Gauri Lankesh murder: PM Modi criticised for Twitter links to nasty posts

One of the Twitter posts read: One bitch dies a dog's death all the puppies cry in the same tune

What are the ethics in choosing whom to follow on Twitter? Do influential people — say, a head of state — have a higher responsibility not to follow people who post offensive tweets?

That is the debate now in India after it was discovered that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a hugely popular but divisive figure, was following the Twitter feed of a man who wrote the following this week, after a female journalist was shot to death: “One bitch dies a dog’s death all the puppies cry in the same tune.”

Many Indians were bothered by that message, then doubly disturbed to learn that the writer, Nikhil Dadhich, a prolific tweeter who describes himself as a “Hindu nationalist,” was among the 1,779 accounts their prime minister was following.

“The prime minister shouldn’t be doing that. He’s giving legitimacy to filth,” said Sai Krishna, a medical student in southern India who heard about the nasty message after the journalist, Gauri Lankesh, was killed Tuesday. The police have few leads, but many analysts said they believed the killing was an assassination.

Mrs. Lankesh was a provocative intellectual who criticized many politicians and religious leaders. The way she was killed — gunned down outside her house by a mysterious assailant — was eerily similar to how several other critics of the Hindu nationalist agenda of the Modi government have been silenced.

The offending tweet was soon taken down, and so was a boast by Mr. Dadhich that he was followed by the prime minister (though Mr. Modi continues to follow him).

Mr. Modi is a big fan of Twitter. He has nearly 34 million followers, far fewer than the singer Katy Perry has, for example, but not bad for a world leader.

Of the accounts Mr. Modi tracks, most would not be considered objectionable: Indian state ministers, star athletes, world leaders and the Cricket Association for the Blind, among others. But whom you follow on Twitter is considered an indicator of your tastes, and a handful of the accounts in his registry have drawn sharp criticism, especially now.

His political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (commonly referred to as the B.J.P.), is frequently accused of operating what detractors call a troll army — a group of bloggers who quickly swarm online anyone seen as critical of the party. Mr. Modi is following some of these people and in doing so, Mr. Krishna, the medical student, said, was acting “like a passive troll.”

Some of the accounts Mr. Modi follows on Twitter have made misogynistic comments, spread anti-Muslim feelings and dangerous rumors, or made remarks that do not always jibe with his message of tolerance. One account he follows suggested dropping an atomic bomb on Pakistan. The same account called a prominent female journalist a prostitute.

”What is the compelling need to follow these people?” asked Swati Chaturvedi, the author of, “I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army.” “Most of them boast in their bio saying, ‘Blessed to be followed by PM Modi,’ which is essentially like a license and a liberty to say what they want to.”

Mr. Modi’s party fired back, saying that he followed Indian opposition leaders, that just because he followed certain people did not mean he agreed with them, and that he had more pressing matters than arguing over whom he followed on Twitter and why.

It is not as though Mr. Modi has been spared online abuse. Arvind Kejriwal, one of the most powerful politicians in the capital, New Delhi, once tweeted that Mr. Modi was “a psychopath.”

Mr. Modi is neither the first nor the last public figure to become embroiled in a Twitter melee. Eyebrows went up in Australia when it was reported that Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister, was tracking an account that featured a picture of a scantily clad woman.

President Trump has even more followers than Mr. Modi — 37.8 million — but follows a scant 45 accounts, many from his own properties. Somehow Katrina Campins, a real estate executive he fired in the first season of his former reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” made the cut this time.

© 2017 The New York Times