The rupee hit an all time low yesterday – a dismal Rs 69 against the US dollar. While the market was busy responding negatively and analysts were in a flurry of activity trying to pinpoint reasons and predict future falls/ rises, those on social media, particularly Twitter decided it was all rather funny. While some reiterated some old grouses, others had brand new jokes to share:
One of India’s most consistently funny Twitter handles is Ramesh Srivats. He had this to say.
Inevitably, Twitter users made use of the football allusion; particularly Germany’s shock defeat to make their point.
Many were quite scathing about the freefall of the rupee as it reached its lowest ever value against the dollar.
Every time a new economic problem surfaces, people speak up about the issue that pinches each one of us: the astronomical prices of petrol and diesel in the country right now.
In the past, our current PM would frequently mock and deride the then PM on a range of perceived shortcomings and economic blunders. The people are not above doing the same to him now.
This one appears to refer to the recently concluded yoga day as well as the alacrity with which the Prime Minister responded to a fitness challenge by Virat Kohli not too long ago.
Many seem to feel that the Indian economy is not doing well; that all the government’s efforts to project a positive picture is just so much lipstick on a pig.
The then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi had made many taunting statements about the central government. Some of his own words now come back to haunt him.
This is particularly true for the internet where everything one says and does becomes a matter of the permanent record. Even if one deletes their own post, there is always someone who took a screenshot, created a back up or otherwise recorded what you did and said.
Though many amusing posts and cartoons about the rupee reaching 69 to the dollar cropped up on social media, most people were just not amused!
Some years back the current Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj; then spoke from the opposition benches, referring to Dr Manmohan Singh when she said that the “rupee had lost its value and the Prime Minister had lost his grace/stature”. This tweet refers to that old statement of hers as well as the more recent occurrence when Swaraj was viciously attacked by right wing trolls for helping a Hindu-Muslim couple with their passports.
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