Trolls will be trolls

Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, tweeted on Wednesday she has unveiled a “Be Santa campaign” for an FM radio channel. The objective, she said, was “to collect gifts from people for poor children, to bring smiles to their faces during this Christmas”. Amruta, who describes herself on her Twitter profile as a “banker, playback singer, social worker, homemaker”, said the “best way to multiply your happiness is by sharing it with others”. Soon enough, Amruta and her husband began to be trolled. So she tweeted, “Love, sharing and empathy have no religion — let’s accept all positivity around us and stay away from negative thoughts and demotivating energies.” The trolling persisted. Someone pointed out that the Gujarat Archbishop had appealed to Christians in Gujarat that they should not vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party; another insinuated it was time Fadnavis and his wife converted to Christianity and called themselves Amanda and Dave Fernandes. Amruta refused to cave in. “I’m a proud Hindu and like many, I celebrate every festival in my country and that is an individual choice... and that doesn’t dilute our love towards our country, religion and humanity,” she tweeted.