Everything is content in the age of our lord and saviour, Mark Zuckerberg. So when the rupee slips to record lows and the prime minister announces crisis-era measures, Instagram memesters are the first to react. Before newspapers can so much as put together a lukewarm op-ed, reels convey the public mood. Ten points to whoever called it social media.
In the Viral Spiral of India’s austerity era, companies, managers, and evil HRs are the biggest targets. Burned-out corporate cogs are dreaming of calling the BJP office to report their boss, who refuses to grant work from home. Women who cook for their families are posting videos using teaspoons or droppers to put oil in the pan. And many others are posting reels about how they were just about to head out and buy gold but turned back after Modi’s appeal. “Which raees can buy gold in this economy?” is a recurring question.
“Modizi, aapke mana karne se pehle bhi hum golden nahi le paa rhe the… Achha hua, aapne mana kar ke ijjat bacha li (Modiji, even before you said no, we couldn’t buy gold… Good that you said no and helped save face),” reel creator Kamalini Mahanta said in a recent video. Her overly husky voice clearly resonated with many; the video has over eight lakh views.
From meme handles to influencers alike, Modi’s appeal to citizens is more of a farmaan (edict). Some version of “Modiji has forbidden it” pops up across feeds.
“Ek company hai jo Modi ji ki bhi baat nahi maan rahi (There’s a company that isn’t listening to Modiji),” can be heard in many such videos in the immediate aftermath of Modi’s Hyderabad speech.
Others have gone a step further.
“Mujhe lag raha hai ye multinational companies nahi hain, anti-national companies hain (I think these aren’t multinational companies but anti-national companies),” said influencer Anupriya Mishra in a recent reel. Her bio states that she posts “relatable rants” on Instagram.
One disgruntled employee even proclaimed his boss to be a member of the “tukde tukde gang”. That’s the thing about corporate memes—they stay on theme. Jailed activists and national crises be damned, all that the company class cares about is the joy of working in pyjamas.
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‘I can’t, Modiji said no’
Even Rakhi Sawant has got involved now. The Gen-Z icon sat down in the middle of a crowded street, refusing to get up.
“Modiji, maine car mein jana chhod diya Modiji… Main abhi idhar hi baithungi, mujhe nahi jeena hai… Main travel nahi kar sakti, Modiji ne mana kiya hai (I’ve stopped travelling in a car, Modiji… I will sit here now, I don’t want to live… I can’t travel, Modiji said no),” she told the paparazzi in one of her signature interactions.
Only a minority of the memes directly criticise the government.
“Government arriving to tell us not to use petrol, oil and don’t buy gold,” read the text on a video that showed a helicarrier dropping a large ship into the sea, which docks on a beach, from which a limousine emerges, which drives to a location, ejecting two message bearers at a house. If this seems to count as extravagance, best not ask how much the BJP spent on the West Bengal elections, then.
No matter the subtopic at hand, the prime minister’s booming voice forms the backdrop for many reels. Videos satirising Modi’s message would’ve been unthinkable in the Covid-19 era, which he invoked in his recent speech. But in the public imagination, a pandemic counts as a natural disaster.
Where the opaque functionings of the economy are concerned, however, the blame is much more likely to fall on the man leading the troupe. The cannon is aimed at corporations for now. Where it hits is yet to be seen.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)