One of the most interesting developments
of the last few days of Narendra Modi speeches at multiple events is that the
MSM has run out of fire. NDTV, Headlines Today, CNN-IBN found that the battle on Social Media and Twitter was far more exciting than the
silly debates on their channels. Needless to say, many in the MSM were quite
upset that #PappuCII had trended
during and after Rahul Gandhi’s
speech at CII on April 4. The Pappu trend was covered internationally and each
journal and news outlet explained what the term meant. In short, RahulG as “Pappu”
was being referred to as a naïve, dumb kid. Well, considering his speech and
interaction at CII it wasn’t quite off the mark. Naturally, channels like NDTV
and Congress supporters were thirsting for revenge and wanted desperately to
similarly trend the Modi speeches in a negative fashion.
Narendra Modi’s speeches themselves were
largely on expected lines. There was great oratory, facts, wit and sarcasm. It
started with the women’s wing of FICCI,
then an interaction at the ThinkIndia
event at CNN-IBN on April 8 and then another one at Kolkata on April 9. Minutes after the Kolkata event ended, NDTV
jumped for joy and reported #Feku
was still trending on top. This #Feku hashtag was supposedly the Congress
response to #PappuCII as our media would have you believe. So Headlines Today,
NDTV and some newspaper outlets were indulging in the same predictable LIES again. Unable to come up with
anything substantial against Modi’s speeches, except the usual suspects singing
the 2002 song, the media was thrilled with the #Feku tag. Headlines Today
reported “Congress draws first blood”
in Twitter battle and then headlined “Feku
trumps ModiStormsFICC”. The hashtag #ModiStormsFICCI started with a tweet by me just
before the start of Modi’s speech at FICCI. It’s not clear who created the
#Feku tag as everyone was using it, including Congress and BJP supporters.
Now, here’s the problem: Both #PappuCII
and #ModiStormsFICCI are very clear hashtags and the reference to the person
concerned is not ambiguous. In contrast, the #Feku tag is a very generic tag
that can be used by anyone to target anyone but the media went around lying
that the #Feku tag was created by Congress to target Modi when facts do not support
such a contention. Take a look at this tweet from Pawan Durani at 3.00pm on April 8, which is just a while after the
FICCI event:
Notice carefully, that all the TOP tweets at that point of time
were using #Feku for Rahul Gandhi and not Modi. But yes, the Congress
supporters were also using #Feku to target Modi. As a consequence of both sides
using the same hashtag it became the top trend. There wasn’t any question of
Congress drawing first blood or #Feku trumping #ModiStormsFICCI. If only Congress supporters had used #Feku
there is hardly any doubt it would not have been the top trend. It is because
the supporters of both Congress and BJP were using the tag that it became the
top trend. In fact, in the later part of the day on April 8 it was the BJP
supporters who had hijacked the tag and most of the tweets with #Feku were by
them.
What is laughable is that TV news
channels are now watching Twitter battles and that is surely a good sign for
social media regardless of which political group one supports. As is the
tradition with NDTV, the lies continued and in their Social Network programme
on April 8 the anchor was desperately trying to suggest there was a battle
between #Feku and #Pappu. That was hardly the case and as @Surnell points out, both tags were being used interchangeably as
substitutes. Moreover, Pappu wasn’t used for just the CII event, RahulG is
frequently referred to by that name. So once again NDTV was reporting on a
battle without the slightest bit of fact-check. Well, I guess fact-check is not
in their DNA when their reporting comes to Congress.
The single most tweeted and re-tweeted
tweet With #ModiStormsFICCI on April 8 was one that I had posted in a sarcastic
reference to RahulG’s “man on a horse”
comment from CII. The CNN-IBN screen grab shows the tweet was RTd 458 times. By
afternoon of April 9 the tweet was already RTd almost 600 times. So the battle
between #Feku and #Pappu is a fake one that NDTV reported. To add to that Rahul Kanwal also spent an entire
primetime session on the fake battle between #Feku and #ModiStormsFICCI. Kanwal
was ecstatic that some Congress hashtag had beaten the other tag when that was
hardly the case. A successful hashtag on Twitter usually has a direct reference
to the target. #PappuCII had no ambiguity on who the beneficiary of the tag was.
#ModiStormsFICCI had no ambiguity about the beneficiary. So for Rahul Kanwal to
claim that #Feku had a clear target or beneficiary reflects his ignorance about
Twitter and hashtags.
Neither NDTV nor Headlines Today could
manage to poke any holes in Modi’s speeches. Some female media anchors and
panellists were woefully picking on nonsense like women being called “Ma or behen”. Such frivolous crap is
all they could come up with. In contrast, the audience at FICCI, at ThinkIndia
and Kolkata were thrilled by the interaction, so were many other observers in
the media. So when they couldn’t find any genuine criticism to hurl at Modi the
news channels and newspapers like Indian Express turned to imaginary Congress
victories on Twitter. More than Tweeple from either side it was the news
channels who indulged in a lot more “Fekulogy”
as I call it. But I derive immense satisfaction from the fact that the social
media is now dictating the discourse to MSM. That is for everyone to celebrate,
regardless of political persuasions. The
MSM is already famous for “Fekulogy”, they just fell into a new trap of the art.
