in India, loyalists of Narendra Modi’s party court young people before the legislative elections

Indian voters are voting to choose their MPs starting Friday. An election where the BJP, the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is banking on those under 25 through a campaign focused on social networks.

India and its 970 million voters are called to the polls from Friday April 19 to choose their deputies. The vote will last six weeks. In power since 2014, current Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third term. To do this, he can count on an army of young volunteers, who target the country’s youth.

In front of volunteers from the Indian People’s Party (BJP), a small theater troupe praises Narendra Modi, the omnipresent Prime Minister who advocates a nationalist and populist discourse. A somewhat offbeat way to motivate the troops in this ultra-connected country where 800 million people use the Internet.

But make no mistake, the BJP volunteers have understood that those under 25 represented 40% of the Indian population. “We use social networks to promote the BJP: Instagram, Facebook and all other platforms, like YouTube, etc. WhatsApp is used to disseminate information about the events we are organizing over the next few days.”

QR codes and ideological army

Among the new features of this campaign, a QR code is intended for those who are going to vote for the first time. “We have put this code in different places in Delhi, in toilets, metro stations, near schools and universities. We scan it and you get all the achievements that Narendra Modi has made in the last nine or ten years.”

The economic record of Modi, in power since 2014, is the main argument that his team implements, like his internationally known personality.

“Mr. Modi is a great person, he is a great leader, the greatest leader in the world. And India is now a growing country.”

A BJP volunteer

at franceinfo

And each volunteer considers himself a full member of an ideological army. “You can call us BJP soldiers, adds one of them. We believe in Modi’s ideology. We consider our country as our mother. For us, the progress of our country comes first. We have grown more in ten years than in the last 70 years.”

Not a word, however, on unemployment which hits young graduates hard, nor on the widening inequalities. And even less on the Hindu nationalist discourse increasingly assumed by the current Prime Minister and his disciples.