Humour

Cloud cover and radar theory: Why Twitter is on cloud 9 after the Prime Minister's statement

Nairita MukherjeeMay 12, 2019 | 14:59 IST

A now deleted video, shared from the official handle of the Bharatiya Janata Party, shook Twitter out of its leisurely Saturday stupor. And the memes that followed were just priceless! 

For most of us hunting for entertainment on the world wide web, this was the silver lining in the 'cloud' moment!

A little bit of context here for the uninitiated — Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview to a television channel, revealed his master strategy behind the Balakot air-strike, now touted as India's surgical strike 2, in retaliation for the gruesome Pulwama terrorist attack of 14 February that killed over 40 CRPF jawans. The airstrike took place 12 days after the terrorist attack, on 26 February. A dozen Mirage 2000 jets of the Indian Air Force flew across the Line of Control (LoC) — a first since 1971 — and bombed terrorist camps of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), before dawn. 

Turns out the Prime Minister, upon own admission, apparently based the entire strategy on the fact that it was cloudy that day — which could give our planes an advantage by making them undetectable by radar! 

We shall allow a moment to ponder over that. 

Okay, that's enough pondering. 

Twitter is not known to be merciful.

And it wasn't when they ripped this statement apart:

'Cuz, surely radar technology is better than your Tata Sky connection, right? 

Soon enough, Modiji became 'Mirza Cloudy'! 

Now that's a Lagaan spin-off we'd watch! 

Well, tough questions were also asked.

And some serious criticism was also directed at the PM. 

In all this, does a certain Mr Pappu come across smarter? 

The backlash prompted the BJP handle to swifty delete the tweet.

But that only triggered more trolling. 

In Modiji's defence, he does admit that he doen't know much about the actual technicalities. Which means, this was indeed his 'raw judgement', like he said. But perhaps this confession was inappropriate for prime time television. 

He did, however, quite graciously accept that the credit for the air-strike's success belongs to the men on the mission, while the discredit for its failure, if any, lies with him. 

And that, right there, is our silver lining. 

Also read: Guilt Trips: It's not just PM Modi. We Indians are so critical of taking holidays!

Last updated: May 12, 2019 | 17:13
IN THIS STORY
Read more!
Recommended Stories