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In ‘certainly one of the funniest hashtag names ever,’ Malayalees took to Twitter in a torrent over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comparison of Kerala with Somalia at a rally here on Sunday.
#PoMoneModi (which translates roughly into ‘go home, kiddo’) trended right on top into the evening on Wednesday with more than 4,500 tweets, even making it to BBC headlines. But Modi supporters hit back in kind later during the day, with the hashtags #LotusForSouth and #KeralaThanksModi, both of which were trending at the time of going to press.
The tweeples had used memes, cartoons and jokes to express their anger against Modi via their Twitter handles.
The tweet deluge was triggered by the PM’s remarks at an election rally, where he remarked that “infant mortality rate among the scheduled tribes in Kerala is worse than Somalia.”
The tweets ranged from enjoying “sheer delight at the naming of the hashtag” to expression of outright shock to advising tweeples not to ‘demean the people of Somalia or make fun of Somalia while condemning the PM’s statement.’
#PoMoneModi is a take-off on an iconic, if dismissive, dialogue of Malayalam cine hero Mohanlal in a superhit film.
“Kerala enjoys private #PoMoneModi joke on Twitter; India confused” said @CatchNews, but there were any number of helpful tweets on what the Malayalam hashtag meant.
“Best ever social media reaction,” remarked an amused @iasnad. “We r the pirates of Keralaebbean,” quipped @Pleasa. “40% tweets under #PoMoneModi are about how it’s a great hashtag. 30% on what it means,” observed @WrongDoc.
Matching equation“BJP vote share in Kerala — 6%, Kerala literacy rate 94%. Total 100%. Exactly matching equation” was a frequently shared tweet.
“Wrong statement in God’s Own Country…Mr PM, this is Kerala,” cautioned @sajinayilam. “Forget about academic qualification, you should at least know the living standard of Keralites than other Indians” was the advice from @Aashkey.
Meanwhile, @Msudaani protested that “it was really disgraceful to compare our great nation #Somalia with Kerela. #PoMoneModi ridiculous @NarendraModi.”
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