India's political infodemic: notes from five State elections

India's vibrant democratic landscape has always been marked by theatrics: mass rallies, passionate speeches, and intensive door-to-door campaigning.

- GNS News Agency

Yet, the past decade has witnessed this traditional electoral model intertwine significantly with digital platforms, giving rise to a phenomenon of 'infodemic'. While the word initially referred to the deluge of misleading information during the COVID-19 crisis, it now applies equally well to the continual onslaught of propaganda, half-truths, and outright falsehoods in political communication. This new-age electoral dynamic, meticulously analysed by Joyojeet Pal, Azhagu Meena, Drupa Dinnie Charles and Anmol Panda, manifests most visibly in private messaging spaces like WhatsApp, placing targeted propaganda directly into users' hands and everyday conversations. The turning point emerged distinctly during the 2014 general elections, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi leveraged social media effectively, notably X (then Twitter), to bypass traditional media gatekeepers.