Many among India’s Gen Z may not see Narendra Modi as a friend. But the Indian prime minister is trying to talk to them like one.
The 75-year-old leader – who has long cultivated a strongman image through scripted speeches, formal broadcasts and carefully choreographed appearances – has in recent weeks adopted a more casual style on Instagram, the photo and video platform popular with young people.
Modi’s timeline, which until a month ago featured carefully curated posts, now also includes more “candid” content, such as a get-ready-with-me reel and several selfie-style addresses to young people, whom he calls “friends”.
In one video, he even refers to a phrase popular among Gen Z, saying, “first in my bloodline, external to build a rocket, a chip and a drone” while addressing students at a graduation ceremony in Delhi.
Modi has more than 106 million followers on Instagram, making him one of the most-followed political leaders on the platform.
But the tone of his communication on the platform was never central to his team or the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) social media strategy, despite the party’s reputation for acing the digital playbook that helped it win the 2014 elections.
However, things changed after the youth protests in India this year.
Led by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the movement spread through memes, livestreams and Instagram reels before evolving into a force strong enough to make a federal minister resign.
The CJP began as a joke, but its ability to turn online attention into street mobilisation and political pressure appeared to catch the BJP off guard.
For more than a decade, the Hindu nationalist party has built one of India’s most formidable political forces online using WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages and X accounts to amplify its message, says author and commentator Anurag Minus Verma.
But young Indians consume content and politics differently.
More than 60% of India’s population is under 35 and Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) is expected to form one of the country’s largest voting blocs by the 2029 general election, experts say.
Winning them over means reaching them on platforms such as Instagram, where personal and unfiltered content can resonate more than traditional political messaging.
That shift was evident when Modi’s posts first appeared on Instagram. Young users were quick to respond with sarcasm.
Many people mocked his first selfie-video reel, external – in which he broke his silence about the youth protests while they were still ongoing. But what really caught their attention was a long pause after Modi said, “friends”.
Versions of it soon trended online, with users adding edits and jokes and mocking the lighting and camera angles in his video.
