The BJP's embrace of internet authoritarian populism in the 2019 election threatens Indian democracy

Abstract

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi has pioneered technology-enabled authoritarian populism. Unanswered questions remain about the prevalence of authoritarian populist and ethnoreligious nationalist themes in India's understudied online populism. This study examines pro-BJP tweets from the 2019 election's last week. BJP's authoritarian populist tactics supported an ethnoreligious nationalist agenda. No traditional media. Social media enabled leader-to-follower communication,which fueled Modi's personality cult. Online opinion leaders advocated strong ethnoreligious nationalism, including divisive false information about religion. These philosophies and practises threaten India's democracy.Keywords-India, political communication, political campaigning, elections, Internet, social media, Twitter, BJP, Modi.