Tweeting up the votes

In the recent polls, PM Modi used social media in ways that flattened out the political terrain

on voting day, but the coded message to vote BJP was unmistakable. To drive the point home, there was also the retweeting of images of supporters who had voted, a tactic first deployed in 2014. Alok Kumar Dubey tweeted a picture of himself with two pals, holding up inked fingers with the text: “Today we cast our vote... Everyone voted for BJP.”

In 2014, selfies were big in the BJP campaign. This time too, there was a focus on youth-friendly subjects like sports and info-tech. When the digital app, BHIM, was launched in January, Modi tweeted, “BHIM App has made transactions faster and easier, thus making it popular among the youth.” It received 13,781 likes, with Chintan Thakkar tweeting: “Sir, BHIM app is one of the best gifts you have given to India in the journey of digitisation. Thank you.” Those drawn into the conversation were sometimes even younger. Modi retweeted Adyasha Kar’s words: “Had heard your #for students before my 10th and again before my 12th boards. Thank you for motivating and being with us.” When a schoolboy tweets thus, it would indicate a long-term strategy of priming future generations.

The broadcasting of ‘Mann ki Baat’ during the election period was controversial. It was only on condition that he stuck to nonelection themes was clearance given. Yet, in a frenetic election season, even innocuous statements on “nari shakti” gain electoral wings. Care was taken to avoid overtly communal statements this time and there were no tweets of the shamshan-kabristan variety. The appeal to Hindu sentiments, however, was unambiguous. Just as he had done in 2014, Modi began his campaigning with avisittotirupati’ssrivenkateswaraswamy temple on January 3, a day before election dates were announced. The last phase too was busy with images of temple visitations, ending with his prayers at the Somnath temple on March 8. Even as voting was on in eastern UP, he tweeted: “Jai Somnath.”

It touched an immediate chord. Siddharth Pai, for one, came back with “Har Har Mahadev... like Sardar Patel reinstated Somanath temple. Wish you rebuild majestic ram Mandir in #Ayodhya.” The way in which the Somnath-ayodhya temple connect could be so emphatically established would indicate that Modi’s tweets, while not appearing to polarise, were in fact remarkably effective in doing so. Their virtuality in no way undermined their viscerality.

Everything was thrown into these tweets, from budget promises and visits of foreign dignitaries like the Portuguese PM, to random observations on “hardworking farmers”. They coalesced the images of Modi as Pm/fighter of corruption /friend/benefactor/indefatigable campaigner into that of “Modi, the Saviour”. The Pied Piper call of “sabka saath, sabka vikas” sounded from every mobile phone, flattening out the political terrain.

This carefully constructed multimedia panopticon is more successful than anything conjured up by old-style political propaganda, because of the ownership that is vested in it by the recipients of its messaging. What we have left is a political landscape shorn of an opposition, a politics rampant with majoritarian impulses, and a public discourse devoid of counter voices.

The writer is a senior journalist