New Delhi: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Sunday asked party supporters to join social media to combat Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “biggest strength of faking news” ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing an event here, Singh contended the Congress- led UPA had to taste defeat in the 2014 general election notwithstanding its “good” performance as it could not properly refute the BJP’s “disinformation campaign” against it.
The AICC general secretary charged Modi and the RSS-BJP combine with engaging in communal politics and alleged they are “threat” to the country’s unity.
He also reiterated the need for bringing together group of people who are “anti-BJP and anti-RSS” to halt the BJP juggernaut.
“We lost the 2014 polls despite doing a good job. Why? Because we could not refute properly the disinformation campaign by RSS-BJP,” he said.
“Fake news is the biggest strength of Modiji. We need to contemplate how we combat it ahead of 2019 polls,” he said.
The Rajya Sabha member asked the attendees to not care two hoots about “Modiji’s troll army” when they try to show “mirror” to those voters who are not members of any party but are “influenced” by the prime minister.
He asked the supporters to follow Twitter handles of the Congress and its vice president Rahul Gandhi to hit back at the BJP.
At one point during his speech, Singh sought to counter the BJP’s slogan of “Congress-free India” saying the people need “fear-free India”.
The leader also charged the ruling party with using central agencies like CBI and ED to deter opposition leaders. Singh reiterated that the Election Commission should revert to use of paper ballots for the next Lok Sabha polls.
PTI