Politicians often entertain the Internet, and FM Sitharaman has become an unexpected star in this digital circus, inspiring countless memes, GIFs, and viral jokes
While Nirmala Sitharaman has become a meme sensation, her predecessors largely escaped this internet scrutiny.
Image: Chandradeep Kumar/ India Today via Getty Images
Another budget and another meme storm featuring Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hit our social media feeds. Middle-class, internet-savvy India is as keen on joking about the FM as they discuss the budget over a cup of tea.
Politicians often entertain the Internet, and FM Sitharaman has become an unexpected star in this digital circus, inspiring countless memes, GIFs, and viral jokes. This burst of internet humour, at her cost, is a fascinating intersection of media theory, political perception, and social commentary. If it isn’t a meme, has it even happened?
While Nirmala Sitharaman has become a meme sensation, her predecessors largely escaped this internet scrutiny. Former finance ministers like Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, and Arun Jaitley lacked the viral spark that fuels today’s meme economy.
Pranab Mukherjee’s tenure was marked by his scholarly demeanour, earning him the reputation of a statesman rather than a meme subject. P Chidambaram’s witty yet precise economic commentary occasionally drew attention, but never in the form of meme virality. Arun Jaitley, a social media-savvy leader, maintained a strategic and measured public persona, keeping finance ministry discourse largely outside social media.
So why is Sitharaman different? The shift can be attributed to the rise of digital populism and the changing nature of public engagement with politics. Social media algorithms now amplify moments of perceived eccentricity or detachment, often reducing nuanced discussions into snippets primed for humour. Moreover, the post-2014 digital boom in India has ensured that every policy announcement faces immediate public reaction, often through memes and satire.
[This article has been reproduced with permission from SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai. Views expressed by authors are personal.]