Wednesday turned out to be an eventful day for social media users as they acted upon their tweets by gathering outside the Indian Embassy in the Capital to donate petroleum products.

It all began when a news broke out that the Indian Embassy had requested the Nepal Oil Corporation for petroleum products. Twitter then erupted with hashtag #DonateOilToIndianEmbassy.

“After embassy of India, which has imposed blockade on #Nepal, asks Nepal govt for fuel, new hashtag emerges #DonateOilToIndian-Embassy,” tweeted journalist Deepak Adhikari (@DeepakAdk).

According to Topsy, a site that monitors twitter trends, at one point the hashtag was tweeted over 17k times in an hour. Overall, the hashtag was tweeted over 60k times all over the world.

“Twitter users campaign to #DonateOilToIndianEmbassy after the Embassy requested supply of fuel amidst crisis caused by #IndiaBlockadesNepal,” tweeted @UjjwalAcharya.

The hashtag culminated into a symbolic protest outside the embassy premises at 3pm where at least 150 people gathered with placards that read ‘Back Off India’ and ‘Donate Oil to Indian Embassy’, among others.

Protesters lined up petrol bottles as a sign of protest and chanted slogans, including singing the national anthem. Kamal Mani Nepal, a bystander during the protest, said while he just happened to be at the protest, he met quite a few of his friends who had come after seeing the hashtag on twitter. “My friends decided to come to support the action initiated on twitter.”

Also present was Bibeksheel Nepal’s leader Ujjwal Thapa who said this was not a planned protest but a spontaneous decision made by a group of social media users. “These people gathered spontaneously, part of social media mobilisation,” he said.

Following a few rounds of sloganeering, two protesters were allowed inside the embassy to hand over letters  that called out the Indian government for interfering in the blockade. This is not the first time that a hasthtag, related to the political situation in the country, has trended Twitteratis posted ‘Back Off India’ after an Indian newspaper broke a news that the Indian government had asked Nepal to make seven amendments to the constitution.

“India is the only Nation in the whole world that has been attacked (Now) 3 times in a row with tweets#DonateOilToIndia,” tweeted Anima Poudel.

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