The great Indian political circus pitches tent on the Internet space

The Internet is the ultimate watering hole for most people. The latest to jump on the Web bandwagon are India’s politicians. With the 2014 general elections coming up, the country’s major political parties are leaving no stone unturned to ensure maximum reach with India’s populace. And Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms are just a few of the vehicles that are being used here.

Meshing up the Web with politics is not a new move. The US political game is way ahead of the pack in this regard. The highly documented Obama re-election campaign had data-trackers following up a huge number of social trends, with the level of detail enough to put most mega-level corporations to shame. In 2012, the re-election team was able to get hundreds of people to collectively raise $690 million (you read the number right). Money aside, the campaign was able to generate more than 133 million video views. The team also put together a Facebook following of 45 million users and a Twitter following of more than 33 million people.

While the White House plays the game on a whole other level, Indian politicians are definitely trying to match the same. The level of success being enjoyed is another matter all together. The Congress and the BJP are both putting considerable amounts of moolah to get the audience to pay attention to them. And this is beyond the propaganda-ish natured websites.

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The Congress-driven Khidkee social media website

The Congress recently launched a social network called Khidkee. The purpose of the social website is simple: to give Congress supporters an official forum to talk about how great the party is. Given Rahul Gandhi’s non-existent track record on Twitter and Facebook, the party’s decision to create a standalone social online entity for itself seems, well, interesting. Additionally, it can’t be discounted that BJP’s shining light, Narendra Modi, has all fingers and toes entrenched firmly into the social media spectrum.

While the site is currently hidden behind an invitation-only screen, a report by **FirstPost** indicates that Khidkee’s interface, apart from making an Orkut user miss his “old-school” profile, gives almost nothing in terms of political discourse, though. The site looks like a mash up between Facebook and Twitter, and the lack of an official moderator serves as icing on the cake. With tall claims, grammatically incorrect group descriptions and jingoistic jargon galore, the site seems to have some 300 odd members, with group names like “Rahul’s sycophants” threatening to chase away even the stoutest of bravehearts out there.

NaMo gets a smartphone and an army of his own

The opposition should not be forgotten here. One of Narendra Modi’s supporters is planning to come up with an Android phone for the politican, called Smart NaMo (notice the cool twitter lingo that is being played with). The smartphone is the brainchild of an independent body, which also goes by the same name, that claims allegiance to the politician. The official website comes with an apt description of the endeavor, which reads, “We are from land of Gujarat and in electronic smartphone business in China. NAMO stands for Narendra Modi and Next Generation Android Mobile Odyssey.” While the phone itself seems competent enough, it may be a bit disturbing to carry around a phone dedicated to the “Iron Man” of the country. The fact that Modi has an “army” to carry forth his baton is also intriguing. So far, Modi’s presence on the online sphere is considerable, with his Twitter account boasting 1,987,311 followers, while 2,604,853 people have so far liked his official fanpage on Facebook.

And no online political scenario can go without talking about the epic battles that Twitter has been seeing lately. While politicians slug it out mercilessly, titles like “Feku” and “Pappu” have been used liberally. And the stalwarts on the Twitter sphere remain Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. The #Feku vs #Pappu battles that took place earlier in the year basically show that any criticism levied against the nation’s leadership will cause pages of trolling levied against the critic. And all this is a cleverly thought-out campaign, make no mistake about it. The term “Pappu”, which means an innocent child, was born soon after Rahul Gandhi made his first speech to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) summit. And the term “Feku”, which is the Hindi slang for a bluffer, began trending worldwide four days after the Gandhi scion’s speech, when BJP’s leading contender for the PM post, Narendra Modi, spoke at an industry event.

One of the most recent Twitter escapades which took place last week, saw the Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal using the social networking platform to demand justice for Ishrat Jahan, the Mumbra teenager who was killed in an allegedly fake encounter in Gujarat. The #AAPExposed hastag started trending soon after, with Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena activist Tejinder Singh Bagga attacking the party’s stance. Within minutes, the AAP was ready with a counter-strategy: to go through the ages and talk about all the things that the party has exposed, which obviously translated to hashtags. #AAPExposedRobertVadra and #AAPExposedNitinGadkari were some of the most popular trending topics that day. This defintely shows that all politicial parties know the strength of social media. The kind of spam that may crop up on the user’s newsfeed, though, is a fear that will most likely remain unaddressed (more’s the pity). 

Most other politicians are also using Twitter as the means for a one-way communication with the audience, to promote the events that they are facilitating or conducting. A “good” example of this is the recent tweets that politician Shashi Tharoor has been putting up. Tharoor’s performance on the Twitter sphere has left much to be desired in the past, but the new innings will hopefully have the poltican regain some face (or not). Other visible entities found on the Twitter space are Congress men Digvjiay Singh and AK Anthony. Both Congress men also boast a “strong presence” on the party’s Khidkee network.

Twitter is only one of various online spheres that politicians are keen on cashing in on. Recently, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was accused by the BJP of allegedly “buying likes” on Facebook to project his popularity. While the Congress has since trashed these allegations, the allegations themselves are intriguing. According to NDTV, Mr Gehlot’s Facebook page is believed to have had 2,14,639 ‘Likes’ till June 30, shooting up from 1,69,077 in May. Currently, the page has a healthy 215,000 “Likes”.

Social media aside, the World Wide Web has various forums that serve as battlefields for online bickering. With troll websites galore, political parties are liberally using the Internet for a one-up-man game of a kind that is, quite frankly, hilarious to behold. The NarendraModiplans website is a candid view on what the politician plans to do for the country, which later had to be taken down because the author of the website received death threats. The website was picked up again by another enthusiast who wanted the world to know what NaMo planned to do if he will be elected Prime Minister. Meanwhile, RahulGandhiAchievements is an exhaustive take on all the milestones that the Gandhi scion has racked up since his entry into the Indian political scenario.

All told, it is obvious that the social media space is the place that all politicians are keen on capturing. With over 121 million Indians logging in everyday, according to BBC, it is obvious that opinions are being formed due to social platforms. It remains to be seen, though, if the “political” content being flung on the World Wide Web will garner the kind of responses that Indian politicians are looking for. Although the “there is no such thing as bad publicity” thought process cannot be forgotten.