The term ‘Godi Media‘ was popularised by ex-NDTV Journalist Ravish Kumar for prominent Media platform outlets being the mouthpieces and lapdog of the currently ruling NDA government. The label Godi Media became famous primarily because of biased reporting and causing communal hatred through their content in society.
The journalists and anchors have often spread unscientific and fake news to cause hatred towards the minority section of this country.
In November-December 2023, there will be assembly elections in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, and Telangana, followed by the 18th Lok Sabha elections in May 2024. To engage the audience with their agendas, the current regime is using new media tools.
The reason of using new media tools is lack of faith in traditional media forms by the audience. These efforts of expanding the tools include BJP’s social media push where their outreach efforts have reached more than 15 states with thousands of influencers coming on board to take their agenda to the audience.
Another tool which is silently putting its mark on the audience is Indian Meme Pages. A lot of meme pages in the last few months, besides putting every regular 8-10 memes, have been adding 1-2 political memes in favour of the ruling party. India currently tops the list ranking Instagram users by country, with more than 230 million active Instagram users, and it becomes imperative to understand how soft propaganda has begun at a large scale for these users.
In this piece, I will be arguing with 2 examples of how meme pages have turned into Godi meme pages with a few examples.
1. Adult Society Page(6.1 million followers): A few months back, the page posted a meme about how Brij Bhushan had to face false sexual harassment cases, which was also admitted by the father of a minor complainant. Recently, the page continuously posted regarding how proud we should be of using Bharat Name everywhere and referred to how putting Bharat is a journey of Identity, unity and Progress. Many users have commented, pointing out that “Bharat” was always a part of the official name as stated in Article 1 of the Constitution: “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
The page also regularly provides updates on movies by Vivek Agnihotri, such as “Kashmir Files Unreported” and “Vaccine War,” highlighting how these films contribute to the appreciation of the beauty of Sanatan Dharma’s haven. Additionally, it shares updates on the construction of the Ram Mandir, occasionally referencing the fulfillment of the long-held dream, “Mandir yahin banaenge.”
2. Ghantaa (7.8 Millon followers)and Desi Crap(1 Million followers): These pages have been updating its users regarding all the updates on Shivraj Chauhan(Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh) providing the installments of Ladli Behna Yojana. On the contrary, there has never been any post on policies of AAP, Congress or any regional parties. Additionally this page also had multiple posts on reclaiming the name back to Bharat from India and posting continuous posts of movies by Vivek Agnihotri. There was a post where a few girls were dancing at times New Square with the unrelated caption on video how Vivek Agnihotri made us feel proud by representation of Sanatan Dharma and he was praised by Consulate general for his dedication. The page also regularly posts about celebrities visiting bageshwar Dham.
There was a post calling out Rahul Gandhi, accusing him of using Chattsigarh as an ATM Machine. The page has also been frequently posting how Shivraj has been constructing Shri Hanuman Temple and how the Hijab ban has been enforced by Shivraj’s mama in some schools.
Shivraj has also been hailed as a rights enforcer through his bulldozing of house after the infamous Sidhi incident.
There have been multiple other meme pages, such as Desi Society(421,000 Followers), and Desi. Company(867,000 Followers), The Indian Sarcasm(3.4 Million Followers), Troll Fuckers(2.8 Million Followers), Laughing Colors (1.7 Million followers) amongst the various meme pages which have posted similar content. During the Nuh Violence, some of these meme pages posted videos which were shared by BJP members to show how Muslims in the Area were single-handedly responsible for the riots.
These pages might be running sponsored content by the agencies, which are further funded by the government. However, the content is heavily biased, and it is shown in a neutral format, which, even though it seems innocent on the face of it, has a communal angle to it.
Without any restrictions on the kind of content which has been hosted by these meme pages, it is important to see through the propaganda these pages have been running. The unchecked usage of these meme pages is adding to the fuel of hatred which has been perpetuated in the last few years.
Some experts have been saying that if we keep using memes without any control, it might disturb communal harmony even more in the country. Radhika Parashar from IANS talks about this in an article on how some creators share fake or provocative news, harmful content, and negative feelings through memes to make money and get more attention. So, even though memes can be funny or make fun of serious things, we need to be careful and see what kind of meme pages are posting the content with an agenda.
It will take a long journey for Indian lawmakers to have framework to attribute accountability on the meme creators, till then it is upon users to call these meme pages out whenever a communal idea is sold in the garb of a ‘meme’ or a ‘news’