The software engineer who decided to get to Omar Abdullah; and started Abdullah parody account on Twitter

Monalisa Das | June 30, 2014 | 05:12 pm IST One of the many complaints against politicians in India is that they aren't easily accessible, especially to the common man. While many write letters or try contacting the ministry, bringing one’s cause to their notice is highly unlikely just by oneself. And what if that politician happens to be the Chief Minister of your state?Sachin Padha, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, is a software engineer. He’s had to move out of his state because of the unavailability of proper jobs there. What bugged him even more was the state government’s inaction towards development measures.Padha knew that he did not have the reach to reach, quite literally, the Chief Minister of his state. “But I wanted to grab his attention”, he says. He decided to make use of his sense of humour to make his voice heard. And that is how a parody account on Omar Abdullah came to exist in 2012.“Initially I never tweeted this often. Because the social media wasn't as active as it is today. And I was sort of scared of getting arrested, as I was writing against a political leader”, Padha says.The turning point followed shortly.In December 2012, the Nirbhaya gang rape shook the entire nation. Weeks later in January 2013, Pakistani troops crossed LOC and brutally killed 2 Indian soldiers. “Congress was the ruling party then. And yet Rahul Gandhi, who portrays himself as a leader of the youth, chose to remain silent on the rape issue. Similarly, Abdullah too, did not utter a single word on the LOC violation”, notes Padha.That is when the parodist wrote a mocking article on both leaders: “Rahul Gandhi is missing since Delhi protests and Omar Abdullah since LoC violation”. This caught the real Abdullah’s attention when he came across the copy after Faking News retweeted it. “But he missed the whole satire”, quips Padha.At that point a fake Kejriwal account was also trending on Twitter. Abdullah took this opportunity to take a dig at his parodist, and he tweeted, #Nowfollowing @fakeriwal How I wish my self proclaimed parody account had even a small percentage of this wit. Good humour no nastiness.— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) January 23, 2014To which, Padha replied:I wish my real account, self proclaimed successful CM of J&K, did even iota of dev work for the state as @ChouhanShivraj doing for MP.— 0mar Abdullah (@abdullah_0mar) January 24, 2014And Padha’s first interaction with his CM, also turned out to be his last. Abdullah blocked his parodist after that.Both the real and fake Abdullah seem to have one thing in common though- a sense of humour; one has it, the other doesn’t quite appreciate it. “My main focus will always remain Abdullah. But since controversies don’t strike daily, I tweet on various subjects”, he explains.His account has over 9,000 followers as of now. “I have received a lot of compliments. But a lot of people abuse me as well. I never reply to them. We live in a democratic country and each of us has the right to speak our mind. If I can open a parody account on some one else, people are free to love or hate it”, says a very frank Padha.If he were ever to make another parody account, it would be on his favourite star, Amitabh Bacchan, but in a positive way of course.Padha is laugh-out-loud hilarious, and so are his tweets. But the man is multi-talented. He has written for several other publications, including Faking News and DNA; and he is a cartoonist too.Somewhere in Goa, @abdullah_omar's chopper and counting people in NaMo's rally. #NaMoInGoa pic.twitter.com/yCB2epdNTF— 0mar Abdullah (@abdullah_0mar) January 12, 2014 The subject of Padha’s tweet might be related to serious issues, but Padha is way too funny to let the seriousness get to him. When asked about his age, he says, “I can’t tell you that, my women followers would unfollow me”, and roars with laughter. People have mixed opinions about him. Some feel he is old and wise, others guess he might be an immature lad. He would like to keep it that way.What Padha does may or may not make a difference to the way the government functions. However, his tweets make many issues visible to others, who would not have noticed them otherwise. He is a common man, trying to do the uncommon, spreading laughter on his way.