The BJP’s decision to replace Amit Malviya, who led its digital operations for more than a decade, with Deepak Mhaskey looks like an organisational change. 

But the larger significance lies elsewhere. 

The party appears to recognise that India’s political internet has changed, and the communication system that worked so effectively through much of the Modi era may no longer produce the same political effect.

The BJP once understood digital politics with unusual precision. It mastered speed, amplification, message discipline and the creation of political narratives. 

Its IT and social media machinery became one of the most formidable communication networks in Indian politics, helping the party define political debates and defend the government when criticism gathered force.

A different internet now confronts it.

Recent youth-led protests have made the difference clear. Criticising a ruling party is a normal part of politics, but the bigger shift came when young people took their criticism online, outside the BJP’s usual network, and built momentum before the party could decide how to respond.

The CJP episode became an important example. 

Whatever one thinks of the protests or the group behind them, the episode showed how quickly a political discourse can grow outside the BJP’s traditional digital machinery.

A party used to setting the political agenda now faces a harder task when the debate is defined elsewhere.

Mhaskey’s appointment becomes significant against that backdrop. 

He has spoken about reaching Gen Z and making sure that the “right information” reaches them. That choice of........

© Kashmir Observer