The Congress party’s ongoing social media volunteer recruitment drive, pejoratively referred to as “TwitterNREGA” in the social media, may net it a big fish: none other than L K Advani. The veteran BJP leader has been publicly airing his disenchantment with the BJP, his latest rant being that people are equally disappointed with the BJP as with the Congress. Consequently, the Congress social media team has attempted to rope in Advani as an unpaid volunteer who will post snide remarks about the right-wing nationalist party on the microblogging website, Twitter.
The news was confirmed by the head of the newly floated Congress social media committee cum Minister for State for Information and Broadcasting, Manish Tewari. ”We were kind of running out of ways and means to criticize the BJP, yaar,” disclosed Tewari. “Jokes were almost always on us. Vithal Radadiya joining the Gujarat BJP did provide relief for a day or two, but he soon disappeared from Twitter trends. We were in a tight spot, wondering what to do, when I read a news report which said that Shri Advani felt people were disillusioned with the BJP, of late. That was it! It’s often said that when you want something badly, sometimes the universe conspires to make it happen! Our universe, at least for now, is Advani saab.”
“So we’ve reached out to him and asked him to holistically post his opinions on Twitter. Imagine him tweeting about corruption allegations against BJP members or raking up reports of intra-party squabbles. Wow! Pure gold, ain’t it?” Tewari raved.
Tewari was kind enough to present our political correspondent, Rajniti Sarkarwala, with a copy of the email invitation.
From: manish.tewari@holisticemail.com
To: lkadvani@selfgoalmail.com
Cc: shashi.tharoor@dictionarymail.com
Bcc: sonia.gandhi@mailoitaliano.com
Sent on: 12/3/2013 @ 4:20 pm
Subject: TwitterNREGA invitation
Dear Advaniji,
Hope this email finds you in good spirits. We hereby cordially invite you to join our social media drive, wherein you will be tracked for posting your opinions about the BJP on Twitter. We understand that this may seem a bit absurd to you, considering that you are in the Opposition, but if you look at it holistically, it is all done with the intention of strengthening the democratic fabric of our system. After all, what is democracy, but a meaningful, fruitful civilized exchange and deliberation of ideas and opinions?
Waiting for your response in eager anticipation,
Yours holistically,
Manish Tewari.
While Shri Advani’s response to the invitation is awaited, the news has already brought in a tinge of fear to the Congress’ existing Twitter subservience pack, led by Sanjay Jha. “Sh*t man, we are so screwed, if Advaniji actually accepts the offer and starts posting his opinions. What will be left for us to harp on?” a worried Jha told The Unreal Times.