The Election Commission set Twitter afire on Wednesday evening when it tweeted an article on the controversial website Op India. The piece written by an unnamed IAS officer who has served as the Returning Officer during the 2018 Assembly Elections in Telangana, explains in detail how Electronic Voting Machines cannot be hacked.
The EC’s tweet may be viewed here:
Shortly after this Op India began trending on Twitter with close to 35,000 tweets about it!
It is noteworthy that it is common practice for organisations to have their own authored articles published in different publications as a part of their public relations plan, but it was the choice of Op India as the means to convey their message that caught people by surprise, given how many perceive the website to be extremely right wing. The responses ranged from the outrages to the entertained to the mildly amused!
Senior journalists and civil society members found it distressing and discomforting:
https://twitter.com/bombaywallah/status/1131192696067055616
https://twitter.com/AbhinandanSekhr/status/1131199088504975360
https://twitter.com/karunanundy/status/1131188240969375747
https://twitter.com/khanumarfa/status/1131201521725726720
Among political parties, the CPI (M) expressed shock and anger:
https://twitter.com/cpimspeak/status/1131185693319786496
Twitterati had many a witty comebacks and sarcastic responses:
https://twitter.com/SarcasticRofl/status/1131179996339249152
https://twitter.com/monteskw/status/1131185434636083201
https://twitter.com/RohanV/status/1131189861132562432
Op India had come under scathing criticism earlier in the day for what many called a hit job on Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa who had reportedly recused himself from meetings on Code of Conduct violations. Then the EC goes on to use the same platform as a means to communicate its own messaging left many questioning the credibility of the institution.