New Delhi: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has turned to Facebook to stay connected to people.
While she uses platforms such as Twitter and Instagram to send out political messages and to hit out at the Narendra Modi government or the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka has taken to Facebook to reach people more regularly.
This is evident from her daily activity — at least 3-4 posts on an average, all of them in Hindi — on her timeline. The posts on Twitter and Instagram are not as frequent, often with gaps of a day. Everything that goes on her Facebook account is posted on her other social media handles. But the inverse is not true.
Gandhi’s Facebook page is liked by over 4.2 million people, with each post on an average getting around 10,000-12,000 likes. In comparison, she has 3.7 million followers on Twitter.
Her timeline is a filled with posts criticising CM Yogi’s government in UP over poor law and order and Covid mismanagement, the Modi government’s inability to handle the second Covid wave and provide vaccines, and tributes to leaders across the spectrum, among other issues.
Sources in the Congress told ThePrint there was a deliberate effort to pay more attention to Facebook as the social media platform has a wider reach. “The engagement is far greater on Facebook, people also spend more time on each post, it has a wider reach in the smaller cities and one can detail what they want to say. Therefore we really target our social media outreach on Facebook,” said the source.
While she lags her brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s reach on Twitter, she has a wider audience on Facebook than Rahul, who has 3.8 million likes on his profile — even though his per post engagement is better than hers.
Anuraag, a brand strategist based in Delhi who has worked in advertising for over a decade, explained that social media is a platform used by leaders to relay their messages to the public. While there were many platforms, Facebook has a wider appeal.
“While Twitter and Instagram are popular in the metros, as you move towards the smaller cities, platforms like Facebook have a wider appeal,” he said.
Also read: Raje, Raman, Raghubar — BJP’s ‘loser’ CMs remain party V-Ps only in name, have got no role
Targeting Yogi govt
One of Priyanka Gandhi’s most-widely shared posts was on the demand for a Supreme Court-monitored probe in the alleged Rs 18.5-crore Ram Mandir Trust Scam.
This is among the many posts in which she has questioned the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.
Cong Gen Secy @priyankagandhi in her Facebook post demands Supreme Court monitored probe in #RamMandirTrust Trust 18.5 crores alleged scam @ABPNews pic.twitter.com/KPoOmOiMP4
— Ashish (ABP News) #MaskUp (@AshishSinghLIVE) June 16, 2021
In her recent series of ‘#ZimmedarKaun’ (who is responsible) posts, which began mid-May, Gandhi highlighted the mismanagement of Covid in UP. The state has reported over 20,000 deaths due to Covid.
From questions over discrepancies in Covid death figures amid bodies thrown into the Ganges to lack of oxygen, hospital services and vaccines, the #ZimmedarKaun series hit out at both the Modi government and the Yogi government.
In one of the #ZimmedarKaun videos on Facebook Saturday, she spoke about lack of vaccines, saying the government has failed on every front, and asked why the doses were not exported beforehand. She said, “भारत के प्रधानमंत्री ने कायरों सा बर्ताव किया। उन्होंने 139 करोड़ लोगों को मंझधार में छोड़ देश का भरोसा तोड़ दिया।” (The Indian prime minister behaved like a coward and left 139 crore people in a fix and broke everyone’s trust.)
Priyanka’s posts are wide-ranging, with most of them geared to attack the BJP government in UP and CM Yogi Adityanath.
Last week, she mentioned the liquor mafia in Aligarh and how a journalist was killed for speaking out against it. Later, she raised questions on the land discrepancy in Ayodhya. Priyanka said in her post that many people had donated money for the Ram temple due to their faith and beliefs and to play with that would be a big sin.
Priyanka has also attacked the ruling dispensation on high petrol and diesel prices, GST on essential Covid items and instances of gross mismanagement by authorities.
Just after the second Covid wave, she asserted how the Yogi government was neither listening to people nor experts and was also not taking questions by the press. “Throughout this time, people have had to suffer and it is their voices which are also being ignored. In Jhansi, doctors themselves who submitted a memorandum to the CM were arrested.”
In another instance she posted a picture of how two people had to carry their mother on their shoulders to a hospital in Mirzapur due to unavailability of ambulances. She added, “The fear is that whoever brings out this truth might be charged under the National Security Act.”
However, Priyanka’s reach on Facebook doesn’t compare well with other prominent UP leaders.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav’s page is liked by over 7 million people, and his posts get 50,000 likes on an average. CM Yogi’s page is liked by over 6.4 million people and his posts see around 20,000 likes usually.
Out of the three, Yadav has the strongest Facebook presence. SP spokesperson Ghanshyam Tiwari explained that the party’s social media presence was a result of its grassroots orientation. “Many of our social media conversations emerge from the ground and relay our vision of the past and future,” he said.
Also read: ‘Working to unite all opposition leaders’: NCP on Sharad Pawar–Prashant Kishor meet
Of ‘Bajrang Bali’, & remembering Chaudhary Charan Singh, Bismil, Maharana Pratap
Besides her political outreach, a lot of Priyanka Gandhi’s engagement on Facebook also comprises tributes to leaders across the spectrum, either on their birth or death anniversaries.
Among these are freedom fighters like Ram Prasad Bimsil, to whom Priyanka paid tribute on his birth anniversary. In a post, she said, “He was a great and fearless freedom fighter”, and then added that his friendship with Ashfaq Ullah Khan will forever be on the lips of the ‘Ganga-Jamuni’ (syncretic) culture in India.
Among other freedom fighters, Priyanka also recently remembered writer Bipin Chadra Pal and Rash Behari Bose.
She paid tribute to Maharana Pratap and called him the “epitome of courage and self-respect”, on his birth anniversary.
Aside from remembering freedom fighters, she also wished people on the occasion of the first Tuesday of June, a day known as the day of Lord Hanuman. Where she said, “May Lord Bajrangbali (another name for Hanuman) protect us all.”
She also paid tribute to Rani Ahilyabai Holkar on her birth anniversary on 31 May. Holkar was the ruler of Malwa (now in present day Madhya Pradesh). She is known for having built and donated to many religious sites in Kashi, Mathura, Haridwar, Ayodhya etc.
She also remembered Chaudhary Charan Singh, former Indian PM who is also known as the farmers’ leader, on his death anniversary on 29 May. She said, “Tributes to former Prime Minister of India – Shri Chaudhary Charan Singh ji on his death anniversary, who strengthened the voice of farmers and their issues in politics and advocated giving them priority in agricultural policies.”
What other parties say
Reacting to her presence on Facebook, Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said Priyanka Gandhi is a political tourist in the state, adding that UP required a full-time politician. “She has no ground level work to show, so she is showing that she is active in the virtual world. This is merely a case of face-saving on Facebook,” he said.
SP’s Ghanshyam Tiwari didn’t speak about Priyanka directly but said the Congress party had no grassroots programme to showcase. “Their programmes communicate an overarching agenda but nothing to show or communicate their grassroots strength.”
However, UP Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi countered all these jibes and said that social media was one aspect to bringing out people’s voices. The Congress was also focussed on hitting the ground and attending to issues that were troubling the public.
“Shrimati Priyanka Gandhi is among the sole leaders on the ground, I can list 10 instances when she has been on the ground, other leaders cannot even list four. Where was behen ji (Mayawati) during Hathras?” said Awasthi.
(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)
Also read: Bal Thackeray set Sena motto as 80% social work, 20% politics, but 6-yr data is another story