Memes to music, voters turn campaigners

Seema pe tanav kyonki desh mein chunav hai, jo bhi ho virodhi deshdrohi uska naam re, jo apna muh khole usko bhejo Pakistan re” (The border is tense because there’s an election in the country, anyone who opposes is called anti-national, anyone who speaks up is told to go to Pakistan). These are lines from Chowkidaar rap, a video uploaded by MC Ghalib, an anonymous writer-singer duo, on April 14.

A week later, another Chowkidaar rap surfaced, this time by self-confessed Modi fan Devang Patel, twisting to “O pappu tumko jitna chillana hai, chillao, Rafale, Ambani ki chahe jhooti rat lagao... Par aayega to Modi hi.” (Rahul Gandhi can shout all he wants about Rafale and Ambani but Modi’s coming back as PM.)

Widely circulated on WhatsApp, these two videos could not be more different in tone and political loyalties. Both, however, claim not to have been commissioned by the political parties that they are respectively endorsing. Welcome to Election 2019, what former ad man Santosh Desai describes as ‘India’s first smartphone election’, where the aam aadmi is not just a bystander in the campaign, but actively creating and circulating political content.

So you could be watching a TV show like “Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hain?’’ and find characters mouthing scripted praise for the government, or scroll through an app on your phone and encounter a barrage of amateur political content. In February, an Economic Times report showed how TikTok users were lip-syncing to videos to spread right-wing messaging. Even Bollywood is in on the campaign, whether through a “non-political” interview by a film star, hagiographic biopics or jingoistic films that spread the josh.

While the courts can step in to stop the release of a film or two, there’s not much even the Election Commission can do about the “unofficial” memes, cartoons and videos. “While Congress supporters are using satire and protest music, BJP supporters are producing content that is more nationalistic in its tone, very assertive, aggressive, though not always authentic,” says Desai. Even though the videos and memes may not have come directly from a political party, their machinery is often at work spreading the message.

Singer Devang Patel, whose claim to fame was the 1995 hit ‘Meri Marzi’ and who came back from oblivion last week with the ‘Chowkidaar rap’, says he is motivated by a genuine belief in Modi’s leadership qualities. Has Modi seen the video? “Modiji CCTV hai India ka. (Modi is like a CCTV camera.) He would have seen it,” Patel laughs.

Others use music as protest. Struggling actor and singer Aamir Aziz picked up the guitar and wrote ‘Achche Din Blues’, tracing the journey of hate from Babri Masjid to recent lynchings like Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan and Junaid Khan. Aziz, who has studied in Jamia Millia University and was living in Batla House in 2008 when the infamous encounter took place, says he has seen state-sponsored terrorism from close quarters. “I find it ironical that visuals of violence and hatred have become so commonplace that we are no longer horrified by them,” says the 29-year-old whose video has been viewed 1.4 lakh times.

Unlike Aziz, the duo behind MC Ghalib conceal their identities fearing backlash. One is a 44-year-old advertising professional, the other is a 24-year-old filmmaker. Speaking about what triggered them to write ‘Chowkidaar chor hai’ they said: “We felt strongly that the very fabric of our democracy is being torn apart in this regime and wanted to do our bit.”

More aggressive and in your face is Bhopal-based singer Laxmi Dubey who released her ‘Modi ji ko lana hai’, which got 11 million views in three months. She has done a similar video for the Shiv Sena. Then there are YouTubers like @kshytizclan who create memes that mock Rahul Gandhi, including one where Congress's P J Kurien is seen struggling to translate Gandhi’s speech on the Rafale scam. Not to be left behind, the anti-Modi side has launched a video of Charlie Chaplin playing Hitler in The Great Dictator giving a speech, voiced by Modi.

Ad man and the mind behind the Amul campaign Rahul da Cunha says that more than 2014, it is this election that has witnessed effective use of social media as a means of communication. “As Indians we love the tamasha of elections where one guy is trying to outdo the other. And that is exactly what we are getting,” he says.

This campaign messaging also comes in more subtle and insidious forms. Earlier this month, a Twitter handle called @VictimGames pointed out how the popular comedy “Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hain?” was plugging Modi government schemes like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Ujjwala, while another soap Tujhe Se Hai Rabta extolled a government loan scheme called Mudra Yojna. The channel, however, denied it was a paid promotion, claiming that “it was a creative call taken purely in the interest of the public.”

Not all content creators are taking clear sides. Chunega Kya, a music video from writer-singer Shiv Tandan and his sister Ragini (of pop hit Lamberghini fame), walks a careful line between endorsement and criticism of a party. The song talks about the frustration of a young India with lyrics like “bhool kar itehaas banana, lage hain sab itehaas badalne, purane to galat the hi, naye bhi sahi nahi hain, dekh duniya kahan chal di, hum phir bhi wahi hain (Instead of creating history, we are busy rewriting it, if the old establishment was wrong, it is not as if the new is any better. Look at where the world has progressed, we are still in the same place.)”

“The Indians that I meet are inclusive, tolerant, optimistic people who have a sense of responsibility. But the political landscape does not reflect that. I want to ask people to vote for the political diversity, humanity and inclusiveness we are known for,’’ Tandan says.

Whether openly partisan or organic, there’s no denying that the 2019 election campaign has gone beyond conventional political advertising.