Internet penetration has spread, and the number of active netizens in India has grown to be at an estimate of 574 million, making India the second largest digital consumer market in the world. Association with social media has been useful in Indian politics in the last two decades in helping  build a  tech-savvy, modern, non-traditional image of politicians. Among other platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Twitter can be  considered as the channel with the largest theatrical political narrative, creating an outlet for  political brands signalling towards  the man who speaks through it. 

The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi’s social media presence, especially on Twitter with his 60.2 million followers (as of July 2020) has been one of the most extensive following for any politician in the world. In just a few years, he has evolved from a simple politician to a ‘selfie e-clicking’ leader with a finger on the latest technologies as well as the pulse of his constituents. The re-imagination of Modi on Twitter is all the more important because of his almost complete lack of contact with traditional news media in his Prime Ministerial capacity. Despite his minimal one-sided interaction with mainstream media, Narendra Modi still comes across as the most interactive Prime Minister India has ever had. Modi’s Twitter campaign exemplifies the power of social media in shaping the citizenry’s imagination of its political leader.

Overview of Narendra Modi’s Tweeting Pattern (2009-2020)

2009: Narendra Modi, began building his social media profile on Twitter a few months before the 2009 general elections in India. He spent the next three years creating nationalistic appeal—much of which was done by his choice of words. Hashtags like #IndiaDevelops and #2facedCongress were among the most popular hashtags used during the period to reflect development and create a nationalistic appeal. 

2011: By 2011, as the following picked up, a shift was witnessed in his posts towards mythological figures that struck a chord with Indians. Narendra Modi also invoked national icons such as Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru in his tweets. India’s massive tax-evasion crisis and black money in Swiss banks served as additional preferred topics for the media-active PM. Modi was projected as an industry-friendly, economically aggressive politician who had the potential to bring fiscal discipline. 

2012: After being endorsed by Bollywood star and actor, Ajay Devgn in August 2012, Modi followed several celebrity accounts, including megastars Amitabh Bachchan from Bollywood and Rajinikanth from Tollywood (Tamil film industry). Modi established affinity with these stars by visibly interacting with them on Twitter, and his messages were heavily retweeted among millions of followers. Additionally, he consistently tweeted on youth themes. During the Cricket World Cup, Modi tweeted about the Indian captain, MS Dhoni as “Captain Cool” suggesting he was au fait with the sport which is highly celebrated  in India. 

2013: A transition in Modi’s online presence started in 2013. Not only did he try to please the masses, he also subtly began referring to his religious leanings and talking about technology and development. By July 2013, he had mentioned multiple Indian states besides Gujarat—Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu as well as  national icons such as Guru Harkishan, Swami Vivekananda, and Chandrashekhar in his tweets. There were no explicit endorsements or statements of policy but all the tweets were heavily retweeted by respective followers and fans. In 2013, he also overtook Shashi Tharoor as the country’s most followed politician on Twitter.  In the run-up to the election in the last quarter of 2013, the typical re-tweet count of Modi’s messages doubled.

2014: In April 2014 just before the general elections, Modi’s picture of himself with South Indian film star Rajinikanth went viral with his one tweet. With a less significant following in the South than in the North and West of the country, the tweet with Rajinikanth suggested an endorsement from southern India. Likewise, Modi tweeted photos of himself with Telugu film star, Pawan Kalyan and Tamil film star, Vijay, a photo of himself flying kites with Bollywood star, Salman Khan, and an entire event with some of the top stars in the film fraternity. All 7 of his flagship programs introduced between 2014 to 2016 such as #MakeInIndia, #MannKiBaat, #SwachhBharat, #SelfieWithDaughter, #MyCleanIndia, and #TransformingIndia were widely discussed by millions on Twitter. 

2015: Modi’s tweets changed from fewer political statements to more casual messages such as greetings, condolences and updates on his addresses. One of his most controversial strategies on Twitter has been his generous use of the ‘follow button’.  By 2015, his twitter account was following about 700 laypersons most of whom were ‘die-hard’ supporters of the Prime Minister and defended him furiously online while bashing the opposition.

2016: Modi’s communication skills came into sharp focus during a self-created crisis of his government when they demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in 2016. The series of hashtags used by his Twitter account— #IndiaFightsCorruption #NewIndia #Digitalpayments #ipaydigitally trended on Twitter for a total of 4 months. Modi’s tweets put a positive spin on this  fallout  with his public speeches acknowledging the hardship caused to the poor and middle class citizens, nonetheless emphasising the need for this reform. Before his election as the Prime Minister, Modi had been using Twitter to update his followers on his daily activities,  diplomacy efforts,  launching of various government schemes including ‘Digital India’, ‘Clean India’ and ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padao’. 

Narendra Modi and his Tweeting strategy 2017 onwards — present 

Since 2017, Modi’s personal Twitter account has been focused on his daily activities that includes micro-blogging his speeches, talking about development programs and engaging with eminent personalities from distinct fields. In 2018, right before the general elections, a major portion of his tweets shifted from  progress reports to that of BJP’s manifestos, plans and policies. While a lot of people criticised Modi for using his status as the Prime Minister to tamper with the duties of being the Chief Minister, he managed to  garner great response. ‘Ache din anne wale hai’ (good days are coming) created a wave and was re-tweeted 34,554 times within 56 minutes.

In 2019, two subjects attracted the maximum retweets from Modi’s followers - those related to the armed forces after the terror attack on a Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 personnel in February 2019 and his “Main Bhi Chowkidar” (I too am a gatekeeper) campaign. His Twitter profile identified him as “Chowkidar Narendra Modi” and same  was the case with other BJP leaders as they launched a coordinated campaign for the May 2019 elections. Automated replies were also sent to over one lakh (100,000) Twitter users from Prime Minister’s personal twitter handle after they took the pledge of identifying themselves with #MainBhiChowkidar. 

The hashtag “#MaiBhiChowkidar” drew a record of nine lakh (900,000) tweets globally. This campaign, which took place entirely on Twitter, was responded to by thousands of BJP supporters with an added  prefix “Chowkidar” before their names on their respective handles. The social media campaign was described as “highly successful and the single biggest Twitter campaign executed by a political party or company” by a BJP functionary.

Modi’s tweets today are seen as one of the potent sources of information. As shutdowns rolled across the globe, the coronavirus pandemic became a  major topic of discussion in the first half of the year. His first address amidst the global pandemic was to leaders of the world, stating “I would like to propose that the leadership of SAARC nations chalk out a strong strategy to fight Coronavirus,”.  Within a week, a nationwide lockdown was announced followed by a continuous series of assessments, plans, lockdown announcements and progress for the next 5 months.

A tweet that made headlines during  the coronavirus struggle was the introduction of  the National Educational Policy on July 29. Aimed at providing an overarching vision and comprehensive framework for education across the country, this policy covered both school and higher education with immediate implementation. 

By dismantling an obsolete system and promoting skill-gap analysis, practice-based curriculum and internships with local vocational experts, NEP reflects Prime Minister Modi’s call of being ‘vocal for local’.The section for higher education opens with ‘liberal arts’ as the key reform. This term has been gaining currency in India over recent years. Modi’s tweets clearly portray the persona of an ascetic who does not want anything for himself, who is ready to live an austere life without craving from material goods and who goes back to India’s great religious traditions.

The BJP however. has made no secret of where it stands on the question of minority rights, on Hindu dominance and patriotism. His muscular nationalist personality which took years to build, came under a heavy radar in 2020 with the party’s political actions. Centralisation of authority, authoritarianism, divisiveness and polarising politics have helped him transcend crises before. There are some unavoidable aspects to his governance that people still seek answers to namely, the scrapping of Article 370 and the imposition of a communications blockade on the people of Jammu and Kashmir  as well as the tremendous suffering of migrant workers during the lockdown.

Narendra Modi’s tweets  off late have been an energising and misleading prism to think about the state and fate of our democracy. The actions of homogenization, centralization outside political influence, animosity towards private enterprises in education and refusal to recognize caste as a disabling factor, among others call for explicit remedial measures. While a section of people feel involved in the development trajectory of the nation, a larger section still struggles. All in all, we are yet to see the resilience promised  by the PM with his ‘Atma-Nirbhar’ calls. 

The Final Takeaway 

For the first time in the political history of the country, 95% of ministers in the ruling Government are active on Twitter. The reduction of direct media contacts from Modi emphasises on the growing assurance that social media is  a self-sufficient form of outreach Unlike many other political campaigns that started off awkwardly on Twitter, Modi avoided coming across as an old-world political leader unaccustomed to technology, and emerged as a tech-savvy politician  with the help of strategic and well-crafted digital presence. 

Campaigns, manifestos and announcements around policies and key social issues have accounted to emerge as the most tweeted messages on Twitter today. Political parties use social media directly and continuously to engage with voters. More so than traditional media, social media can amplify and mobilise political opinions and reach out to  the remotest geographical areas. Social media’s unique value is that it allows for both mass messaging and micro targeting. Bolstered by grass root campaigning, it is immensely powerful in moulding public opinion both in India and beyond.

The reframing of Modi’s image provides an insight into the potential discourse of development and technology in an emergent nation and the ways in which artefacts like Twitter symbolise modernity in India. It is the best proof we have of Twitter’s potential to craft leaders and empower the population.

Drishti J. Verma is a recent graduate from the University of Delhi where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an avid researcher and has written papers and conducted studies in areas pertaining to entrepreneurship, fashion, social media, globalization and development among others. Hasrat is proud to be associated with her and promote her analysis driven piece of work.