External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s Twitter diplomacy is widely documented and she is revered for her prompt reactions and mass outreach. However, Swaraj went a step ahead and capitalised on her opposition’s folly, after she re-tweeted a poll conducted by Congress Party on her performance as a Foreign Minister in handling the the Mosul hostage issue.

The Congress’ poll invited people to assess her diplomacy in handling the case of 39 missing Indians killed in Mosul, Iraq.

Swaraj retweeted the Congress post on Sunday that said: “Do you think the death of 39 Indians in Iraq is Sushma Swaraj’s biggest failure as Foreign Minister? #IndiaSpeaks.”

Incidentally, Sushma received 76 per cent approval rating in her handling of the case. Around 33,879 people voted, out of which 76 percent chose the option ‘No’, while the remaining 24 percent said ‘Yes’.

Do you think the death of 39 Indians in Iraq is Sushma Swaraj’s biggest failure as Foreign Minister? #IndiaSpeaks

— Congress (@INCIndia) March 26, 2018

Twitter polls or social media polls are not ‘politically-binding’ and cannot determine the mood of the entire community but are vehemently used by political parties to catagorise each other and their performances.

With Sushma Swaraj using her acumen as a senior politician, quickly turned over the Congress plot over its head by grabbing the opportunity presented to her on the social media. This incident has become another example of her being a dexterous politician.

Congress has lately upped the ante on Sushma Swaraj over the case of 39 missing Indian killed in Mosul, Iraq. On 23 March, Congress had announced that they would move a Privilege Motion against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for “misleading” Parliament.

On 20 March, Swaraj had announced in the Parliament that all 39 Indian missing in Iraq, since June 2014, are dead and their bodies have been recovered.

Of the dead, 27 were from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, six from Bihar and two from West Bengal, the minister said. All of them were construction workers employed by an Iraqi company in Mosul.

Also read | 39 Indians declared dead: Here is what lone-survivor Harjit Masih had claimed

The workers were taken hostage by Islamic State militants when they took control of the second largest city in Iraq in 2014. They were trying to leave Mosul when they were captured by the militants.

Minister of State for External Affairs Gen (Retd) V K Singh had visited Iraq, days after Mosul was liberated by Iraqi forces from the rule of Islamic State. Singh is set to travel to Iraq again in a special aircraft to bring the mortal remains of the dead Indians back to the country.