Early on Saturday, leaders of most major political parties extended Christmas greetings to the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “Christmas greetings to everyone! We recall the life and noble teachings of Jesus Christ, which placed topmost emphasis on service, kindness and humility. May everyone be healthy and prosperous. May there be harmony all around.”
But Christmas, or most specifically the imagery of Santa Claus and gifts, was used by the Congress as a means to target the Modi government on a number of key issues such as high fuel prices, inflation and alleged opacity of the government in providing information.
From 10am, the Congress put up multiple tweets with images of Santa Claus beginning with the words “Thank God Santa”. The first tweet said “Thank God Santa rides a sleigh... He doesn't need to pay hefty prices for fuel”. The tweet description said “Imagine dashing through the snow at Rs.95/litre.”
The second tweet in the series stated “Thank God Santa gets his gifts from the North Pole. They'd be unaffordable here anyway”. The tweet description was a pun on the popular Christmas song Jingle Bells. The description read, “Jingle bells... Jingle bells... Jingle all the way. Oh what fun it would be to buy things... without burning all your savings away.”
The third tweet was a pun on another Christmas song, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, with the description saying “He's not making a list, The govt's not checking anything twice; They have no data on-who's naughty or nice.” The accompanying image said “Thank God Santa has a naughty and nice list because our government has no data.”
The fourth tweet appeared to be based on the song All I Want for Christmas Is You with the description stating, “All we want for Christmas is a government that listens.” The accompanying image said, “Thank God Santa is listening to everyone's wishes because Modiji is only listening to his Mann Ki Baat.”
A fifth tweet was again based on Jingle Bells and stated, “Jingle bells, jingle bells, ports, airports, roads, railways, are just a few things Modi ji sells.” The image stated, “Thank God Santa is there to give everybody gifts because PM Modi is busy gifting himself and his crony capitalist friends.”
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The Congress has previously used Christmas imagery to poke fun at Modi. In 2017, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari tweeted, “All over the world at this time an old man with a white beard creeps in your house through chimney and puts money in your socks. In India an old man with a white beard crept into your house through TV removed money from your pockets, cupboards, lockers & left you only in your socks.”
