Author: Vindu Goel and Suhasini Raj / Source: New York Times
Harish Sahu, 15, often listens to music with friends on his mother’s government-issued phone. “It’s fun to keep it in my pocket,” he said. Atul Loke for The New York Times
RAIPUR, India — Forget the old American campaign slogan of a chicken in every pot, or the Indian politician’s common pledge to put rice in every bowl.
Here in the state of Chhattisgarh, the chief minister, Raman Singh, has promised a smartphone in every home — and he is using the government-issued devices to reach voters as he campaigns in legislative elections that conclude on Tuesday.
Chain Sahu, a mother of two who cooks at a school on the outskirts of Mr. Singh’s district in Rajnandgaon, said her free phone rang last Sunday, just before her village voted. The caller, who claimed to be from “the Raman government,” asked if she had benefited from government programs and urged her to vote for Mr. Singh’s Bharatiya Janata Party. When she complained about her pay and work conditions, she recalled, “They said, ‘We’ll carry your concerns to Raman.’”
The phones are the latest twist in digital campaigning by the B.J.P., which controls the national and state government and is deft at using tools like WhatsApp groups and Facebook posts to influence voters. The B.J.P. government in Rajasthan, which holds state elections next month, is also subsidizing phones and data plans for residents, and party leaders are considering extending the model to other states.
Chhattisgarh’s $71 million free-phone program — known by the acronym SKY after its name in Hindi — is supposed to bridge the digital divide in this state of 26 million people, which is covered by large patches of forest and counts 7,000 villages that do not even have a wireless data signal.
The plan is to add hundreds of cellphone towers and give a basic smartphone to every college student and one woman in every household to connect more families to the internet and help fulfill the central government’s goal of a “Digital India.”But this election season, many of the 2.9 million people who have received the phones have found themselves targeted by the B.J.P.
Working out of a government-owned building near the capital, about 350 contractors, originally hired by the state but now paid by the B.J.P., have been calling people who received the phones. Reading from a script that pops up on their screens, the callers ask the recipients if they are happy with the device and the mobile service, and also poll them on their satisfaction with other government programs championed by Mr. Singh.
The callers then ask people whether they plan to vote and which party they intend to vote for, according to half a dozen people who made or received the calls.
The state B.J.P. uses the data to steer party activists to visit voters who said they intended to vote for the opposition Indian National Congress or abstain, according to a longtime B.J.P. worker briefed on the strategy. “They are misusing state machinery for personal gains,” said the worker, who requested anonymity before discussing confidential party matters. “When we are in the government and have done so well, why do we need to do this?”
The phones themselves also actively promote Mr. Singh, who has run the state for 15 years and is seeking a fourth term.
Chain Sahu, right, and another woman prepare meals over a wood fire for election workers at a school in Bhanpuri, a village in the state of Chhattisgarh. On a typical weekday, the women make midday meals in the same kitchen for about 125 children.
His smiling face is set as the background image on the home screen, prompting some to nickname it the “Raman mobile.”
The phones come loaded with two campaign apps: one for Mr. Singh that features his news releases and speeches, and a similar one for Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, who also hails from the B.J.P….
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