BJP President Amit Shah, while recently addressing the party’ social media volunteers in Kota, Rajasthan said that the party workers have the power to make any message go viral. During the nearly 40-minute long speech, the BJP President boasted as to how the party’s WhatsApp group has over 32 lakh people. He also recounted how a party worker had spread the fake news of Akhilesh Yadav slapping his father Mulayam Yadav which went viral. He added that the party workers are capable of delivering any message to the public.
Amit Shah’s speech at the event
His exacts words can be heard at 26:30 of the video which is available on Youtube.
Shah, who spoke in Hindi while addressing the workers said that during the elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, BJP’s social media workers had created two big WhatsApp groups which had a total of over 31 lakh members. Every day at 8 am, they would send ‘Know the Truth’ where the truth about all the false stories printed about BJP was shared via the app. He added that ordinary people and social media would go after whichever publication printed such false stories. He said that this helped the media to become neutral slowly.
He went on to narrate the story of a worker. He said that messages go from top to bottom and vice versa. The worker had circulated a false message in the group stating that Akhilesh Yadav had slapped Mulayam Singh. After the social media team spread the message, it went viral and Shah’s phone started to ring the same day where callers were notifying him of the news.
He then goes on to say that this is something worth doing but shouldn’t be done. As the crowd claps and cheers, he said, “Yeh karne jaise kaam hai magar karna mat! Acha kaam bhi kar sakte hain. Hum jo chaahein woh sandesh janta tak pahuncha saktey hain, chaahe khatta ho ya meetha ho, sacha ho ya jhoota ho.”
“We are capable of delivering any message we want to the public, whether sweet or sour, true or fake,” was what he said roughly translated in English.
The Logical Indian take
While the problem of fake news being spread using platforms like WhatsApp and other social media websites is rampant in India, Amit Shah, a man who is deemed to be BJP’s supremo cannot be heard condemning the guy who spread fake news. BJP IT Cell has been found sharing fake, fabricated or false news many times and though Shah, being the party’s President should strongly oppose such moves.
Also Read: BJP IT Cell Secretary Arrested; Charges Against Two Others For Sharing Fake News Instigating Hatred
