New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Power, in the process of rebutting a report published in Business Standard, allegedly displayed arrogance, bullying a reporter and resorting to ad hominem.
Headed by Minister of State (independent charge) Raj Kumar Singh, a former bureaucrat and a member of parliament from Bihar’s Arrah, the power ministry on Thursday launched a personal attack on India’s financial daily’s deputy editor Shreya Jai by tagging her on Twitter.
Shreya Jai, who covers the energy and infrastructure sector for business daily, reported on August 3 about ‘centre revoking mandatory coal import target after many flip-flops’.
The journalist later summarised many decisions taken in recent times by the Ministry of Power in a tweet thread which also quoted multiple reports in the Business Standard to build a narrative.
The Ministry of Power woke up to the report after 15 days and decided to issue a rebuttal through a tweet thread in a rightful manner.
Along with countering the report with facts, the ministry resorted to name calling and ad hominem by tagging Shreya Jai in the rebuttal thread.
By tagging the reporter, the ministry made sure the female journalist is harassed and targeted through troll armies.
Tagging the female journalist was not the only wrong thing to do. The ministry went ahead with personal remarks against Shreya Jai, just three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call from the rampart of the Red Fort to respect women.
The ministry introduced Shreya Jai most disrespectfully by writing "said to be a correspondent of Business Standard".
In the same thread, the ministry wrote that her tweet displays an utter ignorance of the sector which she is “reported to be covering".
In both instances, the ministry appeared to be demeaning the Dy Editor of Business Standard who has been covering the energy sector for about a decade. It is given that Shreya Jai must be knowing most of the people in the ministry of power.
Still, the tonality of the ministry allegedly represented the maximum arrogance which implies – “Tu hai kaun?” or “who the hell are you?”
The ministry further wrote, "Anyone with minimal intelligence will understand this. Unfortunately, this correspondent does not."
Karthik Srinivasan, a communication consultant, called out the ministry’s arrogance.
“This is an example of 'ad hominem' which is a reaction directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining. Former US President Trump was very well known for this tactic on Twitter when he was in power,” Srinivasan wrote in a Facebook post.
“The use of ad hominem distracts the argument from factual rebuttal. Shreya hasn't accused individuals within the ministry of wrongdoing. She was reporting about the decisions taken by the ministry over a period of time. Not just Business Standard - multiple media outlets have written about the ministry's decisions,” he added.
Srinivasan asked what if a media person writes "said to be a minister in the Government" or "the minister displays utter ignorance of the sector they are supposed to be managing" or "any minister with minimal intelligence will understand this. Unfortunately, this minister does not".
On tagging Shreya Jai on Twitter, Srinivasan said that the graceful and civil way to handle this is to write to the editor of Business Standard, get the ministry's version/response published, and then showcase that on Twitter.
“Instead, the ministry not only targets a journalist personally with choice epithets but also tags that individual as a way to get more people to react to her directly on Twitter. This is equivalent to making public someone's phone number or address in a way to get more people to intimidate that person. Getting someone's phone number or address is not that difficult in the age of social media, as much as getting that person's Twitter handle - all these are just a search away. But making it readily available is a signal,” he added. “This is a very disappointing misuse of social media from a Government ministry.”
CNBC Awaaz correspondent Rohan Singh responded to the ministry’s thread saying it has recruited trolls and bullies in its social media team.
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