Samajwadi Party leader Rais Shaikh, who is also an MLA from Bhiwandi (East) Mumbai, recently engaged in a war of words with BJP Spokesperson on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Several tweets were exchanged with both the politicians launching multiple attacks on each other. Bagga has a reputation for provoking politicians and other public figures on Twitter. This time, however, it was Bagga who was at the receiving end of a dig taken by Shaikh on him.
Apart from being engaged in politics, Bagga owns an e-commerce website called TShirtBhaiya.com. Through the website, t-shirts, accessories, and other clothing materials are sold. The website also has a Twitter handle (@Tshirtbhaiya) through which it promotes itself. On April 1, the Twitter handle put up a post about a ‘Turtle Evil Eye Thread Anklet’ along with a picture of it. Rais quoted that tweet and in a witty manner tweeted, “Ye Modi Ji Ke Nazar Se Bachayea Na @TajinderBagga?”
Ye Modi Ji Ke Nazar Se Bachayea Na @TajinderBagga? https://t.co/nES5kRaULX
— Rais Shaikh (@rais_shk) April 1, 2021
This was a humorous tweet through which Rais Shaikh raised the question of whether the black-colored thread anklet is powerful enough to ward off the ‘Nazar or evil eye of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In India, a black thread is tied to the feet of children and adults alike as it is believed that it will protect them from the ‘Buri Nazar or evil eye of unscrupulous elements in the society.
This tweet by Rais marked the beginning of a Twitter war between the Samajwadi Party MLA and the BJP Spokesperson. Tajinder replied to this tweet by tweeting, “कांग्रेस को तो नही बचा पाएगा” (it would not be able to save Congress). Rais then took a dig at Tejinder losing the Vidhan Sabha 2020 elections in which he was pitched as an MLA candidate by the BJP. Several other tweets were exchanged between them and their supporters too joined in and supported them in this Twitter war.
In a war of words, the winner is the one who gets to have the last word. The last tweet in this heated exchange of tweets came from Rais who posted a sarcastic tweet, “और आपके नेता, UP में बेटियों की इज्जत।“. This tweet resonated with a large number of people on Twitter who were well aware of the BJP/Yogi Adityanath’s Government’s inefficiency at controlling the number of crimes taking place against women in Uttar Pradesh.
और आपके नेता, UP में बेटियों की इज्जत। 😭 https://t.co/4FudWxPwKe
— Rais Shaikh (@rais_shk) April 1, 2021
Had this conversation gone from a longer period of time, Rais would have surely pointed out several other failures of the BJP Government on different fronts. Rais has always been known to be a well-spoken, articulate, and polite politician but when is pushed to the edges, he knows how to fight back. By making his opponent silent in this war of words on Twitter, he proved this yet again!