Congress’ fresh charge at Centre over interviews with social media influencers

Congress' Supriya Shrinate raised questions over the nature of the interviews of Union ministers that were recently conducted by social media influencers.

The Congress on Wednesday demanded answers from the central government over the recent appearance of the cabinet ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in interviews with social media influencers, including YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, better known as ‘Beer Biceps guy'. The party’s social media head Supriya Shrinate launched an attack on the Centre, asking for clarification about whether these collaborations were publicly funded, a claim refuted by Allahbadia's firm.

Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship Rajeev Chandrasekhar. (ANI)

“…These days, some of the big YouTube channels are interviewing government ministers in partnership with MyGov. A few days ago, the government floated a tender in which it was proposed to appoint an agency to connect influential names of social and digital media with MyGov…,” Shrinate wrote in a long Twitter post and alleged that the ministerial interviews were a garb for promoting BJP’s propaganda.

Shrinate asked about the nature of these collaborations and if and how were they funded. “Has any agency been appointed for this…how much money will be given to this agency and will the Youtubers be paid through them…Why is BJP's propaganda being done in the name of ministerial interviews and why should public money be spent for it?...,” she asked in a series of questions.

Videos’ descriptions stated ‘co-presented by MyGov’

The interviews carried with Union ministers S Jaishankar, Piyush Goyal, Rajeev Chandrasekhar among others, raised eyebrows first when Apar Gupta, the founder of Internet Freedom Foundation organisation pointed out on Monday that these interview were “co-presented to by ⁠MyGov (a government agency)” as shown in the videos’ description. Gupta, taking to Twitter, asked if these interviews were related to a tender floated in March by the government, titled ‘Request for empanelment (RFE) for selection of influencer marketing agencies for empanelment with MyGov’.

“If yes, then, is it proper for money from the public exchequer to fund influencer interactions with senior government functionaries?...,” Gupta’s Twitter post read. He later added to his original thread that he has been informed of the interviews being “unpaid” but added the process on how MyGov operates in these domains, still lacked transparency.

Allahbadia’s company shuns claims

While the BJP is yet to react to the claims, Monk Entertainment, a digital media organisation co-founded by Allahabadia, denied the allegations that he was paid for the collaboration. In his video with External affairs minister Jaishankar, the description reads “...voluntary, unpaid partnership focuses on active public engagement.”

Viraj Sheth, the CEO of Monk Entertainment, also reacted to Gupta’s viral post on Twitter and said “we did not ask for a fee or were offered to be paid for this. None of the political podcasts are a paid promotion.”

While speaking to Newslaundry, he also clarified “the phrasing ‘co-presented by MyGov’ was used as the agency had pitched for the programme about having some key cabinet ministers on their podcast ‘ The Ranveer Show’”. He said they did not bid for the March tender and labelled the collaboration as an ‘opportunity’ rather than a business collaboration. The company has changed the phrase “co-presented” to “collaboration” on their videos now to highlight that it was unpaid.

Sheth also said the company would be soon inviting representatives of other political parties as well.