The BJP on June 5, 2022, officially announced that it is suspending its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma from the primary membership of the party. Another spokesperson and leader Naveen Jindal was expelled from the party. This decision taken by the leadership of the BJP triggered a major controversy, particularly on social media platforms.
Many ‘supporters’ of the BJP were outraged by the decision and called it an appeasement of the kind that used to be practised by the Congress.
There were quite a few personal abuses and invectives hurled at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But, do a majority of Indians back this social media outrage? Not at all.
In fact, according to a nationwide survey conducted by CVoter on behalf of IANS reveals that a huge majority of ordinary Indians back the BJP’s decision to suspend Nupur Sharma from the party.
As a matter of fact, almost 72 per cent of NDA supporters backed this move while more than 79 per cent of opposition supporters shared the same sentient. Overall, 76 per cent or more than 3 out of every four respondent backed the BJP’s decision. Clearly, what ‘trends’ on social media is often not what a majority of Indians think.
Even female respondents were not very supportive of Nupur Sharma. While 77 per cent of male respondents backed the decision made by the BJP to suspend her, 76 per cent of female respondents shared the same sentiment. Similarly, while 76 per cent of Dalit or scheduled caste respondents agreed with the BJP decision, 71 per cent of upper caste Hindus shared the same sentiment.
Another community that votes in large numbers for the BJP is the OBC. About 71 per cent of them supported the move. The maximum support came from the Sikh community with 97.8 per cent of them backing the BJP’s move followed by almost 90 per cent of respondents from the Muslim community who shared the same sentiment.
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