Do check the facts of your tweet if you do not want 50-odd Narendra Modi supporters lashing out at you for your brilliant faux pas.

Ask Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor. On Thursday, Tharoor tweeted about an article, from a listings site ‘Sulekha.com’ which cites statistics showing how Kerala is better than Gujarat on several economic and social indicators. Tharoor said quoting the statistics how it was an ‘innings defeat for Modi.’

What he did not realise was that, in his haste to spearhead the social media campaign of the Congress, he had a quoted an article which was six years old and was based on the data which was sourced by the Outlook Magazine from the national health profile 2006, national family health survey 2005-06 and state report cards 2005 of the national institute of educational planning and administration. (However, the national family health survey has not been done after 2005-06.)

Secondly, six to seven years ago, the Modi rule had barely got to the point of making any changes in Gujarat. And six years ago, it was the Left government of CPM and not the present Congress government of UDF which was in power in Kerala.  

The oops moment
Tharoor realised his mistake within minutes of publishing his tweet. Ever a responsive minister, he did not respond to many Modi supporters or just-lovers-of-facts’ allegations of misleading people with false data. When he did, it was a lousy one. He said that he got some data regarding Kerala and got excited as he was an MP from Kerala.

Yeah right. Of course it had nothing to do with the sudden interest of the Congress in social media. Nothing to do with how Modi is the current reigning god in the domain, and how it is imperative to beat him in his own game to influence the social media savvy voters. And, of course, it had nothing to do with Shashi Tharoor being made the apparent leader of Congress’s social media campaign (read reports here )

Just a harmless “chest thumping” by a Kerala MP.
Perceptions have this thing about them, the thing that they can be created by powerful agencies which control what you read and what you see. People who control the media which feeds you information. However, this equation has been disturbed by social media where everyone gets to talk and reply and reprimand. There is a certain democracy of information dissemination and participation which the other forms of media are yet to attain. People tell you if they disagree and with the internet at their disposal, they can quote reasons to why they say what they say.

So, if you want to woo voters, don't bluff. They know.

They do.