MSG tweets on ‘selfless service’, goes FB live as hashtags aim at goodwill
HIS POSTS SHOW ONLY POSITIVE COMMENTS, AN ANOMALY ON A PLATFORM AS POTENT AS FACEBOOK WHERE EVEN POSITIVE STORIES ATTRACT SNIDE REMARKS IN NO TIME
CHANDIGARH : As thousands of Dera Sacha Sauda followers poured into Panchkula, raising tension in the tricity, Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim, ironically, took to Twitter to talk about “selfless service, meditation and spirituality.”
At 9pm, he went live on Facebook with a talk, titled, ‘Did you know Nalanda University of ancient India was a global hub of education? Watch the session on #Rich Indian HeritageWith MSG now !’
A user Suman Insan even challenged Time, saying “Hey kaal tera band to MSG hi bjayenge! Ae sun kaal panga nhi lene ka (sic) (O Time, now MSG will take care of you. Do not mess with MSG).”
In his “selfless service” tweet, Ram Rahim gives a link to a Facebook video of one of hisser- mons. In the comment section, a number of followers can be seen commenting about the verdict date.
Ram Rahim is an accused in a rape case, the verdict of which will be pronounced by a special CBI court in Panchkula on August 25. In an apparent show of strength, dera followers or ‘premis’ as they call themselves have been reaching Panchkula in droves.
Around 50,000 dera followers had converged on Panchkula by Wednesday morning, with more expected to follow suit.
“Pitaji just grant us one wish. On August 25, the truth shall come out in front of everyone,” Kaali Insaan wrote on Facebook.
“Pitaji 25 ko ba-izzat bari honge (Pitaji will be absolved of all charges on August 25),” Angrez Bathla commented.
A quick look at his posts show only positive comments, almost all of them praising Ram Rahim. This seems to be quite an anomaly on a platform as potent as Facebook where even the most positive of stories start attracting snide remarks in no time.
The sect’s followers made their presence felt with a host of own posts on Facebook and Twitter too.
While pictures of the gathering in Panchkula, where the verdict is to delivered on August 25, were shared by both critics and supporters, dera followers did not comment widely on posts regarding the law and order situation worsening across Punjab and Haryana.
Random searches using the keyword ‘dera’ showed many posts praising the “social work” by the dera head. They used #MSGgretSocialReformer in their tweets.
Lisha Bhutani on Wednesday tweeted, “Free medical camps are organised by the Dera under pious guidance of Saint GurmeetRamRahim Singh Ji #MSGgretSocialReformer.”
Simran Insan tweeted, “The Dera Sacha Sauda is the only organisation who is serving humanity 24*7 365 in the best possible way #MSGgretSocialReformer.”
Such hashtags by the dera ‘premis’ (loving people) are common on Twitter and Facebook on other days too, and the pace of posts has increased over the past week.