From ‘How’s the josh? to ‘How’s the jobs?’ Things escalated quickly!
The NSSO data on unemployment seems to have shaken things up all around, since it was released today.
According to the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) periodic labour force survey (PLFS), India’s unemployment rate was at a 45-year high of 6.1 percent during 2017-18.
The data stirred more controversy as it was alleged that the government tried to hide the data and hindered the process of it getting released to the common public.
The discourse gave rise to the #HowsTheJobs on Twitter which trended all over India throughout the day.
The origin of the hashtag was a little tough to detect but the tweets painted a glum picture of the job scene and spells bad news for the youth.
BJP Calling Official Data #FakeNews?
In a move that looked like a faux pas of sorts, BJP’s official Twitter handle called NSSO data ‘fake news’.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi had tweeted taking a shot at the centre about the unemployment data.
In a response to the tweet, BJP’s official handle, in a bid to take a dig at Rahul Gandhi, ended up somewhat mocking themselves and calling their own data as #FakeNews.
The Congress took notice of this and were quick to point it out to the BJP, the faux pas they had made. They also punned on the 2002 number and told the BJP that it need to learn how to read data.
Stop Asking ‘How’s the Josh?’, Says Twitter
The hashtag is a product of the viral war call from the movie ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’, that has Vicky Kaushal asking the soldiers ‘how’s the josh?’ to which the reply is ‘high, sir!’
PM Narendra Modi was also seen using the viral dialogue at public appearances and so did some other BJP leaders.
With this leaked data, there was anger on Twitter with people asking the government to stop asking about the josh but instead ask about the jobs.
This data has been a big chink in the armour of BJP and the social media gauntlet has just been thrown. It remains to be seen what effect this will have on the General Elections 2019.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)