Shame on trolls: Omar Abdullah in support of Sushma Swaraj
New Delhi, Jul 2 (IBNS) : Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference chief Omar Abdullah on Monday came out in support of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj against the abusive trolls on Twitter.
Citing the recent online poll conducted by Swaraj in which 43 per cent of the people said that they approve of abusive trolling, Abdullah said, "That 43% of almost 120,000 respondents support the vile tweets that have been used to troll @SushmaSwaraj tells its own story of what a miserable place part of the twitter universe has become."
" Shame on the trolls & their supporters/apologists," he added.
Swaraj started a Twitter poll on Saturday night after facing backlash and being trolled for the issuance of passports to an interfaith couple in Lucknow. "Do you approve of such tweets?" she asked.
Twenty-four hours after she started the poll, 43 per cent of the people said that they approve of such trolling while 57 per cent voted no. The poll received a total of 124,305 votes.
"In a democracy difference of opinion is but natural. Please do criticise but not in foul language. Criticism indecent language is always more effective," Sushma Swaraj tweeted after the poll results were declared.
Earlier, Swaraj had retweeted the tweets which her abusive and communal in nature. Her husband, Swaraj Kaushal on Sunday also tweeted a screenshot of a post by a Twitter user asking him to "beat" the minister and "teach her not to do Muslim appeasement".
Sushma has been on the receiving end of a lot of backlash and trolls after she had a Passport Seva Kendra official in Lucknow transferred for allegedly harassing a Hindu-Muslim interfaith couple.
The couple had stated that Vikas Mishra, the official, had asked the man to convert into a Hinduism and had also criticised the woman for engaging in marital ties with a Muslim.
Swaraj later retweeted some of those tweets, some of which were abusive and even communal in nature.
When asked as to what can be the role of the EAM against such trolls, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "The EAM (External Affairs Minister) has responded to those malicious tweets and the trolling which she was subjected to in her own way and in a manner which she deemed fit.”
He said, “I don't think I have anything further to add on that."
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