This was perhaps the worst time to promote yoga.
Yoga is one of PM Modi’s pet projects and his regime has focussed on using the soft power of yoga to promote India to the world. On Sunday, he was the at the Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana where he said: “I hope that you will integrate yoga and traditional Indian medicine more closely into our health care system. My vision for health care is an integrated system that understands and builds on the best and most effective of different traditions.”
While there was absolutely nothing wrong with this address or even promoting yoga, the decision to tweet regarding this during a time the Armed Forces were fighting terrorists at the Pathankot Airforce Base in Punjab, in which four terrorists and three army men have been killed so far was ill-thought-out. This clearly wasn't the best time to sing paeans about the benefits of yoga from the PMO's handle. But this is what happened:
Understandably, the Twitterati including former J&K CM Omar Abdullah directed their ire at the PM for 'ignoring' the attack. "Business as usual is all well and good but a speech about Yoga while an encounter rages at an Air Base in #Pathankot seems totally out of sync," Omar wrote on Twitter. Others too didn't take kindly, to the PMO handle tweeting about yoga.
All jokes aside, the problem isn't yoga or even tweeting about it. It's hard to say what one should tweet during such incidents. Showing solidarity with soldiers or condemning the attack seems like a common / garden response which hardly helps but at least shows the state machinery cares. That being said, tweeting about the PM's speech on yoga is a social media goof-up, similar to the time PIB put up photoshopped photos of Modi surveying flood affected areas in Chennai. This was an incredibly obtuse move and something one doesn't expect from an internet savvy government.
Time and again we've seen the wrong response from the media and the powers-that-be during terrorist attacks. There needs to be a standard protocol when dealing with terrorist attacks. In 2012, the Supreme Court had pulled up TV channels for their callous reporting of the situation, particularly because of the way they telecast security operations live to the world and allowed the 26/11 masterminds to keep abreast of the situation. It's time protocol was laid down, both for the media and politicians on how to react and communicate during terrorist attacks.
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