Narendra Modi, is going to be the 15th Prime Minister of India in a few hours from now. He is gone from a chaiwala to the most tweeted person in India. According to the statistics, in five minutes, Modi is tweeted at least 200 times. The 16th Lok Sabha election was one of the biggest democratic battles ever fought. One new element added to campaigning this time were the social networking sites. Facebook and Twitter topped all charts with news flooding in about elections every single minute. ..In a run up to the ostentatious swearing- in ceremony, we compile a list of posts on the social media addressing some very pertinent questions…
Five students in Bangalore got arrested on 16 May for allegedly circulating an ‘offensive message’ on Whatsapp. And what would be this offensive message be? It was a sketched picture of Modi’s last rites being performed with the tagline “Na Jeet Paye Jhooton Ka Sardar — Ab Ki Baar Antim Sanskar”. After questioning four of them were released on Saturday, but one young man was handed over to the Belgaum Police.
“The government and the media have been biased, and an atmosphere has been created in which every Muslim is seen as a terrorist” said President of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, Arshad Madani. Six Muslim men were allegedly framed by the Gujarat Police for a crime they never committed. Five of the six men who were freed by the court in the Akshardham temple terror attack case in Gujarat, in New Delhi lastTuesday. These men had lost all faith in democracy under the Gujarat government when they were asked to choose which crime they will like to be implicated under. They might just have a last chance at a normal life now, after over a decade in jail. The Supreme Court freed the six, pulling up the Gujarat Police for framing innocent people, and blaming the then Home Minister, and would be Prime Minister, Narendra Modi for “non-application of mind.”
Numbers games played a huge role in the elections this year. BJP, they say, won a huge majority in the 16th Lok Sabha elections. But then, a brief look in the past records throws up a different number all together. What has not quite figured in most of these comparisons is the fact that no party has ever before won more than half the seats with a vote share of just 31%. Nation divided on the votes? Maybe yes, maybe no.
The swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi has become a global event now. It’s like the coronation of the Queen; dignitaries all over the world have flown in and the world waits to watch the man of the hour take over as the Prime Minster of the world’s largest democracy. Like Meena Kandasamy questions the plans of Vaiko and others attending the swearing-in along with Rajapaksa, many people are waiting to see the guest list of the event.
“It is both appalling that D’Cruz, who captured the rich and unique history of the seafaring community of Tamil Nadu in an epic tale spanning three generations, should call a fascist like Modi a ‘dynamic visionary’…However, there cannot be a place for such an author in a political publishing house like Navayana,” S Anand of Navyana, was quoted as saying in the Deccan Chronicle. A publishing house becoming a gatekeeper for the Indian voters- is it a worrying trend?
