Why the Modi Cabinet’s Instagram Push Is Built on a False Assumption
Before you read any further, remember that every Union minister in the Modi cabinet already has a dedicated social media team supporting them. While the directive has been issued to expand onto Instagram, produce Reels, connect with the younger demographic (Gen Z), and look beyond X, no one is beginning from scratch. The accounts are already active, editors remain on retainer, and graphics follow set templates. Consequently, this mandate will merely yield a higher volume and greater output of the same material these teams are already generating.
This reveals the main problem with the approach: it wrongly assumes that the challenge is about producing enough content. But the supply is not the real issue.
An Audience Is Not the Same as a Presence
There’s a basic misunderstanding here. It is like thinking that just because you have a gym membership, you are a bodybuilder, or that owning the world’s best camera makes you Christopher Nolan or Aditya Dhar. In the same way, being more active on Instagram or on any social media platform does not mean you will automatically build an audience.
A cabinet full of active Instagram handles does not create a single new listener. It creates only a cabinet full of active Instagram handles.
Illusion of a Shared Feed
When senior politicians browse Instagram, their feeds are filled with PM Modi’s videos, party videos, policy discussions, party loyalists, friendly anchors, and supportive pages. Consequently, many mistakenly assume that this is the universal Instagram experience. In reality, however, that view is strictly confined to their own personalised feeds.
There’s no longer a national broadcast or a shared front page. When a 22-year-old in Nagpur opens Instagram, the feed is likely to be full of CJP memes, protest songs, gym videos, stand-up comedy, exam-preparation reels, football, jokes about unemployment, and stories from friends about failed interviews.
With Doordarshan, everyone got the same content, and you had to earn people’s attention. On Instagram, you have to get your content seen before you can even try to get attention. The platform doesn’t care who you are or how powerful you might be. If people stop watching your Reel halfway through, it stops showing it to others because the algorithm doesn’t recognise authority.
Self-Reinforcing Echo Chamber of Authority
The next challenge highlights an even more uncomfortable truth. The algorithm behaves predictably. Since politicians already have an established base of followers aligned with their perspectives, their posts immediately attract likes and shares. Recognising that the content connects with this particular group, the platform consequently circulates it to a broader audience with similar profiles.
As a result, performance indicators will look exceptional, perhaps running into the hundreds of millions. Indeed, some news reports claimed that PM Modi’s midnight video crossed 303 million views. View counts will surge, commentary will appear favourable, and dashboard metrics will look impressive. Still, the core message ultimately fails to reach or persuade the very people who need to be convinced.
Counting followers as a sign of success is also misleading. Getting a million followers shows that you are popular, but it doesn’t mean you are actually persuading anyone. It simply means you are able to attract attention, not that you have earned people’s trust. The difference between CJP’s online supporters and its real-life supporters is a good example of this.
Core Argument Remains Unchallenged
The real assumption here is that the problem is simply one of format, not of the message itself. It suggests that young people are unhappy only because the government has not explained things well, and that adding a trendy song will make the message work.
Campaign veterans like us recognise a deeper truth. When a young person is genuinely frustrated by a leaked recruitment paper, a NEET controversy, unemployment, escalating fees, or the heavy-handed handling of a demonstration, an Instagram Reel cannot bridge that divide. Instead of resolving the grievance, it merely skims over the real problem.
When a highly polished achievement video is released in the midst of a perceived failure, it does not come across as meaningful outreach. Instead, it is viewed as an evasion. You don’t need to go looking for Gen Z. They already have their opinions and are simply waiting to see whether anything actually changes.
Everything You Post Becomes Raw Material
This is the risk that should worry government strategists the most, yet it receives the least attention. Instagram isn’t a broadcast channel. It’s a remix tool. Every Reel is permanent, can be downloaded, clipped, and shared. Anyone can record it, slow it down, add a sarcastic caption, change the music, and send it out again.
For Gen Z, editing is the primary way of responding to politics, not arguing back. In the past, traditional media possessed a natural friction. Speeches required manual transcription, printing, and deliberate debate. Today, however, barely forty minutes can separate a speaker’s original statement from a satirised version of it. Producing a higher volume of content simply expands the archive of material available to adversaries who wish to weaponise it. Consequently, increased output amplifies exposure rather than mitigating it.
Then there is authenticity, which no editor can fix. The platform rewards informality, spontaneity, admitting error, and a willingness to look slightly foolish. Ironically, the algorithm is often more human than some of our politicians. Ministerial communication is governed by party discipline, collective responsibility, and the reasonable fear that one loose sentence could become tomorrow’s headline.
You can’t fake spontaneity. Gen Z can spot forced casualness faster than any focus group, and once they do, it breeds contempt, which is much harder to overcome than simple disagreement.
What Would Actually Work
It does not mean the government should avoid Instagram. I’m saying it needs to understand how the platform really works before trying to master it. It is better to have three ministers who are comfortable on the platform than forty who aren’t. Three strong accounts are always better than forty average ones.
Track saves, shares, and replies from people who aren’t already following you, not just the number of new followers you gain. Focus on answering questions, not just listing achievements. On Instagram, replies build credibility, not posts. One honest reply to a tough comment does more than fifty polished videos. Don’t use the platform as a one-way megaphone.
Treat it as a listening instrument first. The cheapest political intelligence in India today is sitting in comment sections that nobody in government reads. Instagram can’t fix a relationship; it only reveals what’s already there. If the relationship is strong, the platform makes it stronger. If it’s broken, Instagram spreads that reality just as quickly to an even bigger audience.
The cabinet has been told to distribute content and is treating that as a complete communication strategy. But the two are not the same.
The ministers’ accounts will be hyperactive by next week. But no one has asked what these ministers will say when the young people they hope to reach simply choose to swipe past and move on, which is entirely their right.
