Samikhsya Bureau
If one’s memory serves right then it is unprecedented that days before the general election the Prime Minister of the country goes viral through the social media with an appeal to some celebrities to play the bagpiper role. In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has requested a number of people drawn from various fields to make appeals to people to come out in good numbers and vote.
It is already laid down through the tenets of the Constitution that it is the moral duty of each citizen to exercise his or her franchise. And during each general elections one comes across video clips where celebs, mainly from the Bollywood, making such appeals. But it had never been so specific in nature when an incumbent prime minister making such a via-media appeal to do the job as motivators.
The PM’s tweets go viral beyond the boundaries and his tweets to either Pranab Mukherjee, the former president of India or Amitabh Bachchan or an untold number of personalities from other fields, somehow or others cannot escape a kind of identity bracket this would create.
When n number of platforms are active to play up the need for voting by all and the high voltage media too adds to the momentum, tweets from the Prime Minister of the country cannot rid itself off the brand inclination the tweets from the PM are intended to serve. Going directly from the Prime Minister either through speeches or other mediums, any appeal for good turnout for voting is different than doing a kind of outsourcing of branding through personalities those who enjoy larger mass appeal, looks like a witty blend of social awareness and a camouflaged political purpose.
