Hashtag Scanner: #नाथूराम_गोडसे_जिंदाबाद trends on Twitter with UP’s election quest, well-planned propaganda or not?
Ananaya Sharma 
Under this report we have covered:-
- Why #नाथूराम_गोडसे_जिंदाबाद is all over the internet?
- The history between Nathuram Vinayak Godse & Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
- #नाथूराम_गोडसे_जिंदाबाद as a political propaganda.
- Conclusion
On the occasion of 74TH death anniversary of “Father of Nation” Mahatma Gandhi(I.e. 30th Jan ) the twitter was all filled with the #नाथूराम_गोडसे_जिंदाबाद supporting Nathuram all over the social media for killing Mahatma Gandhi and later surrendering himself to the police. People were praising Nathuram for killing Gandhi and showing him as a true time hero.
Let’s Dig into the history:-
Nathuram Vinayak Godse was a Hindu Nationalist, a well-known member of Hindu Mahasabha, a right-wing party, and a former member of Rashtriya Swayamsevek Sangh (RSS). He assassinated Gandhi by shooting 3 bullets on the chest of Gandhi on 30th Jan 1948, after which he died in the Birla house. He accused Gandhi of betraying Hindus by being pro Muslim, also considered him the main culprit behind bloodshed at the time of partition. After one year of assassination, he got executed in November 1949.
When we dug more into the accounts we got to know that
The timeline of keywords “#नाथूराम_गोडसे_जिंदाबाद” & “Godse” tells that the tweets were initiated on 29th of Jan and was in peak on 30th Jan with more than 8,500 tweets and replies and in most of the accounts a repetitive pattern of posting were followed as shown in the picture below:-
Why #नाथूराम_गोडसे_जिंदाबाद seems nothing, but political propaganda?
Through our manual analysis, we found certain things similar in all these Twitter accounts.
1. Most accounts were created in recent days I.e. 29th and 30th Jan 2022, out of which 19 accounts were created on 29th Jan and 56 accounts were created on 30th Jan.
2. Most accounts were supporting RSS, with RSS flag on their bio and supporting Yogi Aditya Nath in UP elections also in their bio mostly the location that was mentioned was of Uttar Pradesh state. 
3. Under the hashtag mostly used pictures were related to UP Elections promoting Narendra Modi, Yogi Aditya Nath, BJP (Bharatiya Janta Party) in UP elections. On the left there is a picture of Akhilesh Yadav, a member of loksabha shown holding a portrait saying ‘Jo Ram Ko Lae Hain, Hum unko laege.’
In the image on the right, there is a woman wearing a saree with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath is seen.
4. Most of the pictures were edited in these accounts showing Gandhi as a pure antagonist of the freedom fighting movement.
Below are two different edited pictures in which the picture on the right is showcasing Gandhi as spoon-feeding Jinnah and crushing Hindus under his foot.The picture on the left is showing different politicians, policemen, and Narendra Modi giving each other support to kill Mahatma Gandhi.
User interacted the most
The below graph tells about the users who were highly active with the hashtag and the keyword. @sr29550309 was most active with more than 70 tweets/replies on the subject. After posting the highest amount of tweets now his account does not exist. More than 50 accounts like these were created and deleted afterwards. below is a collage related to that.
Followed by @sandeepch1234 and @sharmapratham8 with more than 35 and 30 tweets respectively.
Hashtags Used
Hashtags that were used mostly on the subject include, #Godse, #MahatmaGandhil, #NathuramGodse, #नाथूराम_गोडसे_जिंदाबाद, etc.
Accounts Mentioned
Below graph shows the accounts that got mostly mentioned in the tweets. Some accounts include @rahulgandhi, @narendramodi, @incindia, etc.
These accounts were tagged to get maximum engagement on the #नाथूराम_गोडसे_जिंदाबाद and it serves the cause, as many politicians too came forward whether in favor or against the hashtag. Hence, it grabbed the maximum attention of the people as it triggered their emotional point of view.
News channels like news24 too covered the news under these hashtags.
Politician and executive editor Sanjay Raut @rautsanjay61 too came forward to speak on this matter as shown in the video above.
'Godse असली हिंदुत्ववादी होता तो जिन्ना को गोली मारता, गांधी को क्यों मारी': @rautsanjay61 #MahatmaGandhi #Godse pic.twitter.com/qummIrWOZT
— News24 (@news24tvchannel) January 30, 2022
Hindu Mahasabha in Gwalior celebrated death anniversary of Gandhi as Godse Day.
ग्वालियर : हिंदू महासभा ने राष्ट्रपिता महात्मा गांधी की पुण्यतिथि को गोडसे दिवस के रूप में मनाया
◆कार्यक्रम में जांच करने पहुंचे पुलिसकर्मी को कार्यकर्ताओं ने भगाया #Godse #Gandhiji pic.twitter.com/R44yTdLQkA
— News24 (@news24tvchannel) January 30, 2022
Wordcloud:
Below wordcloud shows what were the words that got used the most in the tweets. Some words include, “Nathuram Godse”, “Godse”, “Mahatma Gandhi”, “Congress”, “RSS”, “Hindu”, etc.
Most Liked Tweets:
Nathuram v/s Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi vs Nathuram Godse#MahatmaGandhi #NathuramGodse pic.twitter.com/5rzusz7SlO
— Archit Yadav (@iamarchityadav) January 30, 2022
Supports of Gandhi too came forward like in these tweets:
While the Gandhi is known as the father of the nation, Godse would be always remembered as the first terror!st of the nation.
— Narundar (@NarundarM) January 30, 2022
https://twitter.com/aishe_ghosh/status/1487731918682656774 – 4042 Likes
Most Retweeted:
Nathuram v/s Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi vs Nathuram Godse#MahatmaGandhi #NathuramGodse pic.twitter.com/5rzusz7SlO
— Archit Yadav (@iamarchityadav) January 30, 2022
If there was no Nathuram Godse:
1. There would be a 50 km wide strip of landing connecting West and East Pakistan as demanded by Muslim League.
2. Gandhi would have forced India to hand over Kashmir to Pakistan.
3. Gandhi supported Hyderabad Nizam's wish to be free Muslim country pic.twitter.com/ptRWklk0aK— Rakesh Krishnan Simha (@ByRakeshSimha) January 28, 2022
https://twitter.com/Ankan111/status/1487619822414221317 – 1010 Retweets
Conclusion
It is seen through our analysis that, of course, it was nothing else than a political propaganda. They hyped it in quest of UP election so that people pay more attention towards it.
All the images under the #नाथूराम_गोडसे_जिंदाबाद and #गोडसे were very well used to promote a BJP in the coming elections.
All the trigger points were chosen very carefully such as
- Dragging people towards Hindutva.
- Tagging particular politicians in the tweets and replies.
- Making the account on one particular date and deleted it after the task is done.
These all points drag us to a propaganda that was started to give fuel to an emotional involvement of people in UP elections.
