New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday launched an online campaign “India Against Hate”, a day after 13 opposition parties came out with a joint statement to condemn instances of communal violence across the country. Before that, Congress president Sonia Gandhi also wrote an article in a national newspaper condemning such violence and questioned the Centre’s silence over the instances.
Through the campaign, Congress wants to send a message that it not only raises such issues but is also doing something to counter them. While the social media teams of the grand old party urged people to adopt a logo created for the online campaign on their social media accounts, the party also floated a WhatsApp number urging citizens to speak up against hate and send visuals to it.
Rahul Gandhi had targeted the BJP over the instances saying that the people were paying its price. India’s true culture was shared celebrations and cohesive living, he had said. "Inflation and unemployment choked the people in the country and the government should drive bulldozer on these problems but BJPs bulldozer is driven by hate to create fear," Gandhi had tweeted.
On Sunday, the Congress social media teams tweeted from the party’s official handle a message from Rahul highlighting that the people were suffering from price rise and joblessness, for which the government seemingly had no solution. “I urge people of Delhi to maintain peace and harmony,” Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary said in the wake of communal tension in the Jahangirpuri area.
“Delhi was known as the city of large-hearted people not a city of violence,” Congress leader Alka Lamba tweeted. Over the past weeks, Congress has been critical of communal violence incidents in BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The grand old party also faced some flak over similar incidents in Rajasthan but said that the state government was doing everything possible to bring the perpetrators to book.
Congress social media head Rohan Gupta said: "The real problem of the country is ignored with the vicious atmosphere created by the BJP." The Congress managers feel that raising issues that affect the common people will boost its image as an opposition party that panders to all sections of society and also find support from the other like-minded parties in an attempt to build a larger anti-BJP platform.
The Congress social media managers feel such anti-hate campaigns and raising of issues like joblessness will find popular support from the younger population, who are also tech-savvy.
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