Social Media is the new Auditor, new Judge and the new Justice dispenser

For Mr. Modi and BJP’s massive win, social Media is partly responsible.  If one looks at the Twitter and Facebook messages since 16^th May after the announcement of results, many people have congratulated Mr. Modi’s mission (Mission 272), of bringing in BJP Government, and Mr. Modi also reciprocated the Twitter messages to a good number of politicians, celebrities, Media personnel, business men and any person with some standing.  This is a welcome change from a totally non-communicative Prime Minster to instant non-bureaucratic and matter-of-fact replies by Mr.Modi.  After the results, Mr. Modi’s Twitter followers has increased from 39.87 lakhs to 41.10 lakhs, creating a sort of records on number of followers added, to an individual account on a single day.  

This very Social Media will put Mr. Modi on alert. Look at the other messages on the Social Media since 16^th May.  A news item on the state-wise percentage of Criminal MPs and MLAs of all parties is making rounds on Twitter.  Mr. Subramaniam Swamy through his Twitter handle informs that Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi Varda has admitted that she is holding three Director Identification Numbers (DINs) and also admitted that it is a mistake to hold multiple DINs though she claims that it was an inadvertent mistake and Ministry of Corporate Affairs has codoned her mistake. Mr. Swamy also informs that Mr. Kartik, son of Mr. P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister is holding 6 DINs and the Ministry is seeking an explanation from him.

Apart from these issues, there are various topics like Crony Capitalism, Gas Price, books on Manmohan Singh, criminal activities by some of the State Governments, communal and secular issues being discussed on the Social Media.  Take the case of Mr. Akilesh Yadav.  He was elected as the youngest Chief Minister with comfortable number of seats for his party in March 2012.  Everyone thought he was young, dynamic and will bring a positive change in UP which is ridden with caste politics. In just a few months over 2 years, he lost everything.  This happened because Media and Social Media highlighted his misdeeds like Muzaffarnagar riots and his inaction, MLAs tourism visit abroad while the riots refuges are dying in shelter camps, break down of law and order and histrionics of Azam Khan and other MLAs on whom Mr. Akilesh Yadav as Chief Minister has no control                                                                               

Again, let us look at Arvind Kejriwal.  He was the darling of Social Media but his one mistake costed him dearly.  His untimely resignation as Chief Minister of Delhi without any valid reason was not liked by the voters and they punished him.  The voters’ anger was expressed largely through social media.

On the other hand Mr. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh who understands the importance of Social Media is communicating to the public through his Twitter handle. He informs the public about road projects, fund distribution details to farmers hit by hailstorm and such other activities.  This way today he is seen as an interactive Chief Minister.

Congress had the luxury of hiding information and misinforming the public as Social Media was not active during their first term (2004-2009) and the scandals came out in the second term and the Social Media has taken up all the issues like 2G, Coal Scam, Adarsh Scam, Railway scam along with Main Stream Media (MSM). In fact, there was a conspiracy of silence by MSM and political parties on the land deals and undue benefits by Mr. Robert Vadra till this was taken up by Arvind Kejriwal and the Social Media,  The Main Stream Media (MSM) was forced to discuss these issues after information was available everywhere.

Today, Mr. Modi has many issues on hand.  All the scams inherited from the previous Government, the scams within BJP and also criminal and corrupt activities by members of his party, apart from governance issues, price rise etc.    Public will seek response from him on these issues and expect replies the way he is replying now to their congratulatory messages.  If he does not take action and be firm on administration, he will be judged critically very soon, the way Akilesh Yadav or Arvind Kejriwal has been judged.  Every State election, or a Municipal or local body election will become a referendum to his actions.  To add to his woes, there will be some elections in some part of the country all the time.  This way Mr. Modi wil be put on alert on the Social Media.

One last word about AAP, which is very active on Social Media alongwith BJP.  It has contested 434 seats and won 4 seats.  All these 434 candidates have developed at least a team of 50 persons who worked for them. These 20,000 and above members are well educated and have tasted the dynamics of political activity.  They will continue to be active on Social Media and watch every move of the Government and intervene and seek answers.  Apart from these members, there are lakhs of fans for AAP and BJP and Congress who will be watching the governance of BJP.

In effect, Social Media becomes the Auditor, the Judge and Justice dispenser all in one.  Mr. Modi and political parties watch out.  The day of the citizen has arrived.