We are slowly moving towards a world where Gandhi is not seen as a martyr, a reformer and the person who fought for India’s freedom. Instead, he is seen as someone who needed to be killed. And his killer Nathuram Godse, Independent India’s first terrorist, is now, in “New India,” being glorified as a hero who did the nation a favour by killing Gandhi.
Godse’s supporters are trying to make this world a possibility by spreading their agenda on Twitter. As is known, Twitter is a hotbed for information warfare, the so-called fifth generation war (5GW). In the recent past, it has also become a hotbed for hate speech and extremist rhetoric. Twitter has also become a platform where users, who can remain anonymous, threaten people with rape and murder; unfortunately, most of them go scot-free without any consequences.
Most of these campaigns are driven by hashtags or keywords relating to a particular topic. That means, there are groups who are actively working day and night to push particular hashtags so that they become conversation/agenda setters.
On 30 January, the day on which Nathuram Godse killed Gandhi, the hashtag ‘Nathuram_Godse_Zindabad’ started trending on Twitter. It was most likely a coordinated effort which required mobilising a group of people. This hashtag came after the Congress party started using the #GandhiForever. The first time this hashtag was used was in December last year.
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