New Delhi: With the video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest Mann ki Baat, his monthly radio address, being flooded with ‘dislikes’ by YouTube users, the Bharatiya Janata Party has dismissed them as an opposition ploy.
BJP social media chief Amit Malviya said only 2 per cent of those hitting the ‘dislike’ icon are from India, while national spokesperson Dr Bizay Sonkar Shastri told ThePrint that the dislikes were “instigated by the Congress”.
On Monday, BJP social media chief Amit Malviya cited YouTube data to claim only 2 per cent of those dislikes are from India.
The video was posted on YouTube Sunday on the channels of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and the BJP, among others. Soon, it started garnering negative reviews, with the campaign appearing to be led by students resentful about the government’s decision to hold JEE-NEET amid the Covid pandemic
As of Monday evening, on the three channels, the number of dislikes was higher than that of likes.
At the time of filing this report, the video had 7.4 lakh dislikes against 1.2 lakh likes on the BJP channel (out of 29 lakh views), 15,000 dislikes against 4,900 likes on the PIB India channel (1.3 lakh views), and 1.2 lakh dislikes against 49,000 on PMO India (10 lakh views).
Much of the negative reaction appeared driven by the ongoing protests against the Modi government’s decision to go ahead with NEET and JEE Main exams — both will be wrapped up within the first half of September — despite there being no let-up in the Covid-19 pandemic, with users deploying hashtags such as “#Students Dislike PM Modi” and “#Mann ki Nahi Students Ki Baat”.
In the comment sections, many users protested against the fact that his address didn’t touch upon the NEET-JEE protests.
“At a time when lives of millions of students are in jeopardy, instead of addressing this (PM) Modi is talking about toys and canine breeds,” said a user named Mayank Saxena on the BJP’s YouTube account, referring to two of the widely-discussed subjects dealt with by Modi.
A second user named Ashok S wrote under the same video, “In the case of NEET, only super rich people who own a car and can afford to stay in hotels, would be able to appear in the exam. What about the children from the poor families? Should they not dream about getting a medical seat?”
Another user named Moushumi Mandal wrote on the PIB channel, “What is the most important thing at the moment? Election rally or justice for students? Please decide and spare the final year to the students (from appearing in the exams).”
The comment section on PMO India’s YouTube channel is disabled, that is, one cannot post comments there.
Also Read: A year with no new doctors or engineers in India — that’s what delaying NEET/JEE will do
BJP dismisses dislikes
The PMO and the BJP channels both have playlists comprising all the Mann ki Baat addresses since 2014. ThePrint checked around a dozen videos predating Sunday’s and found that each has more likes than dislikes.
There is no Mann ki Baat playlist on the PIB YouTube channel.
Even so, the BJP dismissed the dislikes as an opposition ploy.
“The whole country knows the kind of love students have for the Prime Minister. Whatever dislikes are appearing on YouTube have been instigated by the Congress party,” BJP national spokesperson Dr Bizay Sonkar Shastri told ThePrint.
Amit Malviya cited YouTube data to claim only 2 per cent of those dislikes are from India.
Over the last 24hrs, there has been a concerted effort to dislike Mann Ki Baat video on YouTube… So low is the Congress on confidence that it has been celebrating it as some sort of conquest!
However, data from YouTube suggests that only 2% of those dislikes are from India…— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 31, 2020
Criticising Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Malviya said bots and Twitter accounts from overseas have been a consistent feature of the party’s anti-JEE-NEET campaign.
Also Read: JEE-NEET brings another student protest before Modi govt. This time, opposition is united