The Centre is nudging you to “Chal Beta, selfie le le re”, much like the iconic song in the Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

Selfie points with cutouts or life-size images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have mushroomed around government institutions across India.

This isn’t the government’s first attempt to exploit the craze for selfies to sell the “Modi model of governance” to Indians. However, the latest initiative comes just as five states are headed to the polls, with a general election due next summer.

The visuals at these selfie points tie national achievements such as the moon mission, as well as various government welfare schemes, to the persona of the Prime Minister.

If successful, the project would turn a ubiquitous element of modern-day life into a vehicle for Modi’s election campaign, with the Indian public itself as its chief driver.

The defence ministry has issued guidelines to all its departments asking them to set up selfie points -- over 800 of them -- with photos of Modi to showcase the ministry’s performance over the past nine years. Some military veterans have condemned the initiative as “politicisation” of the defence forces ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

A decorated veteran, Brigadier Hardeep Singh Sohi, posted an image of a selfie point at the Army Hospital (Research and Referral) here, and wrote on the X platform: “For Indian Armed Forces, Constitution of India is supreme. Political parties will keep changing at helm of affairs but it’s important for Armed Forces to maintain their apolitical character.

“It would have been better for Govt to direct Cantt Boards to reach out to masses to advertise their achievements or make Selfie Points.”

A former lieutenant general told The Telegraph: “Why should the armed forces be part of government propaganda? This is nothing but politicisation of the defence forces ahead of the general election.”

A retired colonel said that involving the defence forces in such a “political exercise” was “a violation of military traditions”.

“The entire exercise to involve the defence ministry in setting up selfie points with photos of the Prime Minister reeks of politicisation of the armed forces. It is purely a political exercise to woo voters,” he said.

The decision to set up selfie points was taken by defence minister Rajnath Singh during a review meeting in September, a ministry official said.

“According to directions received, the selfie points are to be set up at prominent locations across the country, including railway and Metro stations, war memorials, defence museums, bus depots, airports, malls and marketplaces, tourist destinations, schools and colleges, and festival gatherings,” the defence ministry official said.

He said the theme of these selfie points would be the projects and reforms carried out by the defence ministry to bolster the country’s security over the past nine years.

All the defence ministry departments and organisations --- including the Border Roads Organisation, coastguard, defence public sector undertakings, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, sainik schools and the National Cadet Corps have been asked to set up such selfie points.

The ministry is also working to create a dedicated app through which people can upload their selfies on social media platforms.

Under instructions from the Union science ministry, some institutions under it have initiated a process to create selfie points. They have received a set of specifications on how the selfie posters should highlight institutional achievements.

Two people who said they had seen the instructions told this newspaper that the specifications included the following: (1) there should be a picture depicting achievements along with text, (2) there should be a picture of the Prime Minister standing, (3) the image should be high-resolution and in the jpeg format, (4) the location of the display should be accessible to the maximum possible number of people, and (5) the size of the selfie poster should be 6ft (height) by 3ft (width).

“I can confirm that we have received such instructions and the process to establish the selfie point is under way,” said a scientist who works for an institution funded by the department of science and technology (DST).

The Indian National Science Academy in New Delhi has already established a selfie point, with the organisation’s staff posting its images on social media platforms.

Two other scientists — one from a department of biotechnology (DBT) institution and the other from a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) institution — said their institutions too were preparing to establish such selfie points.

All three departments — the DBT, DST and the CSIR —are arms of the Union science ministry. Queries sent by this newspaper to DST and DBT officials about the selfie-point initiative have brought no reply so far.

A senior official at the Archaeological Survey of India — which manages India’s most prominent monuments that draw lakhs of visitors — told this newspaper the institution was in the process of creating selfie points.

The railway board has issued specifications to all the zones for 3D selfie points, sources said. These displays are meant to highlight the Modi government’s accomplishments in providing tap water connections, rural electrification, gas connections, Covid-19 vaccines and India’s space missions.

During the Pariksha Pe Charcha programme earlier this year, the Union education ministry had put up cutouts of the Prime Minister in state capitals as the background for students and their parents to take selfies against. This is likely to continue in 2024 too.

The selfie drive heralds the Centre’s Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, a two-month exposition of the government’s welfare measures that will be flagged off by the Prime Minister on Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary, November 15, from Khunti district in Jharkhand.

Retired bureaucrats and academics have petitioned the Election Commission and President Droupadi Murmu, mentioning the Yatra and the defence ministry’s selfie drive and asking they stop government employees from being deployed for these campaigns.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has warned the Prime Minister against the “misuse of government machinery” for the Yatra.

However, the Central Bureau of Communication, which functions under the information and broadcasting ministry, went ahead and floated a tender on October 23 for publicity material for the Yatra.

The EC has stalled the Yatra in poll-bound constituencies until December 5. All government and political publicity material in polling areas is covered up or defaced after polls are declared. Political parties then put up publicity material afresh which has to be accounted for before the election authorities. No government publicity is allowed during this time.