Chowkidar seems to be emerging as the keyword in Lok Sabha elections 2019 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders adding the word to their Twitter handles on Thursday.
The Prime Minister’s Twitter handle was changed to ‘Chowkidar Narendra Modi’ and that of BJP chief Amit Shah’s was ‘Chowkidar Amit Shah’. Among other senior leaders who changed their Twitter handles were health minister JP Nadda and railway minister Piyush Goyal.
The ‘Chowkidar‘ debate dates back to the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign, when PM Modi said he was the ‘Pradhan Chowkidar’ of the nation and not the ‘Pradhan Mantri’.
Harping on the PM’s statement, the Congress in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections have coined the slogan ‘Chowkidar chor hai’ while highlighting, what they call, various cases of corruption.
Hitting back, the BJP recently started a campaign “Main bhi Chowkidar’, seeking to expand the PM’s self-designated “chowkidar” status to the rest of the country and said that everyone who fought social evils was a “chowkidar”.
As part of the campaign, in a tweet put out on his @narendramodi handle, PM Modi wrote, “Your Chowkidar is standing firm & serving the nation. But, I am not alone. Everyone who is fighting corruption, dirt, social evils is a Chowkidar. Everyone working hard for the progress of India is a Chowkidar. Today, every Indian is saying-#MainBhiChowkidar.”
The tweet was accompanied by 3 minute 45 second video that begins with the PM addressing the people saying, “Your chowkidar is absolutely alert”. The video then moves into a song with visuals of people from across the length and breadth of the country, singing “main bhi chowkidar hun” as part of the chorus of the song.
First Published:
Mar 17, 2019 12:21 IST
Source: HindustanTimes