The Prime Twitterer: India’s Modi and his Media Skills

“Are you on Twitter?” an American TV anchor, Megyn Kelly, recently asked during her interview with the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi. Perhaps it would have been better to check beforehand. With over 30 million Twitter followers, Modi is the third most popular politician on Twitter globally. The top spot amongst politicians now belongs to former U.S. President Barack Obama, and the second spot to current U.S. President Donald Trump, but Modi is not far behind.

The internet is increasingly important for Indian politicians, to a point where the ruling party surveyed its legislators on their social media activity. A large part of Modi’s charisma is built on his smart but very selective use of media tools.

As mentioned above, Modi is the third most followed politician on Twitter and his account is currently 32nd amongst all Twitter handles when it comes to the number of followers. Moreover, a year ago (in April 2016) Modi was actually ahead of Trump in terms of Twitter followers. That’s his personal account – the official handle of the prime minister of India has 18 million followers. It is also worth mentioning that the Twitter top 100, as of now, does not include any politicians save for Obama, Trump, and Modi. In India, Modi was in a Twitter popularity race not with politicians but with pop stars – Bollywood actors Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan – and overtook them in the last few years.

Facebook is another electronic racecourse on which the same three runners – the former U.S. president, the current U.S. president, and the prime minister of India – are in the front of the chase and far ahead of their rivals. Here, just like on Twitter, Obama has a comfortable lead (over 90 million followers on Twitter, over 54 million account likes on Facebook). But on Facebook Trump’s 22 million-like army is no match for Modi’s 42 million-like showing.

Narendra Modi was quick to grasp the importance of Twitter. He joined the microblogging site in 2009, just three years after Twitter was created. Donald Trump also signed on in 2009. Twitter and Facebook have become Modi’s chronicles of successes and congratulations, constant documentaries on his trips and rallies. The style of his personal accounts may be very polished, formal, usually uncontroversial and therefore rather boring in the long run but it’s also free of “covfefes” and the like. But the larger importance lies elsewhere. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, the prime minister can interact more directly with the people and at the same time less with traditional media.

Since a part of Indian society hates Modi as much as the other part loves him, he is often careful in his contacts with the media. The prime minister usually avoids giving interviews to English-language media, many of which share a worldview with the liberal middle class that often does not support Modi and the nationalists that stand behind him. Twitter and Facebook not only helped Modi to bypass the media, but also served as a way of communicating various facts, decisions, plans, and declaration to journalists without having to arrange press conferences (which can always lead to uncomfortable questions).

In fact, from his electoral victory in 2014 to June 2017, Modi hasn’t held a single press conference in India. This shows us the other side of the internet. Virtual contacts can be more “democratic” and make people more accessible but they are also easily moderated and can serve as a justification for not having real contacts. Who needs press conferences when you have Facebook and Twitter? Modi used to achieve the same end through emails. Before becoming the prime minister, as the chief minister of Gujarat he reportedly used to spend four hours a day reading emails from citizens and would reply to 10 percent of them.

So is Modi only internet-focused, having abandoned other, outdated modes of communication? To the contrary. A few months after claiming the prime minister’s seat he introduced a radio show called Mann Ki Baat (“The Voice of the Heart”). Yes, a radio show. It is aired on the government station All India Radio and while it mainly takes the form of a speech, the prime minister also reads out various questions he receives in letters from citizens and addresses some of the issues. Some of the programs were also recorded with guests, such as students or farmers. Thus, the show is somewhat of a “Dialogue with the Everyman.” During one of the shows Modi thanked the citizens by saying: “All of you get an opportunity to express your views from time to time in ‘Mann Ki Baat.’ You also connect actively with this program. I get to know so many things from you. I get to know as to what all is happening on the ground, in our villages, and in the hearts and minds of the poor. I am very grateful to you for your contribution.”

Like everything else Modi does, Mann Ki Baat is a well packaged and advertised product. Many of the episodes are available on the Internet.

Modi must have understood very well that radio is a way of reaching out to the poor, many of whom do not have regular access to the internet. Just like social media – if cleverly handled – the use of a government radio show allows a leader to have a direct access to the citizens without being forced to talk to the press. Mann Ki Baat is available in 22 Indian languages and is now being introduced in three regional dialects, a step that underlines its outreach to the ordinary and the poor. Thus, Modi’s popularity in two very different types of media – the internet and the radio – shows which two groups support him in the most significant way: a part of the young, aspirational, and growing middle class on one hand and the poor and hopeful masses on the other.