PM Narendra Modi's photo of him looking at the solar eclipse led to a swarm of Twitter memes
The Congress has joined the meme-making trend on Prime Minister Narendra Modi today after he tweeted a photo in which he is seen, in special eyewear, looking at the last solar eclipse of this decade. PM Modi this morning replied to a Twitter user who said the photo "is becoming a meme".
"Most welcome... Enjoy," PM Modi tweeted, along with a smiley. It was seen as an open invitation to meme-makers in a lighter vein.
Soon, hundreds of memes started appearing on the microblogging site. The Congress also weighed in.
"Truly the Coolest PM," the Congress tweeted with the hashtag #JhootJhootJhoot that party MP Rahul Gandhi used earlier this morning to target PM Modi over his comment last week that there was no detention centre in India in the context of the National Register of Citizens or NRC.
The Congress tweet is accompanied by the photo tweeted by PM Modi, in a brown jacket with a red scarf wrapped around his neck, but it had this text on it: "Modi is so cool, while the country burns, he chills."
Over 20 have died in protests against the amended citizenship law across the country. In violent protests in Delhi, West Bengal, Assam and other states, property worth lakhs have been damaged and vehicles burnt.
The Congress and other opposition parties have accused PM Modi of indifference towards those who are protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act that seeks to fast-track the process of giving citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim minorities from three neighbouring countries.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act for the first time makes religion the test of citizenship in India. The government says it will help minorities from three Muslim-dominated countries to get citizenship if they fled to India before 2015 because of religious persecution. Critics say it is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates the secular principles of the constitution.