New Delhi: Writer Ratan Sharda came down heavily on the BJP’s media team, including its IT cell, Friday over the handling of the Jantar Mantar protests in New Delhi.
Sharda posted his concern on social media platform X, even as he clarified that he was raising the issue in his personal capacity. Those responsible for communication with the masses are accountable for this situation, he told ThePrint.
“If the social media posts that you are putting out for a specific audience, generation and they are not able to understand it then it is simply a communication failure. We now know that youngsters are angry and there was a groundswell of anger against many issues, reaching a climax on the NEET issue among youngsters. They were upset,” he said.
“But the BJP media and IT cell seem to have no inkling. It indicates that you are not in touch with ground realities.”
Sharda said at one point, the Bharatiya Janata Party was known for its social media strategies and IT cell but it is failing now because they are no longer creating but reacting to narratives.
“They are only reacting or responding to narratives rather than creating them. Earlier they used to create conversations but that is no longer the case,” he added.
“NOTE: THIS IS MY PERSONAL NOTE, NOTHING TO DO WITH RSS. In the melee of #CockroachProtests we have not noticed the spectacular failure #BJP media team including IT Cell. Total inability to create a narrative to counter hateful well crafted narrative of Left Ecosystem. They didn’t go beyond memes or whataboutry,” he posted on X.
NOTE: THIS IS MY PERSONAL NOTE, NOTHING TO DO WITH RSS
In the melee of #CockroachProtests we have not noticed the spectacular failure #BJP media team including ITCell. Total inability to create a narrative to counter hateful well crafted narrative of Left Ecosystem. They didn’t…
— Ratan Sharda 🇮🇳 रतन शारदा (@RatanSharda55) July 24, 2026
Sharda, who is a regular columnist in Organiser, which is inspired by the Sangh, said with the media team and IT cell of the party failing to do its job, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to take the matter in his own hands.
“That #Modi ji had to put in his all to retrieve the situation, even make a reel at midnight reflects poorly on BJP communication. My heart breaks. Hence this bitter post (sic),” he added.
Criticising the BJP media team, Sharda said it seems to have no connect with the ground and no feedback mechanism too due to which it was unable to understand the youth’s anger that was building up for months.
“BJP Media seems to have no connect with the ground, no feedback mechanism obviously, and did not understand youth anger built over months, not just on NEET. NEET was the last straw on their back. People like me speak from field experience, not excel sheets or ppts. My criticism 2024 served BJP wonderfully well,” he added.
Sharda has written several books on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), including ‘Conflict Resolution: The RSS way’, ‘RSS From An Organisation To A Movement’, said the attention of the BJP media team as well as the IT cell was on ‘stalking well-wishers’ instead.
“Their attention seems to be more on stalking well-wishers who, on some occasions, also criticize BJP honestly & positively, and threatening or abusing them. Harshvardhan ji @MediaHarshVT knows this just like me,” he claimed.
Sharda has in the past criticised Amit Malviya for “trolling citizens”, when the BJP tech cell head had posted on X and took on detractors of Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union budget decision to eliminate indexation in property sales. “Everyone is an indexation specialist tonight,” Malviya had at that time said in a sarcastic message, which he had later deleted.
At that time, Sharda had advised Malviya to answer fear of citizens, and not insult them.
On Friday, Sharda said he will continue to “struggle for the success of nationalist forces, support BJP but speak up where required”.
“For people like me Nation comes first. They can shadow me, threaten me or take ‘revenge – sood ke saath’ as a new age leader warned me. I belong to a generation who expected nothing but soldiered on for decades before these horizontally grafted leaders were even on the scene,” he added.
Sharda had earlier written an opinion piece in Sangh’s mouthpiece Organiser, saying the decision to accept the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was “ill-advised”. The piece had created a stir and at that time. The RSS sources had maintained that he had written it in his personal capacity.
Not only this, in another article which was published in Organiser, Sharda had termed the Lok Sabha elections as a “reality check for overconfident BJP karyakartas and many leaders”. He said it exposed the “false ego” of BJP leaders that they alone understood “realpolitik”, while considering RSS cousins to be “village bumpkins”.
(Edited by Tony Rai)