How BJP captures public discourse, one celebrity tweet at a time

Unflinching support from athletes, actors, journalists, defence personnel and businesspersons is key to the Modi government’s popularity on the social media platform.

Soon after the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question” released a couple of weeks ago, a group of 302 “eminent persons” wrote an open letter in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two-part series tracks the persecution of Muslims under the Modi-led governments in Gujarat and at the Centre. The documentary, says the letter, “reeks of motivated distortion that is as mind-numbingly unsubstantiated as it is nefarious”.

Signed by 13 judges, 133 bureaucrats and 156 armed forces officers, a majority of them retired, the letter added to the raft of conspiracy theories against the BBC floating on Twitter already. …

Author

Omkar Khandekar

Omkar specializes in long-form narrative features and has reported from India, the UK, Germany and the Maldives. He writes across beats, from politics and crime to cinema and sports. His works have been published in Indian and international outlets including The Caravan, Mint Lounge, the BBC, Al Jazeera and The Huffington Post.

Senior Features Writer

omkar@mailtmc.com

Delhi