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Sushma’s Twitter outrage: Why the EAM’s threat to Amazon was terrible

Sushma resembled Trump during her rant and that is scary.

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Sushma Swaraj has been exceptional on Twitter over the past two-and-a-half years, even tweeting from her hospital bed shortly after a kidney transplant. The generally cynical press and even the public who are tired of fake promises from politicians have doffed their hats to the External Affairs Minister for her timely intervention in several humanitarian crises. Swaraj has become such a Twitter star that she is now arguably the most famous BJP politician on the platform, after PM Narendra Modi of course. 
 
But on Wednesday, we also saw how Twitter diplomacy can be counterproductive, especially on emotional issues. Clearly incensed by the sale of doormats in the Indian national flag’s colours by third party retailers in Amazon Canada, Swaraj threatened the company with dire consequences, including revoking and rescinding visas of their executives. The product was subsequently pulled out by Amazon.

Many may argue that Swaraj did the patriotic thing by standing up for India and should be applauded for her bold outreach. But for others, who are no less admirers of the Foreign Minister’s zeal and genuine concern for Indians, this incident comes across as a red flag.

First, was it really necessary for the foreign minister, no less, to openly threaten one of the world’s largest e-tailers publicly on Twitter? UK’s erstwhile PM Margaret Thatcher was known to have an iron fist in a velvet glove. Behind her amiable personality was a steely resolve and a no-nonsense approach. Swaraj can take a leaf out of her book. Rather than a public showdown, Swaraj could have simply called up top Amazon bosses and resolved the matter. It would have been the mature, diplomatic thing to do. Instead, by issuing a threat, Swaraj perhaps inadvertently gave out a message that foreign businesses in India are susceptible to arm-twisting for the flimsiest of reasons. If a company has broken laws and provisions, due action should be taken. But it can’t be based on an ad-hoc whimsical basis. That goes counter to the mantra of good governance and ‘ease of doing business’ that this government has promised. We boast of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ (Our guest is God) but sadly the foreign minister’s tweets failed to reflect this. Ironically, Swaraj’s tweet came at a time when one of India’s most prosperous states, Gujarat, was hosting a mega summit to attract investment. 

Second, does India even have a policy for such kind of ‘violation’ which was done by a third party vendor on the Amazon Canada site? Yes, the flag code exists, but does it apply outside India? And if the government is indeed seriously looking to clamp down on all such merchandise, is there a grievance redressal mechanism? A minister cannot intervene each time to pull a product down. According to reports, many such India-themed products are freely available online. Also, are e-retailers liable to comply with Indian laws while selling in other countries to persons of other nationalities? All these nuances got lost in Swaraj’s Twitter outburst. 

But the most important point is whether India’s nationalism and patriotism is based on such a loose edifice that it will crumble due to some random retailer selling tri-coloured flags in Canada. India’s soft power is legendary and Swaraj herself has used it to noble means many times. But is it worth expending such diplomatic capital on a tri-coloured doormat? A country’s self-worth and importance is decided by the deeds of the citizens and outreach of the government, not by the extent of its bullying power. And if really pressuring someone to get work done is any metric of being a global power, it should always be used to punch up, not the other way. It is easy for Swaraj to get Amazon to pull down a doormat and elicit patriotic euphoria, but much harder to, say, persuade China to accept that Masood Azhar is a wanted terrorist, or to force the UK to extradite Vijay Mallya. India’s soft power needs to be used judiciously to propel our causes, not to come across as a whiny bully. 

The last point which has been highlighted frequently on social media of late is how careless tweets from people of high repute and holding important positions can feed trolls and make social media more divisive that it already is. With great power comes great responsibility, the cliché goes. There is a lingering debate on social media if PM Modi has empowered many abusive handles by following them. Swaraj’s outburst against Amazon led many to call for a ban on Amazon unless it apologised. To many, it was a Snapdeal deja-vu post Aamir Khan’s intolerance remarks. 
 
Peaceful boycotts are not a crime and social media users can certainly resort to it if they believe a brand or company has failed to live up to certain moral or legal obligations. But politicians need to send out more clear and concise messages so that there aren’t any untoward consequences of their words. For that reason, 140 character diplomacy falls short of any basic rigor. It can be at best stop-gap and not a substitute for policy decisions. US President-elect Trump in the last few days has put pressure on many companies not to ship out jobs from the US by publicly shaming them. Swaraj’s tweet in this case is eerily similar to Trump’s angry rants. We can do better than that certainly. 

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