The past can’t hurt you unless you let it, goes the famous saying. But in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s case, it looks like the ghost of his Twitter past is vengefully haunting him. To be more clear, PM Narendra Modi of the present is being trolled by CM Narendra Modi of the past, on Twitter.
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On the Misuse of CBI
In this whole CBI-Mamata brouhaha, Modi has remained silent even as he and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were being accused of using the CBI to organise a “political coup” in West Bengal.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee questioned the autonomy of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and sat on a dharna (protest) to “save the country and its constituent institutions.”
BJP leaders were quick to defend the CBI and Home Minster Rajnath Singh said Banerjee has “stopped the CBI from performing its lawful duties.”
But were the BJP and Modi always this protective and encouraging of the CBI? Not so much. Take a look at Modi’s tweets from 2013, when he was the chief minister of Gujarat and his close aides were being probed for their role in the 2002 Gujarat riots and alleged fake encounters. In fact, his tweets from then are more akin to what Mamata Banerjee is saying now.
Many people dug this up to Twitterati’s amusement and Modi’s embarrassment.
While in one tweet CM Modi says “rampant misuse of CBI is happening,” in another he accuses the Centre of “undermining the intelligence systems in a quest to target political opponents.”
Congress President Rahul Gandhi was also not immune to his past Twitter ‘sins’. So, when he offered full support to Mamata Banerjee...
Twitter critics travelled in time and pulled out instances where Gandhi slammed Mamata for her silence on the Sarada scam.
But scanning some of Modi’s old tweets, it becomes evident that CM Modi is PM Modi’s best critic and worst enemy. He has vehemently talked about the flip side of FDI, Aadhaar and openly criticised petrol price rise and falling rupee. Here are a few of CM Modi’s best jibes which could hurt PM Modi:
On Foreign Direct Investment
In January 2018, Modi government approved 100 percent FDI in single-brand retail via direct route . The government said that the decision would help provide ease of doing business and also lead to larger FDI inflows contributing to growth of investment, income and employment.
But, a quick look at Modi’s earlier tweets reveals that he was not a fan of FDI. In fact, he criticised the UPA government in December 2012 for passing the FDI law, said it will create unemployment.
The past again gave Modi a cruel reminder.
On the Falling Rupee
It is no secret that the rupee has been falling steadily. In August 2018, rupee crashed to 70.1 against dollar.
The government was quick to wash hands off the issue and attributed it to “external factors.” Economic Affair secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said rupee is still better compared to certain other currencies. At the time of writing this article, one dollar was equal to 71.74 rupees.
PM Modi has maintained silence on the falling rupee fiasco but he was not so silent in 2013, when he tweeted a sarcastic comment on the UPA government tumbling down along with the rupee.
In the article attached with the tweet, Modi says this, “When Atalji became PM,1 dollar was equal to 42 rupees and when he left, 1 dollar was equal to 44 rupees.”
On Petrol Prices
Remember the embarrassing graphic on petrol prices that the BJP’s official Twitter tweeted? The column for September 2018 was shorter than those of 2009 and 2014 the previous years even though the petrol prices were higher than these years.
Both the BJP and Modi were trolled endlessly for this. But more embarassing than this for Modi is another flashback tweet from 2012 when he was the CM of Gujarat.
Seems like Modi’s definition of ‘failure’ is a tad bit discriminatory.
On Aadhaar Security Issue
In spite of the protests and the nightmare of security breaches in the Aadhaar system, the Modi government has made Aadhaar indispensable for daily life in the country.
The security problem was so in-your-face that once a simple Google search revealed thousands of databases with Aadhaar information of individuals but the UIDAI has time and again brushed aside security concerns and been dismissive.
PM Modi even went to the extent of saying, “ The only people who are adversely affected by Aadhaar are dishonest, corrupt and middlemen. This is the real reason why it is being opposed.”
But he was aware of the security problems, reveals a tweet from 2014. He says the then PM Manmohan Singh couldn’t answer his questions on the security threat posed by Aadhaar. Little did he know that neither could he.
You are your worst enemy, they say. In PM Modi’s case though, it is literally true.
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