On Sunday, April 23, the Indian National Congress party posted a trivia on its official Twitter account, wherein it asked who the Prime Minister of India was when the seventh Five Year Plan was announced. An image posted by the party read, “Did you know? Seventh Five year Plan was announced during the tenure of which prime minister?” four options were also given, namely Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh, and Chandrashekhar.
While this was a simple question with the answer being Rajiv Gandhi, it backfired for the Congress party, because social media users pointed out how former PM Rajiv Gandhi had criticised the Planning Commission, which was responsible for implementing the five-year plans. In fact, Rajiv Gandhi had called the Planning Commission a bunch of jokers.
While answering the question, popular Twitter “Befitting Facts” wrote that the Five Year Plan was announced during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi as the prime minister of India and was headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh. Along with it, they also pointed out the fact that Rajiv Gandhi had back then called Dr. Singh and his team a “bunch of jokers”.
“Rajiv Gandhi. It was headed by Manmohan Singh and Rajiv Gandhi called them Bunch Of Jokers. #DidYouKnow,” Befitting Facts replied to Congress’s tweet.
Rajiv Gandhi. It was headed by Manmohan Singh and Rajiv Gandhi called them Bunch Of Jokers. #DidYouKnow
— Facts (@BefittingFacts) April 23, 2023
When Rajiv Gandhi called Dr Manmohan Singh and his team at Planning Commission a “bunch of jokers”
Interestingly, C.G Somiah who served as the eighth Comptroller and Auditor General of India and was the Secretary of the Planning Commission when the 7th Five Year Plan was announced, has mentioned in his autobiography titled The Honest Always Stand Alone that the then Prime Minster Rajiv Gandhi and ex-officio Chairman of the Planning Commission had called Manmohan Singh, who was the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission back then and his team a “bunch of jokers” while speaking to journalists.
Following this, Manmohan Singh was so hurt that he had made up his mind to quit, however, Somiah in his book stated that he managed to convince him not to do so by saying that Rajiv Gandhi was “young and inexperienced,” and it was their duty to educate him.
The term of the seventh five-year plan was from 1985 to 1990. During the first meeting of the commission, Rajiv Gandhi expressed his disagreement with the approach of the Planning Commission to the plan. He spoke for the next 30 minutes after hearing the Commission’s explanation of the plan. Unaware of the ground realities, Rajiv Gandhi shared his vision of leading a “fully developed” India into the twenty-first century.
Rajiv, who was raised in a city and received his education abroad, had little knowledge of the real India. Manmohan Singh, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, requested an internal meeting to further analyze the situation.
In his book, Somiah stated, “The broad consensus that emerged was that the Prime Minister was urban-centric without any knowledge of the socially and financially backward condition of the vast population living in the rural areas.”
Somiah further pointed out that during an internal meeting, PM Rajiv Gandhi was not only unimpressed with Manmohan Singh’s explanation of the negative economic indicators prevalent in the country but also made several disparaging remarks about his presentation.
“In the next meeting of the Planning Commission, the soft-spoken Dr. Singh deliberated at length on the negative economic indicators prevalent in the country, which could not be ignored for providing relief in any future plan. The Prime Minister was not impressed and made some hurtful derogatory remarks about Dr. Singh’s presentation,” C.G. Somiah mentioned in his book.
Days after the meeting concluded without any specific directions from the prime minister, Somiah states that “the Prime Minister shared his thoughts with journalists, calling us a ‘bunch of jokers’ who were bereft of any modern ideas of development.”
Congress and its social media goof-ups
Apparently, Congress seems to have resumed its social media goof-ups which they had started ahead of the 2019 general elections. Back in 2017, the Congress social media team ran a campaign #KnowYourLegacy in which they conducted various polls asking questions related to Congress leaders and the Nehru-Gandhi family. In one such poll Congress had asked “What animal did Prime Minister Nehru arrive in Bhutan on in 1958?”, to this, netizens poked fun at the party as they voted for donkey amongst other options yak, horse, and elephant. However, the correct answer was a yak. After realizing what happened, Congress deleted the poll only to post it again hours later with the same options. People back then had trolled the Congress party and the tweet even to this date remains not-deleted. The Congress party was massively trolled as people picked up the #KnowYourLegacy hashtag to share the ‘other’ legacy the Congress leaders left behind.
In the absence of motorable roads in Bhutan in 1958, PM Nehru rode on an animal to visit the country. What animal was it? #KnowYourLegacy
— Congress (@INCIndia) September 4, 2017
When Congress paid a ‘unique’ tribute to Raja Ram Mohan Roy
On September 27, 2017, Congress’s Twitter handle posted an image paying tributes to Raja Ram Mohan Roy on his death anniversary. Interestingly, the Congress social media team had written the date of death (27th September 1833) before the date of birth (22nd May 1772) which appears as if he was born on 27th September 1833 and passed away on 22nd May 1772 which is just not possible.
When the Congress SM team brought Indira Gandhi back from the dead to inaugurate a bridge in West Bengal
In October 2017 Congress posted a tweet that read “Indira Gandhi inaugurated the Vidyasagar Setu in West Bengal. It can handle 85,000 vehicles a day. #ThisDayThatYear” As per the tweet, Indira Gandhi inaugurated the Vidyasagar Setu, which was actually opened on 10th October 1992, which is eight years after she was assassinated. As the netizens started trolling Congress, the tweet was deleted and reposted with the correct information.
When the Congress Twitter account referred to Subhadra as Lord Jagannath’s ‘brother’
In 2018, on the occasion of the annual Jagannath Yatra, Congress’s Twitter account posted a video of the journey. The video talked about Lord Jagannath’s journey with his ‘brothers.’ Lord Jagannath goes on the annual journey to the Gundicha Temple along with his brother Balaram and sister Subhadra. In the tweet, Congress mentioned Gundicha Temple as Gundicha Ghar, although there is no such place.
Jagannath Yatra 1 of the oldest procession festivals, takes place at the Hindu Dham, Puri. As Lord Jagannath takes his annual journey to his birthplace Gundicha Ghat with his brothers, it is in essence the journey of a man from ignorance to awareness, of equality & inclusiveness. pic.twitter.com/oaKUwIcd4V
— Congress (@INCIndia) July 14, 2018
Congress poll based on fake news
In February 2018, the Congress Twitter handle ran a poll based on a piece of fake news that the telecom ministry has approved 13-digit numbers for regular mobile users while the fact was that the 13-digit numbers are required only for M2M (machine-to-machine) connections.
These are just a few gems of the numerous goof-ups by the Congress party’s social media team and with the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, all parties will ramp up their election campaigns, particularly their social media campaigns. In that case, the Congress party is likely to commit many more gaffes.
