In November 2014, a few Aam Aadmi Party supporters started the #MufflerMan campaign on social media. Inspired by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who was often seen with a muffler during his first term that lasted all of 49 days, the campaign went viral and boosted the AAP’s fundraising programme prior to the Delhi assembly elections in 2015.
#MufflerMan was not an official AAP campaign. But it worked in the party’s favour. Cut to 2020, and something similar is in the offing. A set of new influencers—social media political commentators, YouTubers, satirists and stand-up comedians, who are predominantly liberal in their outlook—might help the AAP, indirectly.
On January 9, Dhruv Rathee, who does political explainer videos on various platforms, announced that his Facebook page—with 70 lakh engagements during the previous week—has “singlehandedly overtaken all [pro-]BJP pages in terms of engagement”. Based in Germany, Rathee has 28 lakh subscribers on YouTube, and 9.38 lakh, 2.72 lakh and 1.31 lakh followers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, respectively. Mostly, it is the saffron party that is at the receiving end of his activism.
His critics have always portrayed him as a proxy of the AAP. Incidentally, in March 2019—prior to the Lok Sabha elections—Rathee had released a video about one of the 54 model schools of the AAP government. But Rathee denies having links to any political party. “I am politically centrist,” he told THE WEEK. “At the end of that [Delhi school] video, I have mentioned that any government can invite me to do a reality check about their projects.”
Akash Banerjee, who heads TheDeshBhakt—India’s first and largest political and social satire platform—says that in India, any type of satire or political commentary will get one tagged as being for or against someone. His platform’s name itself takes a dig at BJP supporters. Banerjee, who has more than 10 lakh subscribers on YouTube, says that political satire is about mocking people in power. “In the process, if some bhakts are getting bashed up, we are more than happy,” he adds. “Because we are actually against bigotry—against hate politics. We are also against nepotism and political U-turn. But in that order.”
Banerjee says that stand-up comedy and satire still lack the power to change the voting pattern of people. “However, if the question is whether social media is going to influence how the people are going to vote, especially the youngsters, the answer would be yes,” he says.
Ankit Lal, AAP’s IT department head, says that the party has always acknowledged the power of social media and direct messaging platforms. “For the upcoming elections, we have a two-part social media strategy,” he says. “To propagate our messages, we will use video snippets, Facebook Live and engaging content like memes. To counter the opposition’s strategy, we have 3,000 volunteers on ground, who will ensure that the party is in sync with the day-to-day activities of other opposition parties.”
Lal says that what independent social media influencers are doing is issue-based opposition. “It is good for democracy overall,” he says. “However, I do not see the AAP benefitting from that in any way as such [in the elections].”