For first time in years, BJP trolls have fallen silent, and Modi looks rattled by cyber rebellion of Gen Z protesters, who, armed with knowledge and technical know-how, strike with vicious humour
Releasing the autobiography of former president Ramnath Kovind this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told young people that they should move away from making reels and read autobiographies and biographies. The advice was sound in itself. But the background to the reference to the reels carries a sense of disapproval, and even resentment, on the part of Modi.
Instagram-books binary
The reference to the raucous Instagram and YouTube reels by the Jantar Mantar protesters is too loud to be missed. The prime minister, it seems, is still smarting from the jibes taken at him by angry young anti-paper leak protesters, who were not only unsparing at former Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, but also at Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah following the July 20 police crackdown against them.
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Initially, Modi told his cabinet colleagues to take to Instagram to reach out to the young protesters. And he did so himself, shooting selfie-style reels, to address the young protesters. The youngsters were clearly not impressed. They responded with characteristic irreverence and lampooned the prime minister’s Instagram videos.
In its wake, Modi’s counsel to young minds to read books seems a strategic retreat in the war of communication, which is a curious Indian version of America’s culture wars. The Instagram-books binary that the prime minister has unwittingly constructed shows the generational fault line. The old phrase of the 1970s, “generation gap”, is inadequate to describe the chasm between Modi and his colleagues, on the one side and the rollicking protestors of Jantar Mantar, on the other.
Personal touch backfires
Modi has never been a Luddite, unlike most of his political contemporaries in the country. He embraced Twitter (now renamed X) with great enthusiasm. The only other politician who took to Twitter with equal vigour is Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. Modi created a team to manage his Twitter account, and it became his official mouthpiece. There was not much personal involvement. And he did not make his Twitter platform his personal voice as US President Donald Trump has done with his Truth Social. Trump’s vitriol is on full display in his social media pronouncements. Over time, Modi’s Twitter account—once boasting claims of hundreds of millions of followers that later proved unreliable—simply stagnated.
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When he took to Instagram and tried to give it a personal touch, it turned out to be much too stiff. Now, it looks like the prime minister has abandoned his Instagram foray. He has almost beaten a retreat. His advice to the young to read books is a clear reflection of this.
Who said Gen Z doesn't read?
Contrary to the general perception that Gen Z does not read, the youngsters are voracious readers. They read a lot of fiction. They have a taste for horror stories. That is why they have an uncanny macabre sense of humour. Some of the reels and memes they made in response to Modi’s Instagram outreach carry this strain in abundance. For people of an older generation, the caustic memes and reels are much too rude. But that is their way of reacting to those with whom they do not agree, irreverent to the core.
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Whatever may be the developments on the ground, Gen Z has won the war of words and nerves in the cyber battlefields. It may be an insubstantial trophy, but it has given the young protestors a psychological advantage. This is reflected in a section of the NALSAR University of Law students in Hyderabad asking the institute not to invite Chief Justice of India Surya Kant as chief guest at the convocation. They are not on the rampage. They are speaking their mind. It is this simple gesture of speaking out that has rattled the Supreme Court’s Bar Council of India, which in turn has threatened punitive action.
Gen Z stops BJP trolls in their track
These small victories at the cyber barricades will not change the political situation because the brutal power of the State is too overwhelming. The government can close the internet any time, and for any length of time. It has done so in a limited fashion at Jantar Mantar as well as in Jammu and Kashmir.
Also read: Bhagwat speaks Gen Z's language, but Sangh's script hasn't changed
But, like in Iran, the young protestors have made their point. There has been a rebellion. The Modi government does not know how to handle it. For once, the unflappable prime minister looks troubled and even timid. Modi’s back-to-books message at the launch of Kovind’s autobiography is no small matter. It reveals the chink in the government’s and the BJP’s propaganda armour.
The BJP’s cyber cell has fallen silent. The BJP trolls who had a field day for years have thinned and even melted. The anti-BJP troĺls are on the prowl. Gen Z is a cyber guerrilla force. It strikes with deadly humour, not with vicious ranting.
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