Congress wants its leaders to maximise use of social media ahead of Lok Sabha elections but does not want to get sucked into any unsavoury controversy.
New Delhi: Wary of getting caught in any unsavoury controversy ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress’ top election committee has advised party functionaries to avoid commenting on religious issues on social media.
According to senior party functionaries, Congress workers and leaders have been asked to be active on social media but to also be “careful” while posting their views and comments especially on religion. There have been specific instructions to the party cadre to be responsible and ensure that they do not hurt religious sentiments, ThePrint has learnt.
“Party functionaries were told that social media will play a significant role in these elections and everyone should maximise its use. There was, however, a word of caution to not create unnecessary controversies especially as far as religion is concerned,” said a senior Congress functionary.
“The BJP is quick to pick up on such statements and it snowballs into a major row, which has often happened with the Ram mandir issue.”
The core election committee, which has senior party leaders like A.K. Anthony, P. Chidambaram and Ahmed Patel among others in its ranks, proffered the advice during meetings held last week. The committee has been tasked to look after the Congress’ poll preparations.
Sources said that the panel has also asked the manifesto committee to complete the exercise of getting inputs from all frontal organisations by 31 January and not to include any promises that the party will find difficult to deliver.
The core committee further discussed a number of organisational issues with the party’s general secretaries, secretaries, state presidents and heads of frontal organisations, sources said.
Also read: The 4 Cs that mark Congress’ decline from secularism to soft Hindutva
Caught on the back-foot
Of late, the Congress has given the BJP fodder to attack with, particularly over the Ram temple issue. Senior party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar recently stoked controversy after questioning the rationale behind insisting that the Ram temple should be built at a specific location. He also questioned how those calling for the temple knew where exactly Lord Ram was born.
“Make the temple by all means. But how can you say ‘mandir wahin banayenge’ (we will build the temple here only)?” Aiyar said at a function. “Dasrath (Lord Ram’s father) was a great king and his palace had more than 10,000 rooms, it is believed. Who knows which room was where?”
The BJP had earlier attacked the Congress following Shashi Tharoor’s comments that no good Hindu would want the Ram temple to be built after demolishing somebody else’s place of worship, a reference to Babri demolition in 1992. Tharoor later clarified that his remarks were distorted.