NEW DELHI: “It would be an honour if you were associated with us…. (silence)… obviously you will be paid accordingly.”

This is what Shreya (name changed), an entrepreneur based in Maharashtra, was told by a leader of a national political party. No, he did not want her to join the party — at least not ‘on paper’ — he wanted to ‘recruit’ her.

If you have an impressive CV, you can earn a million this election season. You just need to learn the art of trolling .

So, what is political trolling? According to a popular online dictionary, it is the act of using emotions, lies, false accusations and broken logic to undermine your opponent and win an argument in a political arena. This often involves twisting various sources, such as religion, to look like they say that your views are right. Motives include, but are not limited to: For money, power, fun and for the lulz.

Political parties like to call such people ‘volunteers’. All you need is a decent amount of ‘followers’ on social media , command over language, willingness to promote your party’s ideology (without asking too many questions) and most importantly the ability to troll your rivals to no end.

Shreya, who joined social media website Twitter a little over a year ago, was approached by both Congress and BJP workers to ‘work’ for them. The reason they wanted her – she was an ‘independent’ voice.

Translation: She was expected to help propagate political parties’ philosophy and policies on the social media. Since she is not associated with any political party and given her decent background, tweeple wouldn’t have questioned her motives.

She is not the only one. Arjun (name changed), a medical professional based abroad, who actively tweets on different topics was also approached by a national political party’s youth wing leader.

Arjun, who joined Twitter in 2010, started actively tweeting in June 2011 – primarily sharing his views music, sports, recent events, life and politics. His tryst with political trolls started the day he tweeted some information about the Gujarat CM Narendra Modi .

As Arjun started taking these trolls head on, he realized that his follower count was increasing dramatically. It didn’t take long for some prominent political leaders to start ‘following’ him and engaging in chats with him. After his tweets got featured on a television debate, he was approached by the ‘recruiters’.

Their proposition was very simple. He was asked to write blogs promoting the party’s agenda and policies. In return, he was promised up to Rs 10,000 or more per blog depending on the word limit. While journalists are often termed as ‘paid media’, concept of ‘ paid trolls ’ is still considered to be an urban myth.

Political parties are now adopting aggressive strategies to attack and counterattack each other on the social media.

Passing the buck

“It is impossible. An official AICC member would never indulge in this,” claims Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha . When counterquestioned he admits that ‘very very few people’ are being paid to research and write official blogs for Congress.

Claiming innocence, Jha blamed the BJP and RSS for paying trolls to attack Congress supporters. “It is impossible that there is such a great religious passion, with which people come at Congress supporters in such a synchronised way,” he says.

On the other hand, BJP’s IT cell head Arvind Gupta claims that Congress has not understood the phenomenon of social media. According to him, “We are a set of passionate volunteers. Because, they are late in the game they are paying people money. It is a fight between money and passion.”

How Congress attacks

The ruling party supporters very aggressively tweet using various hashtags. According to some media reports, it was the Congress’s social media think tank that came up with the hashtag - #feku (one who lies and exaggerates). #Feku is associated with the Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. The catchy #tag soon caught twitterati’s interest and became a worldwide trend.

Referring to #feku as funny, Jha feels that it was a turning point for Congress as they discovered there was so much goodwill for them on the social platforms.

BJP’s Arvind Gupta blames Cong office bearers for using abusive and anti-national language and threatening people on the internet. On the other hand, Jha claims that Congress workers and supporters are favourite targets of abusive right wing trolls.

Some other common hashtags used by the Cong supporters - BJP is referred to as ‘#BigJokeParty’, while its supporters are labelled as ‘#Sanghis’, RSS goons, Nikars, etc. Modi supporters are tagged as ‘#FekuFans’ and ‘#FekuFauj’.

How BJP attacks

Right wing Twitter army targets individuals whose views do not accord with the Sangh’s objectives. They are subjected to abuse by ‘volunteers’ whose abuse is then retweeted by their colleagues. It is easy to identify them because their English is nearly always incorrect.

Arvind Gupta blames the government for abusive trolling. “The govt has instilled a culture of anonymity among people because of their culture of censorship and vindictiveness.”

When asked about BJP’s stance on its supporters abusing on Twitter, he said, “Trolling has been glorified. We should not pay attention to the 2 per cent who abuse, but on the 98 per cent who are doing something constructive.”

Like Congress, BJP supporters too have come up with catchy hashtags. In response to Cong’s #Feku, right wing supporters have christened party vice president Rahul Gandhi as #Pappu.

CONgress (notice the alphabets in upper case) is used to remind people of the never ending scams. ‘Sikular’ is used to slam people who support the minorities. #PaidMedia and #ChorMedia is often used to attack journalists.

Social media censorship

“Section 66A of Information Technology Act has been wrongly drafted. It infringes upon certain rights given to the people by the constitution,” says Arvind Gupta claiming that BJP is against social media censorship.

“Why did the govt take 18 days to act on the fake video that was being circulated during the UP riots? Inept administration and governance cannot be blamed on social media,” he adds.

Congress’s Sanjay Jha says, “You can’t control social media. However, there is some amount of regulation necessary to keep check on elements exploiting sensitive issues or trying to malign community or individuals.”

Verdict: Who’s more popular?

The Congress claims that it has a greater presence on social media. “BJP has more supporters because it is a platform where extreme views get better marketability,” says Sanjay Jha. On the other hand, BJP claims that the Congress has lost the social media war.

However, contrary to their claims, both the parties have adopted similar tactics. The Sanghis say that the Congress is spending crores on its Twitter campaign. And the Congress ‘wonders’ that maybe the BJP ‘volunteers’ are selfless “knicker-wallahs” who will do anything for their love of Narendra Modi.

The bottom line: On social media netizens, trends, debates and hashtags are manipulated. Trolls rule, decide which way you want to sway.