At 12pm on Thursday, #GoBackModi was one of the top trends on Twitter. The tweets coincided with a two-day visit by Modi to various places in Karnataka, starting on Thursday.
Modi will visit the Sree Siddaganga Mutt in Tumakuru on Thursday and visit defence establishments in Bengaluru in the evening. On Friday, Modi is scheduled to inaugurate a science conference at the Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra in Bengaluru.
The Deccan Herald reported on Wednesday that activists in Bengaluru had planned a Twitter campaign against Modi's visit.
Manohar Elavarthy, one of these activists, told the Deccan Herald, "We want him [Modi] to know that he is not welcome in South India because of his actions—his centralisation of power, his attempt to impose Hindi on South India and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA)."
The Deccan Herald noted that the idea for a Twitter campaign during Modi's Karnataka visit was being promoted by activists involved with Hum Bharat Ke Log, a conglomeration of groups that have staged protests against the Citizenship Act.
If the #GoBackModi trend holds, Karnataka would be the fourth state in less than an year where a visit by Modi has led to the hashtag trending. In November last year, when Modi arrived for campaigning in the Assembly polls in Jharkhand, #GoBackModi was among the top Twitter trends.
Tamil Nadu has been the state that has been most associated with #GoBackModi. In September 2019, the hashtag was trending when Modi arrived for the convocation of IIT Madras. A few weeks later, #GoBackModi was trending with Tamil, English and Chinese variations as Modi arrived for his informal summit with China's Xi Jinping.
In January 2019, #GoBackModi was trending as Modi arrived in Madurai to lay the foundation stone for an AIIMS campus. The protesters were then angry with the Centre for its perceived lack of assistance for the Gaja cyclone victims and the killings of over 20 protesters in Thoothukudi in police firing during a demonstration against the Sterlite smelter plant in May 2018.
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When Modi visited Andhra Pradesh in February 2019, #GoBackModi trended as people protested against the Centre's refusal to grant special status tag to the state following the bifurcation in 2014.
Ironically, one of the first times a hashtag similar to #GoBackModi trended was in May 2016 when Modi visited Kerala. Modi was severely criticised with #PoMoneModi (go back Modi) for claiming the child death ratio among children of scheduled tribes in Kerala was worse than that of Somalia.
