Trolls: Sushma hits back with poll

New Delhi, July 1

Facing online abuse over a passport row involving an inter-faith couple, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj conducted a poll on Twitter asking users whether they “approve” such trolling to which 57 per cent respondents said they oppose it.

The minister’s husband Swaraj Kaushal, in an emotional response to a troll, on Sunday said the Twitter user’s harsh words had caused “unbearable pain” to his family.

In the poll, which was conducted for 24 hours after Swaraj initiated it on Saturday night, 1,24,305 Twitter users took part, with 57 per cent respondents backing her, while the rest supporting the trolls.

After the poll, Swaraj tweeted, “In a democracy difference of opinion is but natural. Pls do criticise but not in foul language. Criticism in decent language is always more effective.” 

After days of trolling, matters came to a head on Saturday when Kaushal tweeted a screenshot of the post by the Twitter user who asked him to “beat her up and teach her not to do Muslim appeasement”.

He responded to the person, tweeting, “Your words have given us unbearable pain. My mother died of cancer in 1993. Sushma was an MP and an ex-Education Minister. She lived in hospital for a year and attended my mother personally.  Such was her devotion to the family. Please don’t use such words for her. We pray for nothing more than her life. Convey my regards to your wife.” — PTI

The minister asks

• Minister Sushma Swaraj has initiated a Twitter poll, asking users whether they “approve” trolling over a passport row involving an inter-faith couple
• “Friends : I have liked some tweets. This is happening for the last few days. Do you approve of such tweets? Please RT,” she tweeted
• Over 1.24 lakh people took part in the poll, with 57 % respondents backing her