assembly polls in Hindi heartland states. Observe how all three states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are visibly lighted up in red splashed across the face of India. Here is the rest of that screenshot:
Yes, all this while people were calculating and guessing about results of Hindi heartland states, Google knew. In its infinite wisdom, Google knew what was going to happen. The writing was on the wall.
As with the rest of the world, India is slowly waking up to the power of big data. Think about it. If you knew what every person in the country was thinking, you would know who is winning the election. And today that “every” person has a smartphone and access to the internet, Google knows what people are interested in.
Now let us see what Google trends say about the last 3 months (BJP vs Congress)
What a change! From big splashes of red to a uniform ocean of blue (Fun question: Can you name the tiny northeastern state in the corner which appears to be the only state in red?)
Google’s wisdom is clear. BJP is winning.
Okay, just to make sure we are not picking up aberrations: we all know BJP got a spike in popularity after air strikes in Balakot. Is this lead still there?
So here is the data for the last 1 month.
And for the last 7 days:
Hardly any change, with exception of (undivided) Andhra Pradesh where BJP has hardly any stakes. Interestingly, notice how the graphic also shows that the BJP’s advantage is highest in West Bengal and Odisha. The two “greenfield” states that BJP is hoping to capture.
A few days back, I said that the best barometer for how BJP perceives Bengal will be visible in the PM’s campaign. If he goes to smaller places to do rallies, it means he senses a high return from Bengal. You can see PM Modi spending time in Buniadpur in West Bengal for a massive rally 3 days ago. I swear I had never heard of this place before in my life. Apparently, it’s somewhere in North Bengal. Modi going to these “unknown” places means he senses victory.
You know what ‘liberals’ are going to say at this point. That BJP voters are “urban upper caste rich, blah blah blah…” and hence BJP would get over-represented on the internet. They do not even know how outdated such thinking is.
The internet revolution has been around a long time. Which means that BJP lost its “first mover advantage” a very long time ago on the internet. This is not 2014. Anybody who is on social media and does not have their eyes closed will say that the Congress online propaganda machine is formidable… and in many ways more nimble-footed than that of BJP.
In fact, this is one of the reasons I put up the Google trends data from September to December 2018 at the top of my post. It acts as a “control” for us to check the effectiveness of Google Trends as a barometer. We now know that except for Chhattisgarh, there was no wave at all for Congress in the Hindi heartland. The Congress barely scraped through in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. And yet, Google Trends data managed to pick up this tiny excess of Congress over BJP.
Shows you how sensitive Trends data is in picking up even a slight pro-Congress mood. In Madhya Pradesh, Congress didn’t even get more votes than BJP. But Google Trends was still able to pick up the fact that Congress voters were perhaps a wee bit more enthusiastic than BJP.
So the fact that BJP uniformly leads over the Congress right now according to Google Trends tells you who is winning.
Let’s take a moment to look at the personalities. What about Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi? The numbers are so bad for Rahul Gandhi, this is almost embarrassing for him.
Whoa! Don’t just look at Modi’s lead. Look at the scale of it.
In the most crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, Modi leads 92% to 8%! According to Google, the interest in Modi is 12 times as much as the interest in Rahul!
In fact, other than TN or Kerala or Nagaland, there isn’t a single state where Modi’s number is below 80%. In Maharashtra, it is 83%. It is 91% in Bihar, 88% in Bengal and 86% in Odisha! Rajasthan is at 88% and Madhya Pradesh at 85%. Those are huge numbers!
How will a party get votes if people do not have the slightest interest in what their leader has to say?
It seems that despite all the big image makeovers and non-stop praise from Lutyens, the common person in the country simply isn’t interested in what Rahul Gandhi has to say.
It’s fairly clear: Congress hasn’t managed to get its message out. If you ask Google Trends, this election is over. The writing is on the wall.
