Adivasi activist and NDA candidate from Sulthan Bathery constituency C K Janu on Thursday opined that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was indeed right in making the Kerala-Somalia comparison when it came to infant mortality rates among Scheduled Tribes in Kerala.
Ever since she made the statement, Janu has earned a lot of from Congress and Left supporters, jokes and memes started floating about her on social media.
A photograph of Janu eating food using a fork, in the company of another woman has been doing the rounds on various social media platforms.
The caption on top of this photograph read: “Economically weak and poverty struck CK Janu eating Chinese food with fork.”
However, Janu’s woman companion in the picture, Secretary of Indian People’s Forum and BJP member Shilpa Nair has come down heavily on those circulating these pictures.
Trying to put an end to the trolling, Shilpa took to Facebook accusing the Left and Right wings of creating baseless controversies.
While talking to The News Minute, Shilpa explained the background of the photograph. “I have been campaigning for the BJP for the past one month now. I am a huge fan of Janu chechi and I invited her for breakfast at my hotel in Thiruvananthapuram. She readily agreed and we ate idli-sambhar that day. She was using a spoon to pour the sambhar and that is when someone clicked this picture,” she said.
“However, what I don’t understand is why are people making so much fuss about her using fork and knife? What is the problem here? Can’t adivasis use a fork? Her personality and the values that she upholds is a true inspiration for the entire country. And that is exactly why she sees this controversy as a very futile matter. I explained everything to her and she laughed it off,” Shilpa added.
This was however not the only instance. BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekhar too was targeted, a morphed picture of him was used to show him as a 'Somalian' man. Kummanam posted on Facebook questioning the Left and Congress if this was their idea of being righteous.