Sena PR overdrive amidst Corona crisis brings change of heart in its critics, but draws flak from Netizens!

Centre gave RS 16000 Crore. What happened to it? Why the food grains are not being distributed among poor and needy?

Mumbai: The state is going through a crucial time as the number of Corona infected people has shot up to 661, increasing the gap between second highest state, Kerala by more than 200. As the citizens are grappling with severe problems, instead of taking stern steps to bring the relief, the ruling Shiv Sena is busy in an aggressive Public Relations (PR) overdrive and image building of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The aggression of the PR Machinery deployed by Shiv Sena can be gauged by the fact that, the critics who were lambasting the government in the morning, were suddenly showering praises on CM Uddhav Thackeray, by the same evening.

The untimely PR exercise launched by Shiv Sena appears to have boomeranged as the social media is abuzz with harshest criticism of the ruling alliance. The state government has been criticizing the Centre for its failure to contain the spread of Corona. But at the same time, there was no information forthcoming on what measures the state government has taken, except for the lockdown. While the number of Corona patients in the state is rapidly rising, the tripod government appears clueless with all the bigwigs restricting themselves to their homes. There is hardly any big leader seen in action, except Health minister Rajesh Tope.

Amidst the growing discomfort among citizens and CM’s Facebook interactions not yielding desired results, the sudden aggressive PR campaign has brought Shiv Sena under all round criticism. However, the party leaders claim that the praises being showered on CM Thackeray are genuine and were coming from bottom of the hearts of people.

Interestingly, the celebrities, who are sworn critics of BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top the chart of those praising Uddhav Thackeray. They include lyricist Javed Akhtar, actors Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Sushant Singh, Swara Bhaskar. The PR campaign has irked the Netizens who are venting their anger with equal aggression. The netizens have exposed the summersault by actor Sonam Kapoor Ahuja. It was on Apr 4 morning that she criticised the government for failing to help 6 lakh ‘super starving power loom workers’ in Bhiwandi and on the same evening, she showers praises on CM Uddhav Thackeray. 

Sources said that Shiv Sena has hired a PR company working for Bollywood celebrities which has launched a subtle and aggressive PR of CM Uddhav Thackeray across the social media platforms. Chief spokesperson, Maharashtra BJP Madhav Bhandari said, “It is not a rocket science to understand that it is a well-planned campaign. It is shameful on part of CM Thackeray to exploit the miseries of millions of citizens for political gains and image building.

On one hand ruling alliance appeals to all to keep politics out of the pandemic and on the other, CM is shamelessly using PR agency to build his own image.”  He said that the state government has miserably failed to serve the people in the crisis. Maharashtra has got maximum share of financial aid of Rs 16,000 Cr and food grains from Central government. The state has already received 23.50 lakh tons of food grains from Central government to be distributed among poor and needy. Remaining will reach in next two days. But the state government has not even started its distribution.

The netizens have picked up the ugly PR campaign and launched a counter attack. Twitter used Sameet Thakkar in a tweet pointed out the obvious similarity in the tweets by the celebrities. Entrepreneur Omkar Dabhadkar compared Uddhav Thackeray with former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh “The current praises showered on Uddhav Thackeray are no different than the ones showered on Dr Manmohan Singh. Both are equally inactive and ineffective. Those tweeting praises for Thackeray don’t even realize that he has done nothing substantial except for giving special status to existing hospitals!”

The ruling tripod alliance in the state is praising Rahul Gandhi for his tweet in February and criticizing PM Modi for ignoring it. “What was Congress leadership in the state doing all this while? Congress is in government, it should have implemented the suggestions of Rahul Gandhi in Maharashtra at least. Or, is it that they also don’t take Rahul Gandhi seriously?” asks Dabhadkar.  Shiv Sena leaders and spokespersons could not be reached despite repeated efforts.