This, however, was not the only meme posted on the party’s social media platforms.
In the past year or so, the Congress, just like all other major political parties, has been actively posting memes, reels and videos in its bid to “target younger audiences” through entertainment, comedy and wit.
“Every day, we check what the issue of the day is, what our party leaders are saying, and what are the issues we need to highlight, then we decide our memes,” Ruchira Chaturvedi, 35, national convener of the Congress’ social media platforms for more than a decade, told ThePrint.
With the Lok Sabha election in full swing, political messaging is mainly being done through music videos and trendy memes and social media platforms have become the battleground for ideology.
Often humorous and visually engaging, memes tap into the mood of the day and stay in the viewers’ mind because of their funny visuals and one-liners.
Political parties have, in recent times, understood the power of memes in shaping public opinion. As a meme goes viral on the internet, the parties quickly hop on the trend and make their own versions of memes, dissing the rival party.
Among all the parties, the BJP has had a stronghold when it comes to memes and social media engagement since it rose to power at the Centre in 2014.
The party has 7.8 million followers on Instagram — the highest among all political parties — and makes good use of memes to reach out to followers.
For example, in a March Instagram post, the BJP latched on to the “same same, but different” meme trend, highlighting the concept of two things being different but having similarities.
The party posted a series of memes including pictures of Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and glasses of alcohol, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and a “victim card”, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and cattle eating fodder, etc, titling them all as “same same, but different”.
The meme series went viral and garnered more than 1.4 lakh likes and over 1,600 comments on Instagram.
Speaking about memes, Chaturvedi said: “As a political party, we want to communicate in a language that most people resonate with. Memes are short, to the point, and convey the message in a more humorous manner. Memes are effective with young voters, but not limited to them: people across age groups enjoy them.”
Understanding the power of memes, political parties have established dedicated social media cells staffed with writers, meme creators and content creators whose sole purpose is to churn out viral content that would help the parties attain followers and engagement on social media platforms.
The Instagram accounts of all major political parties in India, including the BJP, Congress and AAP, have millions of followers who react, comment and reshare these memes on a daily basis.
Also Read: How social media memes became a political weapon to woo first-time voters
‘Memes for the young’
Every day, around 8.30 in the morning, the Congress’s social media team sits together for a brainstorming session. Based on important issues, party statements, or specific topics highlighted by the party leadership, fresh memes are churned out. Moreover, memes are also made on the already existing memes on social media platforms, explained Chaturvedi.
She noted that the meme culture may have picked up in recent times but was not a new phenomenon, stating that such messages were earlier shared in the form of cartoons.
“Humour as a means of communication has been there for a long time. Memes are very receptive because they are short and crisp,” she said.
On a daily basis, especially through the election season when political parties are responding to each other through memes, Chaturvedi said the Congress puts up between 30 and 40 posts on Instagram, of which many are memes.
“We have been getting a great response till now. A lot of our memes get picked up by news organisations. That shows it is effective,” she said.
Just like the Congress, the AAP has a dedicated social media team — consisting of about 20 young people — that produces content, especially memes, on a daily basis, and as soon as these memes go viral, people start interacting on the posts.
“We make memes for our young audiences,” a member of the AAP social media team, who did not wish to be named, told ThePrint.
Like other parties, the team at AAP observes the meme templates going viral on the internet, selects the appropriate issue, writes a few lines and merges it to make a meme.
The AAP social media team’s posts usually follow a continuing overall narrative. For instance, since the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal, the refrain has been “Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se (respond to jail through votes)”.
“Through this, we are telling our audience to vote against Kejriwalji’s arrest. This is our central point,” the team member said.
The member pointed out that every political party was contributing to viral content on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. “The more these platforms evolved, political parties realised that they were bound to make use of such content to spread messages,” he explained.
“A few years ago, political parties didn’t even make campaign songs, but now they are doing so because people enjoy music. So people decide what kind of content they want,” he said.
Moreover, the language used by the social media team is based on the language of their leaders, the member added. “So we don’t go beyond those words,” he said.
Like the Congress and AAP, the BJP has over the years established a vast network of social media volunteers and supporters, popularly known as the “BJP IT Cell”, who actively participate in meme creation and distribution.
ThePrint reached out to the party’s social media team with queries, but got no response.
Memes created by the political party are also disseminated on WhatsApp groups, and reach a wider audience.
The downside
Abhinit Khanna, a meme-maker and curator who researches and writes on popular culture and media, told ThePrint that while it is difficult to trace the journey of memes, popular social media accounts based in India, such as Humans of Hindutva, made political memes popular.
“During the 2019 general elections, the BJP already had a strong WhatsApp network, so the party already knew how it wanted to communicate with its audience,” said Khanna, talking about the start of the meme war in India. “The opposition parties were quick to adopt the trend.”
Memes have the capability to influence people, he explained, adding that political parties also use them to send out their propaganda to the masses.
“The pop culture and meme references have now become like a marketing technique for the parties,” he said. “You can see usage of memes even on Twitter now. And they’re not just using memes as visuals, they’re also using meme soundtracks.”
In the 2016 US election, memes were used extensively and gave the Americans a new way of articulating their beliefs.
“(Donald) Trump’s campaign started and his supporters started using a lot of memes against Hillary (Clinton),” recalled Khanna, pointing out that other important electoral events across the globe have witnessed meme wars on the internet.
He further noted that it is impossible to hold someone accountable for problematic memes since there are no government guidelines or ethics committee involved in the process.
“What happens is that there is no way to draw any line because you can never trace the creator of a meme. You (political parties) can always say that it’s not done by you,” Khanna said, underlining that there was no right kind of satire anymore.
“You know, there is no moral or truthful satire left, because both sides have now launched their form of satire,” he said.
Geeta Seshu, a senior journalist and co-founder of Free Speech Collective, an initiative led by journalists, lawyers and civil society activists, told ThePrint that memes have become a big part of propaganda in this year’s Lok Sabha election, resulting in politicians often relying on social media to get their message across rather than canvassing on the ground.
“I have seen some memes and I’ve seen some videos which are really, shockingly, crude and in bad taste. I think ultimately it will become counterproductive and it won’t be able to help people to make up their minds,” she said.
According to Seshu, political parties have “turned elections into a joke” through memes.
She asserted that the future of the country depends on votes and election campaigns. “The 2024 elections are very crucial but the way they are adding entertainment to it is alarming,” she said.
Pointing at unsavoury comments on Muslims by PM Narendra Modi in Rajasthan last month, Seshu wondered what kind of memes would be made on such speeches.
“The reality is alarming and to trivialise it is robbing it of significance,” said Seshu.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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