Several people in India — and some abroad — have received messages over the weekend through Monday from “Viksit Bharat Sampark,” a series of verified WhatsApp Business accounts with different phone numbers, with a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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The letter from Mr. Modi lists several government schemes, sought ideas and suggestions from the public, and thanked them for their “support” on issues like “GST, abrogation of Article 370, new law on Triple Talaq, Nari Shakti Vandan Act to enhance women’s participation in the Parliament, the inauguration of a new Parliament building and strong steps against terrorism and Left-Wing extremism”.
People have resorted to blocking the number, or even reporting it as ‘spam’ on WhatsApp, Vaishnavi Mishra, 24, said, “I received it on Saturday, late at night and immediately blocked it think it was a spam from the party, only later did it come to my knowledge that the message was sent through the IT Ministry.”
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Congress MP Manish Tewari accused the government of breaching the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), which prohibits the “misuse of official mass media during the election period for... publicity regarding achievements” to boost the chances of the party in power in polls. The MCC kicked in with the announcement of polling dates on Saturday. The Election Commission of India declined to comment on the matter, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not respond to a request for comment.
Sources told The Hindu that Viksit Bharat Sampark was initially envisaged as a programme to gain feedback on public sector schemes, spearheaded by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and the IT Ministry. However, the scheme has been moved from the DARPG to the IT Ministry recently, and it is unclear how the programme pivoted to spearheading a large-scale outreach by the Prime Minister months before the election.
It is unclear how Viksit Bharat Sampark obtained so many phone numbers to send these messages; some users on X, formerly Twitter, complained that they never signed up to receive messages from Viksit Bharat Sampark.
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“The timing of the message is very unsettling, the general elections were just announced, and the BJP has used the IT Ministry to amplify its achievements, if this is not a breach of data privacy, then what is?” a 28-year-old working in the IT sector said on the condition of anonymity.
A source close to Meta Inc., which runs WhatsApp, said that user reports complaining about unsolicited messages would be considered with “no compromise,” and that the company was not distributing messages from even government-run accounts like Viksit Bharat Sampark for free. A tariff sheet published by the company shows that WhatsApp Business advertisement messages can cost anywhere from ₹0.29 to ₹0.72 per user, depending on factors such as whether users respond to these messages within a certain period. WhatsApp did not provide responses to a questionnaire by The Hindu.
Some have already received messages from the number to verify their contacts and have also received them in various regional languages.
Several people who are not in the country or are foreign nationals have received the message. “The misuse of state institutions to communicate with citizens on behalf of the Prime Minister is appalling to me,” Rohan Chopra, 22, an Indian student in the U.K. said. “It is as if the Prime Minister has become the centre-piece of attention from both the government and the state. Such a personality cult is harming India’s parliamentary democracy.”