Unlike former prime minister Manmohan Singh, whom he had dubbed "Maun [silent] Mohan Singh", Narendra Modi is not reticent by nature. Even his harshest critics concede that he is not just a good speaker but also a great communicator. With his active participation on sites such as Twitter, he has not let go of any opportunity to reach out, from tweeting selfies, commemorating anniversaries and commenting on happenings in faraway places. Which is why his selective silence on crucial and controversial issues has been even more deafening. Particularly for his admirers.

Former union minister Arun Shourie had earlier noted:
"If Modi tweets on Sania Mirza's victory and wishing on somebody's birthday and then he doesn't say a word on critical issues like Ghar Wapsi, Churches and Love Jihad, it will draw an inference."

That Modi did not even once express his opinion on the recent revelations about external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia helping sacked Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi has not helped his cause, as it set tongues wagging in the Bharatiya Janata Party and the government, with even party members, including  its members of Parliament, openly sniping at Modi and his team.

All this while, Modi has garrulously carried on with his regular monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat (Speaking one's mind), while keeping silent on charges against his party leaders, resulting in his critics labelling the programme Maun ki Baat (Matter of silence).

Now, as the death toll continues to rise in the Vyapam recruitment scam in Madhya Pradesh, Modi's silence is inviting even more acerbic commentary, with the social media brewing a storm of its own. One such thread started by user babubhaiya on the sharing website reddit’s India forum is a telling commentary on how the talking point on social media is not a fight between Congress versus BJP,  AAPtards versus Presstitutes or, indeed,  Adarsh Bhakts versus Adarsh Liberals any more. It is now a fight among the Modi supporters as revealed by this strongly worded post, where the user expressed disappointment and regret over voting for the party and called for everyone to unfollow the prime minister on Twitter.
“I too was a BJP supporter. Now seeing all these incidents and the PM cherry picking and turning blind eye to scams of his party, shit man why did I vote!

Let's trend #UnfollowModi. He is too concerned about his image and PR. This can serve him as a wake up call.”

Expectedly, many started trolling as soon as the post gathered steam, with user shivajiS ridiculing the idea by calling the poster a “true revolutionary”, while ggoyal went even a step further to mock "clicktivism".


At the same time, BZ_Cryers took another tangent to mock the idea of unfollowing Modi.
“Saars, saars, y v stop there? #UnfollowModi and #FollowManmohan”

Meanwhile, many did claim to have unfollowed the prime minister on Twitter like hapuchu who said that the account is “banal and uninformative”.
“I unfollowed him a while back. Not in some crazy fit of anger but I found his account to be banal, uninformative and sometimes spammy. His tweets fall into two categories: One, either I already know the information OR two, I am not interested in knowing that information.

Only things that I learnt from his tweets are the national days of various countries and birthdays of various politicians.”

Others soon joined in and many reported “feeling good” after unfollowing. SupremeLeaderOrnob said:
Although I unfollowed him in a fit of rage just now (guilty of that), this exact realization struck me. Why was I following him in the first place? I gain nothing out of his tweets except tributes to leaders and tweets in different languages wherever he visits.

I guess I was just following him because he's the Prime Minister. I should go back and unfollow a bunch of other people now.

But SocratesTombur said that it was a stupid idea:
“What kind of stupidity is this? Unfollowing someone on twitter as a means to change society? Never knew slactivism could be taken this far.”

Another user fraands had a theory about why Modi is no longer speaking to the urban middle class about the issues that matter to them:
“He doesn't need urban middle class votes, as soon as he was voted to power he started man ki baat. He is already preparing for the next elections by reaching out to the simple minded masses via radio.”

However, user manoos who claimed to be a BJP supporter said that it is too early to judge.
“I am a BJP supporter and disappointed. but things dont change so fast. Look at congress in 2009 and 2014. it took brazen corruption and arrogance multiple times than what BJP has now. Add the fact that once in a time generation people united under Anna
if they remain shameless for couple of more years and do no course correction then we are looking at change of power”

Zoro_3, another self-professed BJP supporter, suggested that all sins shall be forgiven until the growth falls down below 4%.
“BJP supporter here. What the fuck is this article? This scam is probably bigger than corruption. There were much bigger scams than this which didnt have this many killings.
Please hear this out. UNFOLLOW MODI ONLY WHEN THE INDIAN ECONOMIC GROWTH GOES BELOW 4%. Until then just fuckin hold on to the current govt.”

Apart from getting heavily downvoted, his comment also attracted replies such as this:
“Modi may not be involved, but he still has a responsibility. He can't just wish that away.
And growth is not a license to allow Putin-style executions. I don't see how applying the rule of law would hurt our growth, so your growth vs vyapam logic makes zero sense.”

Even though the thread gathered limelight on the reddit's India forum, there were hardly any noises to be heard on Twitter except a couple of tweets even though some claimed to have unfollowed the PM.

 

 

 

True to his user id, theoptimisticone suggested that people use social media in a constructive manner and ask for a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry instead:
“Wasn't the scam exposed by BJP government itself & it was going on since decades?
CBI intervention is required, I believe many people from BJP & congress are involved in this since a long time..
Blaming Modi will not work. We should instead use social media to demand CBI inquiry.”

There were many others also who remained bullish, such as Maharana_Pratap, who wondered if the prime minister will prove detractors wrong with his actions sometime soon:
“What if his plan is "Action speaks louder than words?"

But, many including rsa1 weren’t convinced, who retorted:
“Which would be great if there was actually any action.”

Apart from unfollowing, notfooledthrice suggested sending letters to the PM too:
“As if this is going to affect him. Why not write a letter to him?”

But, sri-baba had the perfect response on why it might not work.
“He'll send you flowers, roses, and a selfie.”