MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Facebook, WhatsApp and X used to be the core playbook for India's ruling party, the BJP, to reach voters. In the wake of last month's youth-led cockroach protests, the party is trying to revamp its strategy for Gen Z, and winning over young voters is only half the picture. Police are also rounding up protest organizers on criminal charges, as NPR's Omkar Khandekar reports from Mumbai.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Speaking Hindi).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Speaking Hindi).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Speaking Hindi).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Speaking Hindi).
OMKAR KHANDEKAR, BYLINE: Last month, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, decided to address tens of thousands of students in the capital protesting for education reforms. He did it after weeks of silence through an Instagram reel.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI: Friends, (non-English language spoken).
KHANDEKAR: Modi said he was aware how corruption in India's examination systems had affected them and he was working to fix it. That reel got more than 21 million likes, three times more than Taylor Swift did when she announced her latest album. It also inspired countless parodies on Modi's awkward style, which some compared to grandparents on a video call. Yet Modi put up more reels in the coming days.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
MODI: (Non-English language spoken).
My friends, (non-English language spoken).
Thank you, friends. (Non-English language spoken).
KHANDEKAR: As news channel NDTV reported, the 75-year-old leader wanted his ministers to do the same.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED NEWSCASTER: He also said that each minister must post reels and of course have interactive content because he further asserted that youth is only on Instagram, a potential...
KHANDEKAR: Rajat Sethi is a visiting fellow at the conservative think tank India Foundation. He says, the nationwide protests last month made the boomers in the BJP government think that their main failure was not connecting with the youth. Because, he says...
RAJAT SETHI: If they are not making reels, if they are not speaking in a rap song perhaps to the Gen Z, they will not hear you.
KHANDEKAR: Since then, India's foreign ministry got onto Snapchat. Legislators started using slang in speeches. One BJP legislator, Bansuri Swaraj, told the parliament that despite criticism, India under Modi is actually much better off.
BANSURI SWARAJ: Gen Z (speaking Hindi) then I will have to say Modi clocked it and provided...
KHANDEKAR: Modi clocked it.
Professor Joyojeet Pal tracks political messaging at the University of Michigan. He says the BJP's Instagram game isn't quite landing.
JOYOJEET PAL: For a politician, it is very important not to come across as a kind of dad on the dance floor, where you're trying to be cool. And where they're making the mistake is imagining that trying to be like young people is actually going to win them votes.
KHANDEKAR: Like a reel showing Modi talking to kids, playing football, set to an iconic song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU")
THE REMBRANDTS: (Singing) I'll be there for you when the rain starts to pour.
KHANDEKAR: Pal says the youth outreach comes off as insincere because police have also booked hundreds on criminal charges. Others report abuse, doxing and receiving death and rape threats from BJP supporters, like Mumbai model Rhiya Ahir, whose photograph blocking a police van became a defining image of the protest. Ahir says she has been abused online, with attackers falsely claiming that...
RHIYA AHIR: She posts naked pictures of hers on the Instagram subscription, and I have received all her leaks in my DMs on my Instagram.
KHANDEKAR: Delhi-based independent internet watchdog Software Freedom Law Center says since last month's protests, it has observed an unprecedented social media censorship, often posts critical of Modi. PJP national spokesperson Shazia Ilmi denied police overreach and claimed, without proof, that there were criminals among protesters.
SHAZIA ILMI: Who are these youths? What have they done? What are the cases?
KHANDEKAR: She accused NPR of being biased against her party.
ILMI: I think it's a lot of nonsense and anti-Modi rubbish.
KHANDEKAR: And hung up on this reporter.
ILMI: Period. Thanks.
KHANDEKAR: Leaders of the protest group Cockroach Janta Party said that the government had failed to honor their promise to not charge young protesters and so it has announced a season two of student protests. At a recent gathering, the group asked a crowd of supporters what they should protest about. The answer was quick.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
(CROSSTALK)
KHANDEKAR: For Modi's resignation. But the prime minister hasn't responded with an Instagram reel yet.
Omkar Khandekar, NPR News, Mumbai. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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