Chennai: “My dream, which can become a reality. Another 5 years of Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) rule making it a total 15 years. After Modi, 3 terms as Prime Minister Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath),” D. Muthukrishnan, a certified financial planner (CFL), who earlier identified himself as a staunch supporter of the prime minister and the BJP, posted on ‘X’ in February.
In Muthukrishnan’s dream, by the time Yogi Adityanath completes three terms as Prime Minister, BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai would have completed three terms as chief minister.
His dream did not stop here. In another post’, he went on to say that Annamalai would become the prime minister for three terms.
All it took for the bubble to burst was the Union Budget. Muthukrishnan, who identifies himself as ‘amateur investor’ and has 5.36 lakh followers on ‘X’, has ever since been vehemently criticising the Modi government’s taxation policies.
His posts on ‘X’ criticising the Union Budget and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman were widely shared and Muthukrishnan himself again took to the platform on 29 July requesting the PM to listen to his grievances.
“Budget proved to be a trigger. We need ease of living. Taxpayer friendly government. Moderation in taxes. Significant reduction in GST for many goods and services. Sincerely request you to listen to our grievances,” Muthukrishnan posted.
Such was the response to his posts that Annamalai suggested to Muthukrishnan to refrain from responding to the trolls.
In a lengthy message, Annamalai has asked Muthukrishnan “not to respond to trolls” or “feel disheartened that someone belonging to BJP or to the ideological spectrum is criticising you.”
From his tweets, it is evident that he has been supporting the BJP at the Centre, and the Tamil Nadu BJP and its leader, in particular, irrespective of the trolls and abuses in the last two years.
“I’ve been wholeheartedly supporting Annamalai since he joined BJP in Tamil Nadu. I’ve been very vulgarly criticised by Dravidian stocks for the same. Me being a Brahmin increased the viciousness of the attacks,” he posted 31 March.
Muthukrishnan told ThePrint that the disenchantment was there all along the 10 years of the BJP rule. “However, being a supporter of the BJP, I could not criticise them then. But, the budget proved to be a trigger. At least as a face-saving measure, the Union Government should immediately change the taxation policies,” he said.
He felt that he made a big mistake by letting the political party take his vote for granted. “Just because now I do not support the BJP, does not mean I will be supporting Congress. Henceforth, I will not be supporting any party. Based on the work they do, I will decide during the elections. Let the political parties earn the votes and not take it for granted from its supporters,” the CFL told ThePrint.
On Thursday, he came out with a post on ‘X’ reiterating that the “Budget was the final breaking point”, adding that “the disenchantment doesn’t happen overnight”.
People are asking is the budget the reason for me ceasing to be a BJP supporter. Budget was the final breaking point. You can check my tweets during election campaign. I was pleading Prime Minister not to go so low in campaigning like opposition will snatch your mangalsutra, will…
— D.Muthukrishnan (@dmuthuk) August 1, 2024
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Brush with trolls
Last month, Muthukrishnan said that he would stop political posts for now. “No pro or anti posts for any political person or party. Will stick to finance, general affairs and philosophy for now,” he posted 28 July.
However, the troll handles supporting the BJP did not spare Muthukrishnan, pushing him to break his own words.
On 29 July morning, he apologised to Annamalai. “I wanted to stop talking about politics, especially against the BJP government for a while. But, people like Selvakumar (Vice President of TN BJP) and other BJP trolls continue to either accuse or abuse me for stating facts. It is difficult for me not to share my thoughts in such a scenario,” he posted.
Then on, he did not mince his voice against the trolls from the BJP and its supporting ‘X’ handles.
On 29 July, citing the mishandling of the finance ministry, he even went on to say that BJP would lose power by a huge margin if elections were to be conducted now.
“Sir Narendra Modi, if you don’t make your finance ministry people friendly, people would cease to be BJP friendly. In terms of managing expectations and aspirations of people, the finance minister has been a huge disaster,” he posted.
On 31 July, accepting that Modi has been contributing to the growth and development of the nation for the last 10 years, he questioned the BJP IT cell for sounding as if the people were wearing leaves and eating plants before 2014.
“India, especially from 1991, post liberalisation under PV Narasimha Rao, has been doing reasonably well. There have been ups and downs. For example, UPA 2 was an economic disaster. So was Modi’s first term,” Muthukrishnan posted.
As the Congress supporters started to follow him, the Chennai-based financial planner made it clear that he no longer supports any party and has no intention of becoming a congress supporter.
But, when one of the troll accounts questioned him about making money using stocks and equity funds in the last 10 years, Muthukrishnan said that he has been creating wealth through stocks and equity funds for the last 25 years and not only for the last 10 years.
“Why 25 years in my case? That’s when I had money to invest. Indian stock markets have been creating wealth for close to 5 decades: under the rule of NDA, UPA and Third Front. It is not that investors were making no money till 2014. Indian markets have been providing wealth creation opportunities for many decades,” he posted 31 July.
(Edited by Tony Rai)