Viral On WhatsApp: How Malayalees Fact-Checking BJP’s Call Centre Phone Calls Ahead Of Elections (Image: Unsplash/Alexander Shatov)

Kerala BJP”s call centre phone inquiries on the Modi government“s welfare programmes and its reply by the Malayali call receivers are going viral on WhatsApp. Under the pretext of a feedback survey, the BJP”s state call centre team checks whether they will vote for the Modi government in the upcoming general election.

In a call, the BJP team says that they are conducting a survey to inquire whether the central government welfare schemes have reached people properly. Unfortunately, fact-checking counter-inquiries from the Malayali respondent at the receiving end beat the feedback team. One caller asks, Where did the team receive the phone number and how did they collect phone data?.

He also asks, How did the team decide he was a consumer of central government schemes? Since the implementation of any government scheme has governmental offices or institutions in place to check its functioning, why is the BJP, a national party, engaging in such feedback surveys? Besides, when the call centre employee claims that many of the Central government programmes have been executed by the state government by renaming them, the respondent quickly asks to name two such schemes that the party could raise the allegation.

In another call, the Call Centre team asked for feedback concerning Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), as the respondent is a beneficiary of the said scheme. The call representative, at first, tells about the Yojana benefits received by the people and then asks about whether she receive other benefits. When the respondent affirms about the welfare schemes she receive, the representative further asks: Will they support the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls? to which the respondent quickly replies, “No.”

The caller then asks in return how much the BJP contributes for the Awas Yojana; when the representative gives an incorrect reply, the former corrects that in the total cost of Rs. 4 lakh, the Centre”s contribution is just Rs. 72,000. The Malayali respondent, further, says that they are not ignorant or foolish enough to believe these fallacious claims raised by the party. The caller also slams Modi government”s selfie point installation at railway station and waste of money incurred through it.