Part of the charm of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, the late 1980s television show, was the battle scenes. Magical maces, flying chariots and arrows flying hither thither. Some of the arrows came with fiery tips, others looked electric and there were some that multiplied no sooner than they leapt into the air, felling hundreds and thousands. Modi’s engagement with the selfie as prime poll weaponry is as potent, entertaining and anything but new.
Force multiplier
In April 2014, when Modi posted on what was then Twitter and now X a selfie showing his inked finger and a paper lotus after casting his vote, most would have thought it clever and trendy, but no more. The Washington Post reported: “Modi might not be the sort of person you would expect to be shooting the self portraits stereotypically beloved by teenagers.” The Sri Lanka Guardian wondered in print: “What was Narendra Modi thinking, attempting his misguided selfie/felfie with lotus?” Everyone was on the violation of poll code. Time magazine wrote: “When will politicians learn to beware of the selfie?” But Modi knew what he was doing, he was onto the power of the political selfie as a force multiplier.
Selfie katha
Onward, forward, the next few years. Modi developed and perfected the use of the selfie. With each of them, he made a point. A selfie with his mother immediately after the big win in 2014. Selfies from his sojourns abroad — with “friend” Australian PM Tony Abbott at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, one with Chinese premier Li Keqiang in Beijing’s Temple of Heaven that which came to be dubbed the world over as “the most power packed selfie in history”, a selfie with Trump, selfie with Indian students abroad. The pack of the powerful kept getting shuffled the last decade but Modi remained constant. If he had posed for a selfie with Abbott, he now posted selfies with Abbott’s successors, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese. At some point, from being selfies by Modi, they came to be selfies with Modi. Remember, Bollywood’s selfie with Modi on the cusp of the 2019 big win? SRK taking a selfie with Modi. More recently, Macron took a selfie with Modi. The selfie points with Modi in government institutions across India and now railway stations pre-2024 elections are only a continuation, a logical amplification. The University Grants Commission suggested that campus authorities encourage students and visitors to use the selfie points to "highlight the transformative initiatives propelling India's growth". And the battlelines have been drawn.
