Gauri Lankesh's murder: Coarse tweets by users PM follows spark row

NEW DELHI: Several Twitter reactions to Gauri Lankesh’s murder were coarse and abusive; some even suggesting that the spirited Bangalore-based journalist deserved her fate.

At least four such accounts are followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. One such user was Nikhil Dadhich with the handle @nikhildadhich, which is followed both by Modi and union minister Giriraj Singh.

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’s Yogendra Yadav and Congress’ Digvijaya Singh drew Twitterati’s attention to Dadhich’s unprintable tweet. “The author of this tweet after #GauriLankesh assassination @nikhildadhich is "Honoured to be followed by PM". Need I add anything?” wrote Yadav on Twitter.


“Shocking to see PM following such elements who are spreading hatred and venom which encourages such people to commit violence and crime,” wrote Digvijaya Singh after sharing Yadav’s tweet.

Modi has 33.7 million followers and follows 1,779 from his personal verified account @narendramodi. Dadhich later deleted his tweet but continued to defend it, saying he never mentioned Lankesh, and those trying to impute motives to him were being malicious. He has over 28,000 Twitter followers and describes himself as a “Hindu Nationalist” in his Twitter bio.

Dadhich retweeted messages of support for him that came with the hashtag #IStandWith-Nikhil on Wednesday. Another Twitter user Ashish Mishra, with the handle @aashish81us, wrote: “Jaisi karni vaisi bharni (As you sow, so shall you reap)” He tweeted this on Wednesday night along with a link to a news article on Lankesh’s murder.

Mishra is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP IT Cell head Arvind Gupta. @SouleFacts, also followed by the PM, shared a picture of Lankesh where she is seen with former JNU Students’ Union members Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid. Referring to the “anti-national” sloganeering controversy involving the two, she wrote: “God had different plan for group of "Bharat tere tukde honge", .....Anti Nationals always remain close to terrorist, need investigation.” This user describes herself in her Twitter profile as a “nationalist” and “proud Indian” who “hates traitor.”

Twitter user @RitaG74, like Dadhich, is also followed by the Prime Minister and Giriraj Singh. She issued a series of tweets on Lankesh. “For those who don't know #Gauri-Lankesh A brief introduction-Leftist, naxal sympathizer, anti establishment, Anti Hindus,” wrote @RitaG74 who claims to be a “nationalist” and a former All India Radio presenter in her Twitter bio. Some other accounts that the PM follows on Twitter spoke of the law and order situation in Congress-ruled Karnataka, and accused those condemning the murder of hypocrisy. “Silent on #SunandaPushkar Assassination, Outrage on Naxal Sympathiser #GauriLankesh Welcome to the Land of Left Liberals!” wrote @NaIna0806.