Eight months ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls, the cyber space has become a battlefield between supporters of tech-savvy Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his opponents.
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, blogs, e-mails, websites, video uploading sites and every possible avenue on the internet is being used to attract the attention of the net-savvy, especially youths, towards Mr. Modi.
His opponents, chiefly the Congress, which calls him an “internet manipulator” is not lagging behind this time in trying to match him on every step in the cyber space.
Also, some NGOs opposed to Mr. Modi, have also been very active on the internet in the campaign against him.
The latest flash point between the two sides was the Time magazine online poll to select 100 most influential peoples list. Mr. Modi after being interviewed by the magazine was nominated for the top 100 and his name was put up for voting.
He was leading the positive votes for the first few days, and then his opponents swung into action and polled most negative votes. He is still on third position with 2,56,792 positive votes but his negative numbers are higher with 2,66,684 votes. The final results will be announced by the Time magazine on April 17.
“What the supporters of the Chief Minister were doing was just a manipulation of the internet to make him repositioned as one of the top influential leader of year. This was not a natural vote as we know that his supporters were manipulating it. So his opponents have voted against him as they have come to know reality of things in Gujarat,” Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.
Speaking on the Congress’ preparedness to counter Mr. Modi in cyber space Mr. Doshi said, “we have made functional an IT cell which works from morning 10 am to 8 pm in night from the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) office after our new president Arjun Modhwaida took charge. Their work is just to counter the propaganda of Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the cyber space“.
The IT cell which is being monitored by state Congress president Arjun Modhvaida, has been asked to make maximum use of social networking sites, upload our leaders’ speeches on YouTube, e-mail negative stories on Mr. Modi and BJP to a large section of the population, he further said.
“We have recently re-launched Gujarat Congress website highlighting negative points of 10 years of misrule by Mr. Modi.
We have also set up district unit IT cells to counter the propaganda of Mr. Modi at the district level,” he further said.
Though the Congress has started doing all these things just recently, Mr. Modi’s ‘cyber army’ has been doing such things from the last many years. Mr. Modi himself has a huge presence on the internet by way of his websites, Twitter account and blog.
He has thousands of followers on his sites.
“Recently, Mr. Modi got his website narendramodi.in revamped keeping in mind the upcoming elections. Now the website is more vibrant,” a BJP party leader said.
“State BJP has also decided to widely use the internet via e-mail, websites, and blogs to reach out to the youth of the state in the run up to the state elections,” BJP’s chief spokesperson of Gujarat Jagdish Bhavsar said.
“We recently held a meeting of our IT cell and have chalked out a detailed plan on how to carry out the cyber campaign for the upcoming elections. The party’s IT campaign will be different from what is being already done by those supporting Modi,” Mr. Bhavsar said.
it is congresi which is losing ground day after day, their fire brand leader in up like digvijay and salman prooved themself supporter of muslim appeasement and their statements on batla encounter ,is shameful in indian history,the involvement of mms chidamabaran,,sonia, robart vadera,pratibha patil in unlawful activities is shameful chaptor of indian history,whole people will bring modi like leader on nation level and whole are looking forward,corruption,efficient and developing india without political harakiri dictatorship of corrupt, congresi have lost their power among masses, but their billion dollars black money, mafia support keeping them alive by wrigging election,tampering with evm machine and buying media and manipulating internet and power,,now public is not fool
Apparently,the sorry state of affairs is there to witness on the WEB too.As if not enough their open allegations and counter allegations day in and day out,now the CYBER WAR appears handy for hurling abuses,and mudslinging against each other which is being resorted to by all political parties before polls.The inventions of great persons for the benefit of mankind at last become safe havens and acting as tools for holding such abusive and unethical culture amongst these so called politicians to meet their political ends.
Best way to connect educated and tech savy people around the world with his achievements and future plans respect to upcoming election. Current generation of youths (most urban) familiar with and having account in any of social sites irrespective of purpose certainly get to know that Modi’s future agenda’s for Gujarath. Most of tech savvy youths lacks in reading dailies or watching current affairs channels to update political stories and events on day to day basis. This is right opportunity to tweet or pass remark on particular pos or blog freely without any hindrance and obstacles in doing so. If he (Modi) succeed in bring back party to power there is no doubt in himself tough competition to top political post in the country surpassing his betanoirs in the party and outside. He has maintained credibility for state growth without caught (till date) in any of scam or corruption or adultery type of incident and less (there is no) intervention of central leadership in state party and gove
Dear Sir,
I am an Indian living in Europe. I have followed TIME poll for couple of days, and with genuine belief can say that Congress or any anti-Modi group's claim about voting him out by dislike button is wrong. The truth is voting was manipulated by hacking group Anonymous which propelled itself some 300,000 votes in just couple of days meaning thosands of votes every hour (news at Slashdot, Mash, BBC would confirm this). Any techi newbie (I am researcher in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics so know what I am saying) can at least understand that this was rigged. While the supporters of Modi might well have vested interests(they voted for him over period of weeks!), to name a hacking effect as genuine opponents is a lie, which The Hindu must not fall for, regardless of what media thinks of Modi, the truth in this matter should prevail.
Is the Congress Spokesperson trying to say, they also manipulated by his below statement on the Modi supporters?
“What the supporters of the Chief Minister were doing was just a manipulation of the internet to make him repositioned as one of the top influential leader of year. This was not a natural vote as we know that his supporters were manipulating it. So his opponents have voted against him as they have come to know reality of things in Gujarat,” Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.
What a saying,when supporters of Modi voting it is manipulation but
when the same is done by those against Modi then it is because they
have come to know reality of things in Gujarat. One more things
suddenly all those who were from the beginning giving all the reasons
and justifications against Modi on the time cover such as Jinnah was
also on the cover and so on are very much interested in this more -ve
votes against him.Still if people are voting against Modi and tring
their best to downplay the development done by him by keeping alive
the wounds of victims you can say one thing Modi is in their mind deep
inside
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