Prime Minister Narendra Modi's love for the selfie is well known. Not only has he perfected the art of taking one, but also the craft of deploying it.
After ignoring Delhi journalists for months after taking charge as prime minister, he used selfies to break the ice with them.
In Australia, the Modi selfie became a tool of high diplomacy.
And now it is all set to become part of Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign in the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi.
On Saturday, BJP President Amit Shah inaugurated a “Selfie with Modi” booth in Khan Market in Central Delhi. The booth allows people to get themselves photographed next to a virtual Narendra Modi. Party leaders told journalists that 2,500 such booths would be set up across the city. The BJP is betting that the campaign would help them capitalise on young people’s obsession of sharing selfies on social media.
But the campaign’s launch was rather ill-timed.
Around noon on Sunday, Khan Market wore a desolate look. The visit of US President Barack Obama had kept most of central Delhi locked down. Not many shoppers were to found in the market which usually teems with expats and other well-heeled folk. A few BJP workers could be seen distributing flyers among the shopkeepers and security guards. But no one quite knew about the whereabouts of the “selfie booth”. It took a detour to the Metro station to locate the booth inside a small shop in a side lane of dhabas.
As it turned out, the booth was nothing more than an iPhone hooked to a TV. The phone uses an application equipped with “augmented reality” to show Modi’s face alongside others in the frame of the picture.
But even such a small contraption could not escape the eyes of the municipal authorities who landed up with the police outside the shop where the booth had been fitted. An official, who did not identify himself, said “no party was allowed such booths” because of a “high court order”. When pressed, the official would not reveal what the court order exactly said. A police officer added,“Election commissioner aaj kal ghoom raha hai (The election commissioner is roaming around nowadays).”
It was not clear which rule had been violated, or what the dispute was about, but for several hours, the manager of the booth wore a worried look as he tried to procure the shop’s rent agreement. It was declared that election commission officials would visit the booth and take a call on its continuation.
By evening, however, neither had the election commission officials appeared nor selfie-obsessed youth. Word was sent to the BJP workers who were distributing flyers in the market. Some of them came and got their pictures clicked.
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After ignoring Delhi journalists for months after taking charge as prime minister, he used selfies to break the ice with them.
Photo credit: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP
In Australia, the Modi selfie became a tool of high diplomacy.
Photo credit: @MEAIndia on Twitter
And now it is all set to become part of Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign in the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi.
Photo credit: Sahil Bhalla
On Saturday, BJP President Amit Shah inaugurated a “Selfie with Modi” booth in Khan Market in Central Delhi. The booth allows people to get themselves photographed next to a virtual Narendra Modi. Party leaders told journalists that 2,500 such booths would be set up across the city. The BJP is betting that the campaign would help them capitalise on young people’s obsession of sharing selfies on social media.
But the campaign’s launch was rather ill-timed.
Around noon on Sunday, Khan Market wore a desolate look. The visit of US President Barack Obama had kept most of central Delhi locked down. Not many shoppers were to found in the market which usually teems with expats and other well-heeled folk. A few BJP workers could be seen distributing flyers among the shopkeepers and security guards. But no one quite knew about the whereabouts of the “selfie booth”. It took a detour to the Metro station to locate the booth inside a small shop in a side lane of dhabas.
As it turned out, the booth was nothing more than an iPhone hooked to a TV. The phone uses an application equipped with “augmented reality” to show Modi’s face alongside others in the frame of the picture.
But even such a small contraption could not escape the eyes of the municipal authorities who landed up with the police outside the shop where the booth had been fitted. An official, who did not identify himself, said “no party was allowed such booths” because of a “high court order”. When pressed, the official would not reveal what the court order exactly said. A police officer added,“Election commissioner aaj kal ghoom raha hai (The election commissioner is roaming around nowadays).”
Photo credit: Sahil Bhalla
It was not clear which rule had been violated, or what the dispute was about, but for several hours, the manager of the booth wore a worried look as he tried to procure the shop’s rent agreement. It was declared that election commission officials would visit the booth and take a call on its continuation.
By evening, however, neither had the election commission officials appeared nor selfie-obsessed youth. Word was sent to the BJP workers who were distributing flyers in the market. Some of them came and got their pictures clicked.
Meanwhile, in what might be a bigger disappointment for Modi, US President Barack Obama, for all his talk of sharing great chemistry with the Indian prime minister, ended his visit without posing for a selfie with him.
