When social media bites back

Social media has become a far-reaching tool for the campaigns this year, summarizing hour long campaigns into 140 characters. According to industry estimates, the number of social media users in India will reach 80 million by late June this year, which is 10% of the total electoral turn-up estimate. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have turned into an easy, cost-friendly way to connect to the masses, but even though social media is probably the secret ingredient to every successful campaign, like BJP’s and AAP’s, it is also a double edged sword.

The most recent victim of social media is the Congress leader Dijvijaya Singh, who has been under fire ever since his pictures with the journalist Amrita Rai went viral on social media. But Singh is not the only political leader to have fallen victim to the vicious backlash of social medial. Here are a few more instances when social media betrayed politicians.

1. Shazia Ilmi’s video on “secular Muslims”:

In an unlucky incident for AAP, a video surfaced on YouTube showing AAP candidate Ghaziabad Shazia Ilmi sitting amongst a group of Muslims saying that, “Muslims have been communal.” "Muslims don’t vote for their own community. Arvind Kejriwal is one of your own. You all should not be so secular, look after your own home. Other parties have fixed votes. Look after your own interests. This is controversial but necessary,” she is shown saying in the video. The AAP leader was met with an aggressive backlash when the video went viral, and found her own party distancing itself from her.

2. Tweet War between Sunanda Pushkar and Pakistani Journalist:

Earlier this year, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife, Sunanda Pushkar, had landed in the middle of a huge political storm after a cross-border tweet war involving his wife and a Pakistani journalist, Mehr Tarar, in which Pushkar accused Tarar of having an affair with her husband. Pushkar also alleged that Tarar was an ISI agent.

Two days after the Twitter war, Pushkar was found dead in a hotel room.

3. Arvind Kejriwal trying to influence his TV interview:

The Aam Admi Party was left embarrassed after a video of Arvind Kejriwal apparently seeking to influence his TV interview went viral. The video showed the AAP leader telling the interviewer, an Aaj Tak journalist, to play up a certain segment of their interactions and speaking about why he wants to avoid the subject.

The video was met with sharp criticism from other political parties which questioned the clash between their principles and apparent behaviour.

4. Tharoor’s cattle tweet:

Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, known for his use of social media and as the politician with the second highest number of followers on Twitter (after Narendra Modi), was caught in a political scandal in 2009 with his “cattle” tweet.

The tweet was termed as “unacceptable and totally insensitive” by his party, the Congress. His remark had come in the backfrop of the austerity drive in the Government and in the Congress. Tharoor had to apologise for it, saying it was a silly expression but he meant no disrespect to economy travellers, only to airlines for “herding us like cattle”.

5. Robert Vadra’s mango man remark on Facebook:

Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief, Sonia Gandhi, had to deactivate his Facebook account after sparking a controversy over a remark he posted on his page. Vadra was criticised by many activists, including Arvind Kejriwal, after he reportedly posted a message that read “mango people in banana republic”. “Mango people”, translated into Hind is “aam admi” and was an apparent dig at the Aam Admi Party.

Vadra then deactivated the account, apparently upset with the major controversy that was sparked by his “light comment”.