Congress courts controversy on Rajiv Gandhi’s death anniversary as Adhir Ranjan rakes up ‘When a big tree falls…’

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On the 31st death anniversary of former Congress prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, leaders across the party took to Twitter to pay their tribute to him. As is the tradition nowadays, many shared their tribute in the form of a creative or infographics, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

But no sooner had the creative appeared on his Twitter handle than it was taken down and replaced by another creative.

What happened

When the Congress leader first shared the creative, it carried the infamous lines spoken by Rajiv Gandhi in the wake of the Sikh pogrom that was followed by the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 - “when a big tree falls, the ground shakes”.

On 31 October, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards. In the aftermath of the assassination, many places including Delhi saw attacks on Sikhs and their properties.

In such a charged atmosphere, Rajiv Gandhi had made the infamous comment, which was seen by many as justification for attacks on the Sikhs. Rajiv Gandhi had to face widespread condemnation for the comment.

The consequences

Chowdhury, soon after the faux pax, tried to distance himself from the entire issue by first tweeting ‘a malicious campaign is propagated by those forces inimical to me’ and then “The tweet against my name in the tweeter account has nothing to do with my own observation.”

However, it was not clear how the forces got access to his Twitter account and shared a similar creative infographic, which also bore his image and the logo of the Congress party.

Nothing new

The most interesting fact about the issue is that this is not the first time that this comment was shared and was followed by embarrassment.

In 2016, the West Bengal Congress too had faced embarrassment when in its bid to remember late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 72nd birth anniversary had tweeted the same remark.

The party had then deleted the tweet and claimed the Twitter handle was "hacked".

Chowdhury had then claimed the tweet was done in pursuance of a conspiracy. "I enquired about the tweet and was told that the account was hacked. In today's world hacking has become a usual thing. But I think, this has been done in pursuance of a conspiracy to malign the Congress on Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary," said Chowdhury adding that the party was seeking a police action.

Social media management

Social media faux pas are not new when it comes to the Congress. For instance political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla himself pointed it out. He said Rahul Gandhi's closing speech at the Udaipur Chintan Shivir should have been either preponed or postponed so that it did not clash with the Thomas Cup finals else his team should have asked him to announce the win during the speech which would have made him the first person to announce the historic results.

Besides, it was also during the Chintan Shivir that the party's revamped logo was unveiled which too led to some fiasco. The Mahatma was shown holding the stick in his left hand in the logo unlike the original picture where he is holding it in his right hand.

Experts are of the opinion that Congress needs better social media managers.

With input from agencies

 

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