Et tu Chandan Mitra? The Bharatiya Janata Party's digital supporters have been unhappy of late. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have deigned to meet a group of them, but the online army doesn't quite have the kind of clout in the new government that they might have hoped to (or else Subramanian Swamy would have been both minister of home affairs and finance by now). What's worse, BJP leaders – who are realising that policy can't be written in 140 characters – are now openly mocking them and questioning their influence.

Last week, Member of Parliament Anurag Thakur, who is also president of one of the party's youth wings, said that social media did not represent the "sense of the nation". Thakur was attempting to explain why India has been more willing to engage with Pakistan of late, especially over cricket. The result? #ShameOnAnuragThakur trending on Twitter, with posts like these:

Then on Monday evening, BJP MP Chandan Mitra, who is also editor and managing director of the Pioneer, went on a news panel discussion and openly mocked the famed internet army.



When NDTV's Barkha Dutt asked whether social media and political rhetoric influences the country's policies, Mitra categorically denied any influence at all.

"I don't think any government can actually frame foreign policy or any other policy on the basis of Twitter, which is hyperbolic at times and no BJP does not. BJP policy is not decided by the twitterati," Mitra said. "No. I absolutely and categorically state that twitterati does not influence policy. Yes it's a useful sounding board as to how some people with nothing very much better to do express their opinions on various subjects."

Clearly some in the BJP (fringe elements?) are starting to get unhappy about the digital army's ability to make headlines and unwillingness to engage with nuance. Modi and the party courted the thousands of online volunteers in the run-up to last year's elections, leaning on them to help create a decisive narrative. But in doing so, the BJP was also cultivating a loud vocal constituency that prefers the loose-cannon antics of Subramanian Swamy over the more careful policy maneuvering that Modi is currently attempting over Pakistan.

This is a beast of their own making and it doesn't like to be insulted, especially not if that insulting ends up happening on NDTV.