BJP’s Social Media Strategy in Gujarat: A Flood of Fake News

In India, spreading fake news, often of the poisonous hate creating variety, has now become common in elections. It is a minimal responsibility for any government to control such dangerous trends. Instead, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its members have become frontrunners in both producing and circulating false news content, misleading the public.

For the Gujarat assembly elections campaigning, the BJP has been accused of creating numerous social media platforms and groups with fake news content, often with an agenda to manipulate voters and denigrate opposition parties. A fake resignation letter of Gujarat Congress President Bharatsinh Solanki and a fake list of Congress candidates were circulated widely on social media following which the Congress accused the BJP and lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India.

Also, a discourse around the religion of Rahul Gandhi trended on Twitter many times. During his campaign in the state, Gandhi visited the Somnath Temple and allegedly BJP supporters spread the news that Rahul Gandhi had entered his name in the non-Hindu visitor's register of the temple. It turned out that Rahul Gandhi had entered his name in a visitor’s book which had nothing to do with his religion. The irony is that the same day when Rahul Gandhi was present at Somnath Temple, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing an election rally made comments about how Jawaharlal Nehru had opposed the renovation of Somnath.

Another instance of fake news, both among media outlets and in social media groups, was when posters appeared in the state which portrayed Congress leader Ahmed Patel as Chief Ministerial candidate and asking the Muslim community to vote for Congress. Gujarat Congress disowned the posters and alleged that the posters were made by the BJP in order to polarize voters on a communal basis. Video advertisements with communal content appealing to vote for BJP party have drawn complaints from opposition parties and activists. One such video which went viral propagates that Hindu women are safe from Muslims only under BJP reign.

In November, BJP IT cell head, Amit Malviya posted a collage of images of Jawaharlal Nehru with women on Twitter which was widely circulated on social media along with derogatory statements. Relating it to Gujarat elections, Malviya wrote “Hardik has more of Nehru’s DNA”. Analysis showed that the women in the post showing affection towards Nehru were his sister and niece. In the same month, after one year of demonetisation, Malviya also circulated misleading news claiming that Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler supported Modi’s demonetisation, concealing the fact that Thaler had withdrawn his support within hours of expressing support, and called demonetisation “deeply flawed”.

Just after polling dates were announced, a digital poster titled ‘Pasangi Tamari’ (Your Choice) had emerged in social media groups allegedly run by BJP supporters asking the voters to choose between RAM and HAJ, with the intention of playing a communal card to woo majority Hindu voters. The photos of BJP leaders Vijay Rupani, Amit Shah and Narendra Modi have been used right above the respective letters of their names (R-Rupani, A-Amit Shah, and M-Modi). While ‘HAJ’, was derived from the names of leaders Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakore and Jignesh Mevani who have been vocal against the anti-people policies of BJP’s Gujarat government. The pictures of Hindu deity Ram and that of Kaaba, the holiest of Islamic sites where Muslims go to perform haj have been depicted in the poster.

Earlier this year in July, even BJP MPs have used fake or morphed material through which hate has been spread online. Through his official Twitter handle, BJP MP Pratap Sinha tweeted an image purportedly showing a headline in the Times of India that said “Hindu girl stabbed to death by Muslim man”. Times of India confirmed that it was a morphed image. Another MP Paresh Rawal was also in news for one of his tweets claiming that former President Abdul Kalam was approached by Pakistan, which also turned out to be false. However, by the time it was proved to be false news, it has been telecast extensively by mainstream media. Meenakshi Lekhi, Sambit Patra, were among the BJP leaders who have fallen for fake news.