While the journalists and internet trolls sympathetic to the Congress party have a habit of waxing eloquent on the need to respect one’s freedom of expression and be tolerant to dissenting views, when it comes to criticism of the Gandhi family, particularly Rahul Gandhi, all their commitment to these lofty ideals take a back seat as they vigorously come to the defence of their ‘crown prince’.
Recently, a businessman named Nikhil Nanda posted a tweet critiquing the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his disparaging remark on India’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Gandhi had taken a dig at the BJP government by sharing a graph of projected GDP growth rate of countries for the year 2020-21. Gandhi alleged that even Pakistan and Afghanistan handled the COVID-19 better than India.
What was India’s share of World GDP during UPA?
India’s Ease of Doing Business ranking UPA?
India’s Innovation Index during UPA?
Get your eyes tested.
Change your advisors.same IMF report, same page says India’s GDP will be 8.8% in 2021.
India strongest COVID Revival exp. https://t.co/FXson1K3ZO
— Nikhil Nanda 🇮🇳 (@iamnikhilnanda) October 16, 2020
To this tweet, Nikhil Nanda, Managing Director of oral care manufacturing company JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Limited, asked a series of questions to Rahul Gandhi and suggested him to get his eyes tested and advisors changed. Nanda questioned India’s share of World GDP, Ease of Business ranking, and India’s Innovation Index during the UPA regime. He further added that the same IMF report which Rahul cited to denigrate India’s handling of COVID-19 outbreak projects that India’s GDP will be 8.8 per cent in 2021.
Naturally, Nanda’s acerbic response to the Congress party leader rattled his ardent supporters, who did not waste time to mount an attack against the businessman. However, in doing so, they evidently fulminated against the wrong Nikhil Nanda.
Some pro-Congress trolls and journalists started attacking actor Amitabh Bachchan’s son-in-law, who also shares the same name as the businessman Nikhil Nanda for debunking Rahul Gandhi’s claims with hard and unpleasant facts. Bachchan’s son-in-law Nikhil Nanda is the managing director of Escorts Group.
A Twitter user called Ranjona Banerji, who is a journalist as per her Twitter bio, attempted to cover up Rahul Gandhi’s deceit by belittling Nikhil Nanda as someone who pays money to promote his tweets, given that he could rack up only a few retweets despite having above 60,000 followers.
Soon thereafter, another Twitter user Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma, who claims herself to be a freelance writer, pointed out that the Nikhil Nanda who exposed Rahul Gandhi with his tweet was Amitabh Bachchan’s son-in-law.
Other Congress trolls also proceeded to slam Amitabh Bachchan’s son-in-law, Nikhil Nanda, assuming that he was the one who exposed their master’s perfidy.
Amitabh Bachchan’s son-in-law, Nikhil Nanda is Chairman and Managing Director of the Escorts Group while Nikhil Nanda who slammed Rahul Gandhi for his tweet is the Managing Director of JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Limited. Both of them are different individuals. However, with Rahul Gandhi’s deceit exposed, pro-Congress journalists and trolls swung into action to protect their leader and run down the critic. In doing so, they didn’t bother to verify if they are attacking the businessman Nikhil Nanda or his namesake Amitabh Bachchan’s son in law, Nikhil Nanda.