Politics merged with influencer marketing in the last fortnight causing a stir in both professions. Popular YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, known by his online alias BeerBiceps, conducted a series of interviews with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Ministers on his YouTube channel over the last two weeks. The internet erupted with reactions, and it was later revealed that YouTuber Raj Shamani also conducted interviews with BJP politicians that were ‘co-presented by MyGov’ – a citizen engagement platform managed by the Union government.
Meanwhile, Apar Gupta, the founding director of Internet Freedom Foundation, highlighted a tender issued on March 7 which involved the empanelment of influencer marketing agencies with MyGov, raising questions if the interviews were part of the tender or any government marketing strategy. TNM reached out to Ranveer’s team who said that though there was a collaboration with MyGov, there was no financial arrangement. The lineup of interviews included Union Ministers Rajeev Chandrasekhar, S Jaishankar, Smriti Irani, and Piyush Goyal.
Ranveer in a statement said that they did not participate in the March 7 tender bidding process, and did not receive any payments from the Union government for the interview series. Ranveer said that a representative from MyGov had approached them in May, proposing the idea of having key cabinet ministers on their podcast. After consideration, they agreed to the collaboration. The phrase ‘co-presented by MyGov’ was used because the concept for the entire program originated from MyGov. “We are not empanelled with any ministry as an official vendor. This was a pure organic collaboration like we do with everyone else,” the statement read.
Ranveer boasts an impressive online following with 56 lakh YouTube subscribers, 25 lakh Instagram followers, and 5.28 lakh Twitter followers. All three videos featuring Union Ministers mention the collaboration with MyGov, a platform that facilitates communication between citizens and the government. The description calls this collaboration, a voluntary, unpaid partnership that focuses on active public engagement. However, an earlier interview by BeerBiceps with Sanjeev Sanyal, economic advisor to Prime Minister Modi, uploaded on April 7, did not mention any such collaboration. It should be noted that these interviews were also promoted by the Ministers on Twitter.
“Our podcasts are always created by our in-house team, consisting of videographers and editors who handle the production. We found it interesting to have cabinet ministers directly address the youth. Our aim is to provide a platform where we bring successful individuals from diverse industries and present them to our audience,” Ranveer said in a statement.
In an interview with Newslaundry, Ranveer and his partner Viraj Sheth, the CEO of Monk Entertainment, a digital media organisation founded by Viraj and Ranveer in 2018, both maintained that the interviews were not part of a paid project.
Ranveer told Newslaundry that the government's involvement was limited to organising the interviews. He added, "Their interference was minimal, extending only to arranging the interviews. They reached out and identified who they wanted on the show – that was it." “There’s nothing shady if that’s what people are thinking,” Ranveer said.
Shedding light on the collaboration, Viraj described it as an "opportunity" rather than a "business transaction." While the government covered their travel, lodging, and boarding expenses, all content and production aspects were handled by Monk Entertainment, Viraj said.
The government had requested to review the final cut of the interview. Viraj said this was a common courtesy extended to all their guests, regardless of their political affiliation or background. He added that Smriti Irani explicitly trusted them with the content and did not feel the need to review the footage.
Addressing the concerns raised about the phrase "co-presented," Viraj said that it was an honest mistake, which they rectified by changing it to "collaboration" to emphasise the unpaid nature of the show. “In light of recent social media reactions, we now understand that we should have been even more explicit about this being a non-paid collaboration,” Viraj said.
Viraj Sheth was also part of an interaction with Union Minister Piyush Goyal with over 50 top-performing YouTubers in the country on various issues like popularising handicrafts, benefits of millets and consumer awareness on June 23.
Responding to the criticism that the series only aimed to improve the image of BJP ministers, Ranveer told TNM, The podcasts have been well-received, and we plan to invite more political leaders from various parties in the future.” Ranveer, identifying himself as a centrist, expressed his eagerness to engage with opposition figures and political commentators from all sides to shape his understanding and stance on politics. He told Newslaundry, “I’m eager to discuss with opposition figures like Shashi Tharoor, Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal to further shape my understanding and stance on politics.”
Viraj said that their platform would soon invite representatives from other political parties as well. He stated, "We've already begun reaching out to representatives from different political factions to invite them to participate in our show."