NEW DELHI (Bloomberg): As student protests spread across India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned to Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram Reels, swapping his trademark cinematic videos for raw, self-recorded messages aimed at the country’s youth.
The 75-year-old posted two selfie videos on Instagram in as many days. In the first - a late-night post Thursday - he described the examination paper leak scandal as "extremely painful” for students and parents and vowed that "those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared.”
A day later, Modi returned with another Reel thanking young people for engaging with his post, even as students prepared nationwide demonstrations demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. The protests represent one of the most significant public challenges to Modi’s government since he took office in 2014, yet neither message addressed Pradhan’s future.
Thursday’s video drew more than 300 million views, becoming the most-viewed Instagram Reel in the platform’s history within 24 hours, according to local media reports. It surpassed the previous mark of 300 million, set days earlier by a reel of YouTuber meeting K-pop group BTS after the FIFA World Cup final on July 21.
Modi’s new approach mirrors the very style of the youth movement challenging his government. Led by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party, the protests have spread through memes, satire and internet humor, underscoring the growing influence of online culture on political mobilization in India.
"For the first time in over a decade, it is the protesters who are setting the agenda, not Modi,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, the author of ‘Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times,’ which explores the Indian leader’s political rise. "It doesn’t appear to be well thought out, because in the last 12 years, Modi has never faced a situation where it’s the protesters who are calling the shots, not him. I guess he’s at his wits’ end.”
India remains one of the world’s youngest major economies, with a median age of roughly 29, compared with about 40 in China and about 50 in Japan. Instagram also has more users in India than in any other country, at roughly 480 million, according to DataReportal, a research firm that tracks global digital behaviour.
The CJP, formed only in May, has 26 million followers on Instagram, roughly a quarter of Modi’s more than 100 million.
Despite Modi’s push on Instagram, his government has sought to restrict an encrypted peer-to-peer messaging app that gained prominence during Nepal’s 2025 Gen Z protests, according to the app’s co-founder, as New Delhi grapples with its own student movement.
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