Modi quits Weibo; BJP says it is PM's strong message to China

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has quit Chinese social media platform Weibo, the BJP said on Wednesday (July 1), with its general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh saying that Modi has sent out a “strong message” at the border, on the economic front and now at a “personal level too”.

“After govt move of banning 59 Chinese Apps, PM Narendra Modi exits from Chinese social media platform WEIBO also. Strong message at the border, on economic front & at personal level too,” Santhosh said.

The Prime Minister’s entire profile and photo on Weibo went blank earlier.

Sources said Modi decided to quit Weibo, which he had joined in 2015, as soon as the decision was taken to ban 59 Chinese apps in India.

They added that Weibo has a more complex procedure to quit for accounts of important personalities, which is why an official process was initiated. For reasons best known to the Chinese, there was a great delay in granting this basic permission, they said.

The prime minister had 115 posts on Weibo, and it was decided to manually delete them and after much effort, 113 posts were removed, they said.

The two posts left were those where Modi had photos with Chinese President Xi Xinping, they noted, adding that it is difficult to remove posts on Weibo in which pictures of Xi feature.

All the posts are deleted now, the sources said.

The BJP’s IT wing head Amit Malviya said Modi’s decision to quit Weibo sends out a “loud and clear” message that if red lines are crossed, then there will be consequences.

“Prime Minister Modi quits Chinese social media platform Weibo. The message is loud and clear. If red lines are crossed, there will be consequences… What started at the borders has now acquired multiple dimensions. And it may just be the beginning,” Malviya tweeted.

Prime Minister Modi quits Chinese social media platform Weibo. The message is loud and clear. If red lines are crossed, there will be consequences…

What started at the borders has now acquired multiple dimensions. And it may just be the beginning…

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) July 1, 2020

Sources said Modi’s followers count at Weibo stands at 244,000 – which was roughly the same when the deletion of posts began.

The Modi government recently banned 59 Chinese apps, saying that they are “engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”.

These developments come amid tensions between India and China due to their military standoff at Ladakh border, which escalated after a violent face-off between the two troops on June 15, in which at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

(With inputs from agencies)