A shared Google document providing content for BJP members to post on social media was compromised on Wednesday, causing embarrassment to the party on Twitter.
The document, containing phrases praising the efforts of the Modi government, was subjected to a series of mischievous edits on key words and phrases, making them seem critical of the government instead.
This included Minister of state for finance and shipping Pon Radhakrishnan whose tweet read, " #Modi4NewIndia Working for the middle class is low on the agenda of Modi govt. Modi govt has successfully failed the mindset that the middle class lives on someone's mercy which was nurtured by the Congress govt."
Alt News founder Pratik Sinha shared the following video on Twitter to explain the how the edits were done.
The results of the edits were spectacularly hilarious, as you could soon find official handles of the BJP members along with many other supporters tweeting the edited phrases.
"Honesty" and "transparency" was edited to "dishonesty" and "lack of transparency".
When BJP was declared dishonest by one of its own Twitter handle
"Transportation is cheaper" was edited to "transportation is expensive".
When expensive transportation became a good thing
"An order of 1000 aircrafts" was edited to "an order of 0 aircrafts".
When zero aircraft order was considered a great transformation for the aviation sector
"Working for the middle class is high on the agenda" was edited to "working for the middle class is low on the agenda".
When the word got out, the Twitter handles who shared the edited phrases quickly deleted the tweets and posted corrected versions.
Sinha stated in a tweet that this was an attempt to show how non-governmental entities have power of what was tweeted by BJP members like Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan.
While Sinha was accused of hacking the document, he has denied the charge on Twitter.
BOOM reached to Amit Malviya, BJP IT Cell Chief, for a comment but was unable to reach him. The article will be updated if and when he replies.
Twitter Trends: Propaganda for the 21st Century
It is not the first time that the BJP has been caught manufacturing trends by repetitively posting similar content.
Following the public outcry after demonetisation, hordes of Twitter accounts were found tweeting very similar content in favour of the controversial move. This included the then Railway Minister Suresh Prabu, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, Union Minister of state for planning Rao Inderjit Singhand Loksabha MP Om Birla.
Last year, BJP MP and actor Paresh Rawal accidentally attached an IT Cell document, containing a list of prepared content for Twitter with the hashtag #JhootiCongress, in a tweet. Rawal who tweeted a Google document which listed English and Hindi tweets with the hashtag deleted the tweet when pointed out by other users. Access to the document was restricted within thirty minutes of him deleting the post.