The game changer – Social media

Social media the Impact

As I write this today, India has turned another historic page in the name of democracy and freedom.  As the Sun rises and sets in the world’s largest ever democracy, each one of us has caught on to the election fever. From the simple roadside chai-wallas to the multi-billionaires, home-makers to   bread-winners, ageing oldies to the first time voters have an inked finger; exercising their power – the right to vote the right to choose future of India.  But don’t we hear all this public galore, opinions, debates and political noise every five years? So, what makes 2014 so special? Social media and its game changing rules is the answer.

Thalaivar Rajinikanth has 2.28 lakh followers within the 24 hours of joining twitter, with one of them being BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Within minutes of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Abu Azmi’s comments on rape cases in India Facebook newsfeed went viral with slamming opinions about how insensitive and disrespect their statements were. No one waits for a daily newspaper to print these comments and then later its discussion with morning tea. It happens in real-time now and the general public is part of it. Even before the elections began, there were more than 5000 mentions of the emerging Aam Aadmi Party, today its website is on the highway to success with Arvind Kejriwal becoming on the most popular personalities on the internet. Having said that try typing in Namo; earlier just a Sanskrit word to express honor, now its symbolized Narendra Modi – the Wave and his ‘mere ek sau pachis karod bharat vaasi’. That is the power of social media today.

Social Media Devil with Purpose

Debut on a daily basis: On a daily basis, various competing hash-tags like #NaMoforPM, #KejriwalInVaranasi are making a debut and becoming the topic of core conversation for the day. They are constantly a part of the trending topics section on Twitter. AAP has 6.74lakh followers and 21.04 likes on Facebook. NaMo website has an audience to BJP’s 3D rallies which you can be part of from anywhere in the world. This online community is an influential community; much more educated, rational and thus politically aware. In turn social media is influencing the conventional media platforms.  

Global reach in real-time: News stories are often created out of the tweets of politician and very often they are the spicier ones. Political parties are integrating YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google Hangouts and various micro-sites to reach out to these influencers. Aap ki Adalat has more viewers on Youtube than on its telecast time on the television. Google hangouts are encouraging real time feedback from the public. Such hangouts are reinstating the fact that politicians are available for the masses through advanced tech support.

  

Youth and Innovation

Trend setting campaigns: Another positive facet of the election activity lies in inspiring and motivated the youth to vote in the coming elections. More than 800 million voters will be below the age of 25 according to a survey by the time the elections arrive. Where do these youngsters spend their most time on, you ask? Operation Black Dot was launched to get young and new voters on board through various social media activities. Selfies with the inked finger is yet another voice of the masses about their right. This was followed by the controversial Selfie tweet by Narendra Modi with the Lotus and his inked finger on polling day.  First-time voters say it is a moment of pride to show to the world that they are part of the largest democratic process.

The new rules of the Election Commission: Social media has crept in so deep into the political framework that Election Commission is demanding transparency in the advertising budgets of these parties on various websites. Congress is accusing the BJP of spending more than Rs. 5000 crore on its social media campaign to create this ‘Modi-fication’ in the nation. Recently, the election commission was made mandatory for parties to submit their advertising spends to the election commission to maintain a record and avoid malpractices. Various guidelines have been rolled out with regards to advertisements by political parties.

 

Limit less Power

Social Media gives politicians a larger than life image: Social Media is a public platform and since there are no regulatory guidelines or credible cross checking tactics, political parties are left no stone unturned while boosting the image of their own party. This is creating a somewhat larger than life image of the leaders. A close cut competition between Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi; the evident number of likes, followers, connects on their social properties, shows who is more popular. Everybody wants to get a piece of the most talked about politician.

Social Media is creeping into mainstream media's political discussions

News Channels or Print media have started including, rather creating some key hash-tags which create a hurricane of tweets on Twitter, during the debate hour and go on for a few days. News presenters like Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami and their social media voice is seeped into mainstream. Videos, images, important actions/activities are discussed and promoted on these social sites through dedicated pages and accounts of the parties.

But, everything comes at a price. Social media has also proven to be a double edged sword for leaders like Digvijay Singh, who pictures with a new presenter where leaked on the web and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal was criticised over the authenticity of his interview with Punya Prasun Bajpai as the former Delhi Chief Minister. So the verdict stands tall, social media is an exceptional tool to target the masses of India, reach the right audience, influence them and live the change - given you play by its rules. To survive in this real-time battle of social media campaigning, you must be the game changer not the follower.

Article by: Bhavika a youth inspired by social media power

How the youth feel about the development agenda of INDIA

Everything comes with an expiry date

India is set to become the youngest country by the end of this decade. The epicenter of the youth today is ‘I’; their own needs, wants and desires. The Indian youth is changing its attitudes and concerns. They are transforming to stand for issue of greater purpose. It is their beliefs and actions that will demarcate social eras. In a research carried out in the year 2012 three strong trends were seen among the Indian youth.

1.      Rigidity is coming under scrutiny

2.     Reality is prized over an 'ideal'

3.     Everything comes with an expiry date

Having said that, why is important to talk about the youth now? It has become ever more important to talk about them than ever before as the world’s largest democracy is witnessing its largest ever national election.  While we continuously hear the ‘Abki baar modi sarkar’, ‘Haar haath Shakti haar haath tarraki’ and the blooming ‘Ab, 'AAP' ki shakti se chalega desh’; are these slogans reaching out to the youth at all? There has been an awakening wave about first time voters and their likely impact on the candidature of the Lok Sabha 2014. Each of these political giants is talking about issues like development, reducing poverty, better reforms, zero tolerance to terrorism and corruption in their manifestoes. The entire country is rambling and rattling about how the other political giant is not offering the right options and how they have not capitalized on the right opportunity keeping in mind our economic structure.

For a country like India, which is the verge of another economic leap, political control plays a major role. Everyone is chanting the mantra of development, be it by hook or crook. The youth today find the word development, very minimalistic. What they expect from the Lok Sabha 2014 is the creation of a bigger pie rather than the redistribution of the existing pie. They don’t want the long lasting promises about development; rather they have executable plans with targets. Going back to the trends enlisted above, they believe a system needs to flexible with its regime and practices. Section 377 and the legalization of the ‘third gender’ are some benchmarks they have created. Taking a look at this from an economic perspective, the ministry formed in June 2014, needs to bring in work into the economy in the true form. Though, the politicians are claiming the reduction in unemployment, do they realize that India has the highest rate of disguised employment. Two men doing the job of one.

The government needs to create opportunities for the youth, which will increase their purchasing power, this is the ignition fuel to more buying, thus more trade, which creates even more jobs – this is the mantra to development. But how do they execute it? Quoting an example by Mr. Narendra Modi, BJP’s prime ministerial nominee he said - ‘We export the raw iron core extracted from Earth to developed nations and then buy highly priced steel in return.’ There is a need to create the iron mill within the geography. In simpler words, bring in technology, management tools and techniques that fit in with the available skill base of our country. We must not make the mistake other countries have made. Africa imported diamond manufacturing technology; only to find out they weren't capable and skilful enough of working on.

Other sectors of the nation might disagree and comment - this is too good to be true for a country which has 28% of its population below the poverty line. They might say redistribution and social equality are the way to development. That is rather a money eating concept, where the government subsidized food, gas and water for the needy and in order to do so they borrow from the international money market. Thus, compromises on other fronts like bring in new technology. So our economy doesn't grow. In other words, for these political giants who are trying to bag the candidature at Lok Sabha 2014 on the terms of the so called ‘development’; they need India to be a relentlessly enterprising hub on the run for its economic growth. With growth will come development.  To run this relentless hub, India has the skill source, its highly talented  Indian Youth . That’s why the youth of India are ever so important in this Lok Sabha elections 2014.

On a personal note, the political agenda for a nation like India doesn't start and end with just development. There are other major issues like corruption, the poverty and international politics and upheaval. But this article is a mere discussion about how the youth feel about the development agenda and its political nature of Lok Sabha elections 2014.
Article written by: Bhavika Veeramachaneni