PM Modi’s statements seem to have touched raw nerve among young Malayalees.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election campaign rally in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. PTI PhotoIndia was confused. #PoMoneModi was trending on Twitter, but beyond the Western Ghats, most had no clue what it meant. Yet there was no such confusion in the little strip of land between the mountain ranges and the Arabian Sea. Kerala had taken to social media with one-liners and memes to tell the world it was not accepting the comparison with Somalia, at least not without a 140-character fight.
The trend started Wednesday in reaction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi comparing Kerala with Somalia at an election rally in the state.
“Yahan Keral ki janjaati, janta, ST Scheduled Tribe, usmey jo child death ratio hai, Somalia se bhi sthiti khatarnaak hai… Abhi kuchh din pehle… media mein dardnaak chitra dekhney ko mila…Jo Communist party ka qila maana jaata hai, jahaan voh hamesha jeet-ti hai, us Peravoor mein Scheduled Tribe ke baalak koode ke dher mein bhojan talaash kar rahe hain, yeh media mein prakaashit hua hai,” Modi said.
(“The situation with the child death ratio among Scheduled Tribes in Kerala is scarier than even Somalia. Recently, one came across a tragic picture in the media. In Peravoor, which is seen as a stronghold of the Communist party, where it has always won, there, Scheduled Tribe children were seen foraging for food in a garbage dump… it has appeared in the media.”)
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As Chief Minister Oommen Chandy wrote to the PM objecting to the statement, thousands of tweets were being posted with the #PoMoneModi hashtag.
As the day progressed, #PoMoneModi clocked over 40,000 tweets with a reach of 7,452,648, according to keyhole.co which tracks hashtags.
The hashtag was a play on one of the most popular dialogues in Malayalam cinema — Mohanlal’s “nee po mone Dinesha’’ from Narasimham. It is a subtle way of asking someone to get lost, in this case the villain of the movie.
