By Nivedita Niranjankumar
In a reel posted on Paltu Paltan, an Instagram account mocking opposition parties with 1 lakh 64 thousand followers, two Muslim men tell a Hindu man that if Congress comes to power, they will get half of his assets. One of the actors, playing a Muslim man, is 15-year-old Ashish Pandey from Bihar.
Created in June 2022, Paltu Paltan has over 3000 posts, only following right wing and official Bharatiya Janata Party accounts with each reel garnering a little less than 10,000 likes.
Pandey, who just appeared for his 10th standard exams, is part of a group called MVS Films, run by him and Jitendra Mishra and Vivek Tiwari. The cousins trio from Buxar in Bihar, all with a penchant for acting, started their YouTube channel in 2018, at first doing small skits highlighting social issues.
MVS films has about 46 thousand followers on Instagram. On YouTube, they have nearly 4 lakh subscribers.
Speaking to Decode, 28-year-old Tiwari said they started making videos in 2018 to highlight social issues in their village. In 2020, they first hit virality, with a song addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the high unemployment in Bihar, asking “Modi chacha” to create jobs in the state. “Even Ravish Kumar mentioned our song in his video,” says Tiwari proudly.
Now, in 2024, MVS Films makes skits calling Congress a Muslim party and spreading false claims about the Congress manifesto. “We only make content that we know is true and we see what is happening in the society. They don’t need to say it in the manifesto, we all know who they will support” says Tiwari when asked about their video making a false claim.
A recent reel on Paltu Paltan, featuring Tiwari and Mishra, claims if Congress comes to power all the assests of Hindus will be given to "peaceful minorities" a term used by the right wing for Muslims.
But he denies being paid by any political party and maintains that they are “independent”. “We have been approached by some parties, especially after we made videos about the Bihar and UP elections, but we have not agreed to tie up. Our aim is to spread a message that will reflect the society and this may not sit well with some political parties.”
Over the last few months, young Hindi heartland influencers have started making videos and reels that are posted on proxy pages run for the BJP. Through our investigation we found that these proxy pages are all linked to and run by Varahe Analytics, the consultancy firm hired by the party at the centre, to make ads mocking the INDIA bloc. One of Varahe Analytics’ ads was ‘Dulha kaun’ that created quite a ripple on social media.
Decode counted at least 40 reels featuring the MVS Films trio made by the proxy pages under the aegis of Varahe Analytics, most of them posted on the Paltu Paltan and Bharat Todo Gang accounts.
We also identified 11 micro influencers, most of them from the rural Hindi heartland, regularly featuring in content across the 17 proxy pages. Most of these accounts follow the same pattern — popular YouTubers creating pro-Hindutva and BJP videos who have in the last six months to 1 year become hyperactive on Instagram and amassed sizable followership.
The accounts, @theprohindubhaiya and @rishi.tawania accounts with about 23k and 50k followers respectively, fit the same template.
Identifying himself as Aatur Sharma on Instagram, account @theprohindubhaiya makes reels where he addresses the audiences directly about alleged atrocities on Hindus, how the Congress is a threat to India and Sanatan. He also appears in several videos on the Bharat Todo Gang page, where he mimics and mock Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and minorities.
Sharma is also part of the Prashask Samiti, an online community propagating messages of Hindu Rashtra. Till about a few months ago, he was the most popular face on the organisation's social media channels, with a total following of about 2 lakhs across platforms. He can be seen in videos talking about Hindutva, many heavily praising Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s “handling of the minorities”.
Similarly, Rishi Tawania, the youngster behind @Rishi.Tawania, has about 50,000 followers on Instagram but until about six months ago, was running a YouTube channel DharmAurMoksh. The channel with about 60k subscribers, has a clear Hindutva shade in its content, with one video analysing the “ideological problem with Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan…"
Now Tawania acts in reels run by the proxy pages, where he mocks opposition leaders, at times wearing a wig pretending to be Sunita Kejriwal, a Indian Revenue Service officer and the wife of Arvind Kejriwal.
Another youngster,Vinayak Dev Trivedi, has gone from making videos about Lucknow, calling out the Oppenheimer movie for insulting Hinduism on his YouTube channel to now acting in reels where he spreads the BJP campaign motto of #abkipaar400paar while greeting his Muslim friend with “Bura Na Mano Modi hai”.
Trivedi can be seen in numerous reels posted on PaltuPaltan, Ek Akela Sab Pe Bhaari and the Bharat Todo Gang.
THE SPIDER WEB OF INFLUENCERS AND ACCOUNTS
Decode found evidence of a network of anonymous proxy accounts, which uses influencers from rural and smaller cities to make content that spreads hate, trolls opposition and spreads misinformation. All of them created by Varahe Analytics.
Some others who feature on these pages, with large Instagram and YouTube followers base are, Sardarji Speak, Jaat Ki Jaatni, Rohit Sangwan, Raj Saraf and Satya Tiwari.
Influencers working with politicians is commonplace and a continuous initiative by most political parties, especially those with larger funds in their campaign purse. It is a symbiotic relationship, benefiting both parties - giving the political party wider reach and and the influencer and their views, get an intangible stamp of verification for being associated with the government. But this is not free, with influencers getting paid by the political parties or politicians themselves, for posting content and at times even giving topics that they should talk about.
Decode has as part of its ongoing series, Viral For Votes, reported on how the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the country are seeing influencers being used to propagate the message of the government. We have reported on how influencers drumming up publicity for the government and campaigning for the BJP are not disclosing that the content created, is “paid” and “sponsored”. A clear violation of Instagram’s policies.
It is then notable that both - the influencers and the proxy pages linked to Varahe Analytics – are going to great lengths to hide this relationship.
One such influencer Decode spoke to confirmed that they were being paid by Varahe Analytics to make such reels. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the nfluencer with over 4 lakh followers on Instagram who appears repeatedly on the Bharat Todo Gang, Ek Akela Sabpe Bhaari and a state proxy page, said that he was approached by the social media team of Varahe Analytics. “I am paid to make videos about the elections and the opposition. But there is nothing wrong with this. I believe in the cause and have been talking about the same issue and topics on my accounts for over 3-4 years now.”
The video creator refused to reveal the amount the agency pays for each video.
An analysis of the PaltuPaltan account on Instagram showed that it routinely did ‘collab’ reels with a handful of other accounts. All the accounts have similar display photos, witty handle names and all follow each other. But the similarities do not end there. Many of these accounts use the same actors showing a clear link between them.
We then started going through many of the accounts that Varahe had tagged in its reels and were able to find a network of nearly 20 anonymous Instagram accounts.
Accounts like Desameindesharyana, Chhattisgarh Chaupal, Jharkhand Chaupal, MahaBighaadi, Modi Saathe Rajasthan and MP Bole Bhajpa cater to state specific politics. Then come -- Bharat Todo Gang, In Se Na Ho Paega and Paltu Paltan – acting exclusively as anonymous troll accounts. The page HokageModiSama posts AI generated photos of Modi and also runs a merchandising site modisama.com where one can buy T-shirts and mugs supporting BJP and Modi. There are also accounts solely dedicated to posting about Modi and BJP leaders like Ek Akela Sab Pe Bhaari, Maaveeran Modi and Modi Guaranteed. All the accounts mentioned have at least two back up accounts each and cross post the same content.
AT THE CORE OF THE WEB : VARAHE ANALYTICS
On March 30, 2024, a video of Arvind Kejriwal singing and playing a guitar in jail went viral. It was shared by several Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries including Richa Rajpoot, social media head of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) BJP Youth Wing. The video was fake, with the images and the audio of Kejriwal singing, both generated using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).
BOOM fact checked the video and found a watermark for an Instagram account @paltupaltan indicating it was made by the page.
At the outset, PaltuPaltan seems no different from one of the many troll accounts run by BJP supporters that exist on social media. It checks all the boxes - anonymous, unidentified people acting in the reels, trolling opposition leaders, targeting minorities and at times spreading misinformation. All the while glorifying ministers Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Data available on the Meta Ad library the @paltupaltan page has from January 31 to Apr 29, 2024, a period of 90 days, spent ₹651,095 on Instagram ads. The page created in June 2022, has in total, spent ₹740,344 which means before January 31, 2024 the page had spent just a little over Rs 80,000 in ads. The Meta Ad library guidelines dictate that any page running an ad about social issues or politics are required to furnish details of the advertiser like phone number, email id and location.
The contact detail for the page ads, as filled by them is, “growth@varaheanalytics.com”.
One of the pages that was routinely tagged by the PaltuPaltan page is Inse Na Ho Paega, an account with just 616 followers. Viral reels that mimic Sunita Kejriwal, Delhi's Education Minister and AAP leader Atishi Marlena, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and the party's national spokesperson Surpiya Shrinate; adding their faces using face swap technology originated from this account.
In one such reel posted by Inse Na Ho Paega in April, Decode noticed the vehicle number of the motorcycle, used by the actor in the reel, was visible for a few seconds. We used the Vahan portal to find details about the vehicle and found that it was owned by a video editor at Varahe Analytics.
We also noticed that one woman kept appearing repeatedly in the reels posted by the page, her identity not revealed by the page. Her reels mimicked Sunita Kejriwal and Sonia Gandhi adding their faces using face swap technology.
In a reel posted by the Bharat Todo Gang account in February, the same woman explains how the I.N.D.I.A bloc are traitors. She also appears in a reel posted by Ek Akela Sab Pe Bhaari account in April, this time explaining to her son the sad state of affairs in India before 2014.
The same goes for the actor who plays fake Kejriwal on the ‘In Se Na Ho Paega page’, who is seen in two other anonymous accounts - Ek Akela Sab pe bhaari and the Himachal Pradesh specific page Bol hi Himachal.
We were able to identify both the youngsters seen in the reels and their LinkedIn profiles confirmed that they work with Varahe Analytics as content creators and consultants. We are not revealing the names of the Varahe Analytics employees featuring in the reels, to protect their identities.
The ruling BJP in March, held a first-of-its-kind in the country, government sponsored ‘National Creators Awards’ event. The prime minister himself handed out awards to 23 creators in 20 different categories. The awards were held a week before the Election Commission announced the election schedules and a month before the country went to polls. Most of these influencers, featuring in reels in the accounts linked to Varahe Analytics, are in social media marketing parlance called “micro influencers” on Instagram – those with a follower count between 10k to 100k followers. Interestingly, most of these accounts, while at a micro level on Instagram, have a larger follower base on YouTube.
WHAT IS VARAHE ANALYTICS
Varahe Analytics is a political consultancy firm contracted by the BJP to design and run campaigns across social media platforms for the LS 2024 elections.
On Linkedin, Varahe Analytics Pvt Ltd describes itself as, "...India’s leading integrated political consulting firms" that, "specialises in orchestrating data-driven all-encompassing election campaigns" that, combine "data-backed insights and in-depth ground intelligence into a holistic electoral campaign"
A 2023 report by The Print, states that, Varahe Analytics has worked with the BJP since 2014 on online and social media campaigns. The story details that, "Varahe Analytics...was incorporated in Chennai on 26 August 2021 for business activities. The company is run by Rangesh Sridhar, said to be closely associated with the BJP since 2014, and micro-managed by its directors — wife Dhanya, father Uruppattur Krishnaswamy, and Suresh Shreyas Bharadwaj."
The consultancy has a near bare site, with no details on the founders or team members and no location or contact details mentioned. The only available details are in the section listed 'Work' showcasing the organisations projects. This section has several photos from offline events organised by Varahe, for the BJP led state government of Goa, Assam and Uttarakhand.
Some of the photos show BJP President JP Nadda and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. A Indian Express story from Sunday about various political consultancy firms operating in the elections, describes Varahe as, "Rangesh Sridhar run".
A November 2023 story reported by The Economic Times describes Varahe Analytics as, "Rangesh Sridhar’s firm started in 2022, works exclusively for BJP like ABM. It mostly handles the southern states and is handling BJP’s campaign in Chhattisgarh."
Decode has reached out to Varahe Analytics and the story will be updated upon a response.
This is a part of Decode series ‘Viral For Votes’, where we track content creators and their role in the election campaign.
Also Read:Exclusive: Shadow Network Of Pro-BJP Pages Spend Over ₹2 Cr On Meta Ads Since NovemberAlso Read:Influencers Drum Up Publicity For The Government Without Disclaimers
