Why can’t Modi’s cheerleaders realise that we live now in a connected world where century-old tactics featuring misinformation, disinformation or communist-style propaganda will simply not work?
Published Sep 22, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 22, 2025 | 9:00 AM
Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi.
Synopsis: Social media has become a gambling den of sorts in Indian politics. Unruly propaganda wings of both leading parties often cross red lines that separate focused criticism from cheap shots and desperate gaffes.
It was good to see opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi of the Congress and MK Stalin of the DMK join hordes of wishers to greet Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he turned 75 in what is evidently a milestone in his life. Full-page newspaper advertisements, loud congratulatory messages, and videos featuring movie stars and other celebrities cheered the prime minister.
But. But. But...
It is important to ask if things should be stage-managed in a manner where an occasion for celebration becomes raw material for tacky propaganda by a huge publicity machinery employed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its long list of affiliates and front organisations. Such material provides equally engaging grist for critics, opponents and satirists of the prime minister, who are not a few in number.
Let’s get this straight. The BJP is not the only party making gauche mistakes this season. The Congress is also having some egg on its face, and it is not healthy protein for a party trying to win back power at the Centre after 11 years in the political wilderness.
First, let us look at the Modi entourage. I would not have expected former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to join Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan to greet Modi on his birthday. It looked odd, given that Sunak had not been seen doing such things for the years he was prominent and the two leaders were in contact. Evidently, there was a big machinery at work behind the scenes to nudge, persuade or push a host of big names to orchestrate a heavy-duty birthday celebration for Modi.
Such things work up to a point. But not when you overdo it, as it seems.
Former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand, famous for his patient, considered moves in the game of minds, is apparently not as good as a publicity ally. He faced online ridicule after he appeared to copy and paste a scripted birthday message for Modi with the hashtag #MyModiStory.
The grandmaster unconsciously posted a reference to himself as “Viswanathan Anand Ji” along with his message, leaving a digital footprint that suggested that the BJP’s (in)famous IT cell was at work.
The message was quickly amended, but the momentary lapse of reason was enough to make a news story and generate much mockery.
A day later, a leaked video of BJP campaigners showed a coaching class in progress: of supporters being told to chant “Modi, Modi” non-stop and even guided on how to clap as their leader took the stage. Talk about pre-planned spontaneity!
Such things show the organisational power of the BJP – sometimes, the wrong side up. This is the political equivalent of what in the fashion industry they call a wardrobe malfunction: something that shows slips – the ones worn inside clothes as well as the ones that make people skid and fall.
But the ruling party may take heart from the fact that stupid acts are not its monopoly. As the prime minister marked his birthday, the Patna High Court directed the Opposition Congress to remove from its social media feeds an artificial intelligence-assisted video featuring Modi in an ostensibly satirical video in which his late mother scolds him. The video appeared days before the prime minister’s birthday.
About two weeks earlier, a viral video of a Congress-led Vote Adhikar Yatra rally in Bihar showed party workers on stage using offensive language against Modi and his mother, though the video looked vague and was not properly verified.
Not to miss such a chance, Modi turned the video into a political opportunity by equating such acts with an abuse of mothers in general – something that strikes a chord in the hearts of women.
Around the same time, a desperate attempt by the Kerala unit of the Congress to lampoon the BJP for taking beedis off the list of “sin goods” saw it equate the tobacco product with Bihar. It backfired badly. Such stereotyping of Biharis as poor beedi-smokers was enough to set off one more round of outrage.
Social media has become a gambling den of sorts in Indian politics. Unruly propaganda wings of both leading parties often cross red lines that separate focused criticism from cheap shots and desperate gaffes.
I noticed with a sense of irony that government advertisements that list the achievements of various BJP governments (and also Congress governments where they are in power) tend to carry details that are worth advertising creatively in social media posts. But such is the urge to score brownie points with negative tactics like organised cheerleading and below-the-belt attacks that both the BJP and the Congress are in a race to the bottom that is not setting the right example for young Indians.
The BJP may be doing well in domestic politics, but Modi’s own vision of Bharat being a world-guiding Vishwaguru and a great civilisation comes undone when his extended family of propagandists fails him.
Pro-Modi journalists, pejoratively described as Godi Media, were targeted for howls and attacks by Gen Z protesters in Nepal this month as they went out of their way to create a narrative that their country needed a leader like Modi.
When the army launched Operation Sindoor to bomb terror camps in Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack in April, pro-Modi channels went on an overdrive about Karachi being bombed, totally erasing the line between war propaganda and journalism. Even state-owned Doordarshan and All India Radio do not indulge in such acts.
The private channels, often aided by government advertisements, ruling party nudges, and prospects of interviews with high-ups in the ruling establishment, try to outdo each other in showing loyalty to the powers-that-be, sometimes with results that are at once hilarious and tragic.
Why can’t Modi’s cheerleaders realise that we live now in a connected world where century-old tactics featuring misinformation, disinformation or communist-style propaganda will simply not work?
Why can’t Rahul Gandhi’s followers realise that they have to be sensitive to sentiments in each state and community as they try to pull down Modi?
The answer lies in a harsh reality of politics: Any political organisation that is devoid of a healthy internal culture of conversations and consensus will end up confusing loud loyalty with useful competence.
Dogs can only bite, bark or wag their tails – whatever their party colour. My apologies are due to the four-legged species, but there is no better metaphor for the times when stray dogs and guard dogs are in the news for all the wrong reasons.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
