The BJP mastered social media. Gen Z has changed the game

By Mohd Ziyauallah Khan 

For more than a decade, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has excelled at defining politics through identifiable adversaries—Pakistan, China, George Soros, the so-called "Khan Market Gang," Urban Naxals, and a fragmented political opposition. These narratives have often reinforced the party's image as the defender of national interests against external and internal threats while helping consolidate its electoral base.

At the centre of this political project has been Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Through an extensive communication apparatus involving government campaigns, party messaging, advertising, and an influential digital ecosystem, the BJP has carefully cultivated Modi's image as a decisive leader, a global statesman, and a Vishwaguru. National initiatives such as Swachh Bharat, Fit India, Vocal for Local, Har Ghar Tiranga, and International Yoga Day, often amplified by celebrities and public figures, reinforced this carefully constructed public persona. While participation in such campaigns cannot automatically be interpreted as political endorsement, they undoubtedly contributed to strengthening Modi's image as a leader capable of commanding widespread public support.

Yet politics rarely stands still. Every era produces a new challenge, often from an unexpected direction. The recent protests at Jantar Mantar, which later spread to other cities, suggest that the BJP may now be confronting an opponent unlike any it has previously faced—not a political party, civil society organisation, or ideological movement, but Generation Z.

Unlike traditional political actors, Gen Z has no headquarters, no formal leadership, and no single ideology. It operates through networks rather than organisations, trends rather than manifestos, and participation rather than hierarchy. Armed with smartphones, artificial intelligence tools, editing software, and social media platforms, young Indians increasingly shape political discourse in ways that conventional political communication struggles to anticipate or counter.

The protests themselves were initially centred on Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and specific policy concerns. However, the conversation quickly expanded beyond the immediate issue. What began as targeted criticism evolved into a broader debate about governance, accountability, democratic freedoms, and ultimately the leadership of Prime Minister Modi himself.

This transformation was significant because it was not driven primarily through television debates, newspaper editorials, or opposition press conferences. Instead, it unfolded across Instagram Reels, short videos, memes, AI-generated edits, parody accounts, and viral posts on X and other social media platforms.

For Gen Z, political expression increasingly takes the form of internet culture. Memes are no longer merely entertainment; they have become a language of political commentary. Satire, humour, remix culture, and irony often travel much faster than carefully crafted political messaging. A single viral meme can reach millions of people within hours, frequently outpacing official responses or conventional media coverage.

This represents a fundamentally different communication environment from the one political parties mastered during the last decade.

The BJP has long been recognised as India's most digitally sophisticated political organisation. It successfully leveraged social media, WhatsApp networks, targeted messaging, and a highly organised online ecosystem to communicate directly with voters, bypassing traditional media gatekeepers. That strategy transformed election campaigning and significantly altered Indian political communication.

However, today's digital ecosystem is even more decentralised. There is no central command directing meme creators, content editors, or anonymous social media users. Trends emerge organically, spread unpredictably, and evolve faster than any organised campaign can easily respond to.

This makes the challenge qualitatively different from confronting a conventional political opponent.

Political branding depends upon consistency and message discipline. Leaders invest years constructing images of decisiveness, strength, competence, and credibility. Yet internet culture often operates according to entirely different rules. Online communities thrive on irreverence. Respect for authority is no longer assumed. Presidents, billionaires, celebrities, multinational corporations, and public institutions routinely become subjects of memes, parody, and satire within hours of any major event.

Prime Minister Modi, whose public image has long been built around strong leadership and carefully managed symbolism, is increasingly encountering this new reality. In parts of the digital space, serious political messaging is now frequently accompanied—or overshadowed—by satire, humorous edits, AI-generated videos, and viral parody.

Whether one considers this healthy democratic expression or an erosion of political civility largely depends on one's political perspective. What is difficult to dispute, however, is that digital culture has substantially reduced the ability of any political actor to exercise sustained control over public narratives.

As online criticism intensified during the protests, reports emerged of authorities seeking the removal of certain social media content, while some students and activists allegedly faced legal scrutiny over protest-related activities. Supporters argue that governments have a legitimate responsibility to curb misinformation, unlawful content, hate speech, and material capable of inciting violence or disrupting public order.

Critics, however, contend that excessive restrictions on digital expression risk discouraging legitimate political dissent, particularly among young citizens whose participation increasingly occurs online. This tension is hardly unique to India. Democracies around the world continue to grapple with the difficult balance between regulating harmful content and protecting freedom of expression in an era of instantaneous communication.

The larger question extends beyond any single protest.

Generation Z engages with politics differently from previous generations. Many young people consume political information through independent content creators rather than traditional television channels. They verify claims through multiple online sources, participate in digital discussions, organise through messaging platforms, and frequently employ humour as a form of political critique. Their engagement is decentralised, collaborative, and often resistant to institutional control.

This presents a communication challenge not only for the BJP but for every political party in India.

Political messaging that relies primarily on one-way communication, carefully scripted campaigns, and tightly controlled narratives may increasingly struggle to connect with audiences accustomed to participation, interaction, and constant scrutiny. Digital natives expect authenticity and responsiveness. They are less willing to accept political branding at face value and more inclined to reinterpret it through satire and public commentary.

There is also an undeniable irony in the present moment.

The BJP and its wider political ecosystem were among the earliest and most successful adopters of memes, satire, viral campaigns, and digital messaging in Indian politics. During the years when the Congress was in power, social media became an important arena for shaping public opinion, often through humour directed at leaders such as Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Those methods proved remarkably effective in influencing political discourse.

Today, similar techniques are being deployed against the BJP itself. The same decentralised internet culture that once amplified its political messaging has become a space where criticism of the government can spread just as rapidly and with far less organisational control.

In that sense, Indian politics may have come full circle.

The emerging contest is therefore not simply between Narendra Modi and Generation Z. It is between two competing models of political communication. One depends on centralised messaging, disciplined campaigns, and carefully managed public relations. The other is decentralised, participatory, humorous, and inherently unpredictable.

Which model ultimately proves more influential remains uncertain. Electoral outcomes will continue to depend on a range of factors, including governance, economic performance, leadership, and political organisation. Yet the battle over public perception is increasingly being fought not only at election rallies or television studios but also on smartphones, in memes, comment sections, AI-generated videos, and rapidly evolving online conversations.

India's political future will therefore be shaped not only at the ballot box but also within an increasingly participatory digital public sphere, where narratives are created, challenged, and amplified by millions of connected citizens. Every political party—not merely the BJP—will have to adapt to this transformed landscape. In the age of viral communication, political authority can no longer rely solely on controlling the message; it must also learn to engage with an audience that insists on responding, remixing, and reshaping it in real time.

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Mohd Ziyauallah Khan is a freelance content writer and editor based in Nagpur. He is also an activist and social entrepreneur, and co-founder of TruthScape, a group of digital activists working to counter disinformation on social media