In case India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party wins the all-important West Bengal assembly election on May 2, it may try to suggest the victory is an endorsement of its handling of the devastating second wave of Covid.
In case the BJP loses Bengal, the party’s critics might suggest the result is a reflection of public anger about the BJP’s poor handling of the Covid second wave. Some from within the BJP might suggest this as well, so as to deflect attention away from the real causes of the defeat.
In truth, Covid has had no impact on voter behaviour in West Bengal. It is important to flag this point and flag it now, because the post-facto election reasoning that lazy TV studio pundits come up with, tends to stick.
April 29, 2021
Facebook temporarily hid posts with the hashtag #ResignModi for about three hours on Wednesday, Buzzfeed News reported. A Facebook spokesperson told MediaNama, “We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to, and have since restored it.”
The social media platform did not respond to MediaNama’s question on what led to such a mistake.
This is what happens when you search for the hashtag #ResignModi on Facebook (at least in India). pic.twitter.com/Rzehg3meB8
This block comes at a time when social media censorship by the Indian government is at an unprecedented high. Last Saturday, MediaNama reported on Twitter censoring 52 tweets criticizing the government’s handling of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The blocked tweets contain tweets by well-known personalities including an MP and an MLA. A few days after this incident, Wall Street Journal reported that over 100 posts across Twitter and Facebook were
Modi’s victory vs Rahul’s caution: How two leaders fared in India’s Covid-19 crisis?
While the BJP and PM Modi declared early victory against Covid-19, Rahul Gandhi continuously warned against the health emergency and pressed the Centre to control the devastating effects of the deadly virus.
By Sruthi Vibhavari| Updated: 27th April 2021 1:59 pm IST Rahul Gandhi and PM Narendra Modi
Hyderabad: In January this year, addressing the prestigious World Economic Forum held at Davos, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared and celebrated the victory against the COVID-19 pandemic. He not only dismissed everyone’s inhibitions about India’s response to the ‘tsunami of injections’, but also proudly claimed: “India saved humanity from a big disaster.”
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