Why ‘Block Narendra Modi’ is trending

The prime minister is known to follow abusive trolls from his Twitter account – some of whom have not only shamed Lankesh posthumously, but have actively justified her murder. Also, the PM is yet to condemn the brutal murder of Lankesh that is still being probed. 

The hashtag was inspired by one Nikhil Dadhich, a pro-right-wing troll, who gushed about the fact that the Prime Minister followed his Twitter account. Dadhich, in fact, mentioned that in his Twitter profile.

#BlockNarendraModi has been trending on social media since Thursday afternoon. One user wrote, “Felt so ashamed to follow a PM who follows only troll handles and handles which spread hate... SHAME on him.” 

Another said, “He is also followed by our PM. How could a PM encourage such extremist ideology? Block him until he unfollows abusers #BlockNarendraModi.” 

However, there were others who thought blocking the PM wasn’t wise. “Blocking him won’t help. This government lives in a bubble and it needs to be burst,” said a netizen. There were some who found humour in it. 

Meanwhile, political satirist Akash Banerjee wrote, “What sort of crappy trend this #BlockNarendraModi? I will do NO SUCH THING! This handle is my window to world tourism.” On the other hand, supporters of the PM, called the hashtag a well-orchestrated move by the Congress.