New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a swipe at critics and said they may remain happy with their arrogance, lies, pessimism and ignorance, but people should watch out against their divisive agenda as an old habit of 70 years cannot go away so easily.

Modi was reacting to a news clip posted on X captioned “Meltdown-e-Azam” (great meltdown) that cited “excuses” and alleged attempts by an “ecosystem” to stoke regional divide and insult voters in Hindi-speaking states after the BJP swept to power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, brushing aside the challenge from the Congress, which drew some consolation by winning the Assembly polls in Telangana.

In the post, the Prime Minister said, “May they be happy with their arrogance, lies, pessimism and ignorance. But... Beware of their divisive agenda. An old habit of 70 years can’t go away so easily. Also, such is the wisdom of the people that they have to be prepared for many more meltdowns ahead.”

The Prime Minister’s reply and the expression of unusual social media aggression in reaction to a post were also punctuated by several emojis, which is not common with his remarks on X.

A BJP leader said the Prime Minister’s post reflects the party turning up the heat in its social media outreach in recent months. “This post by the Prime Minister is not out of character. It is aggressive and takes the Opposition ecosystem head-on. In general, this has been the case with the BJP’s content on social media in general for the last few months. The BJP campaign and reels have been aggressive in tone and tenor. Many Instagram reels have generated 1.5 million views and more,” said the leader.