We know that the party in power at the center; the BJP is also really powerful on social media and uses it deftly to sway public sentiment. Many of the party’s agendas are circulated among people via WhatsApp forwards and information disseminated via Twitter and Facebook. In recent times more and more information about the way the BJP IT cell works to create online trends, viral memes and combat any kind of criticism of the party and its leaders, has come to light. The Congress also appears to have arrived (belatedly) to the social media party.
The BJP’s fondness for snappy slogans, alliterative titles and alternative interpretations to acronyms – to brand its own schemes as well as to attack opponents – appears to have come a full circle. Rahul Gandhi, who has been campaigning in poll-bound Gujarat recently, has adopted the oft-used BJP tactic of attacking opponents in lieu of actually speaking about achievements or offering solutions to existing problems.
In one election rally, Rahul Gandhi referred to GST (goods and services tax) as ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ to equate the tax to one of the best known Hindi movie villains of all time.
For years now, you and I have been receiving multitudes of Pappu jokes that portray Rahul Gandhi as ineffectual, immature, inexperienced and even mentally deficient. These were mostly vicious ad hominem attacks thinly veiled as humour. While the Congress has not (at least not yet) resorted to such personal attacks, some clever puns and witty one-liners have started to emanate from some Twitter handles and have been circulating virally on WhatsApp and other platforms. This tweet is a clever spin on the word ‘shahzaada’ or prince; a term often used by the BJP to mock Rahul Gandhi himself.
When tweeting about news items as well, the turn of phrase is distinctly cheeky while stopping just short of being outright nasty. A news report about most of the demonetised currency returning to the banking system was tweeted with “GOI looking for a Math tutor. Please apply to PMO ASAP”. When tweeting about Yashwant Sinha’s criticism of the BJP, the tweet read “Ladies & Gentlemen, this is your copilot & FM speaking. Plz fasten your seat belts & take brace position. The wings have fallen off our plane”.
Recent media reports about the government of Rajasthan allegedly gagging the media are vigorously tweeted along with liberal doses of sarcasm: “Madam Chief Minister, with all humility we are in the 21'st century. It's 2017, not 1817”. The Congress is also getting full mileage out of a news report about the alleged offer of Rs 1 crore to Gujarat leader Narendra Patel to join the BJP: “Gujarat is priceless. It has never been bought. It can never be bought. It will never be bought,” says the rather theatrical tweet; which is reminiscent of BJP tactics more than the tactics hitherto used by the Congress.
Presumably it was advantage Congress when the “Vikas gando thayo chhe” (development has gone mad) videos that mocked the ‘Gujarat Model of Development’, went viral ahead of Navratri. The videos reflected poorly on the BJP which has been in power in Gujarat for 22 years now.
In the past, the BJP IT cell has been accused of manipulating photos and videos to further agendas, of misrepresenting images of foreign locations to falsely depict progress in India and of actually fabricating ‘headlines’ which are then circulated on social media via users or shady blog sites. The Congress is also getting mileage out of unconfirmed reports in similar ways.
Recently this post about a 60 second advert at Times Square has been going viral. This is a clearly unconfirmed report since there are no mainstream or reliable sources of this ‘news’; but this has not stopped people from sharing the post widely and claiming that it is Indian tax payers money that has gone into the aggrandisment of the ruling party and its leader. Some claimed that the ad spot was sponsored by ‘generous NRIs’ others claimed it was Air India that sponsored the ad; there was the usual tu-tu-main-main that usually ensues in the comments of course.
The point here being that the BJP now seems to be getting a dose of some of their own medicine. Right now their supporters are still many; vocal and vigorously defending them on social media. It remains to be seen who drowns out whose voice now as several vitally important state legislative assembly elections approach.
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