The Ministry of External Affairs joined Snapchat on Thursday, becoming one of the first Union ministries to set up shop on a platform that’s basically Gen Z’s home turf. It’s not really a coincidence Modi has been pushing his cabinet to meet young people where they actually spend time online.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal made the announcement himself, in a video posted to X. “You followed us on X, on Instagram, and on LinkedIn. Follow us on Snapchat to hear more about what the Ministry of External Affairs does. Both in India and through our missions and posts abroad,” he said.
The caption was shorter: “We’re now on Snapchat! Add us and stay connected for exclusive stories, updates, engaging content and more. Let’s Snap!”
This comes about two weeks after Modi told several ministers to get more active on Instagram specifically, given how big the platform’s youth base is in India. He wasn’t asking for more posts, though he wanted reels, interactive formats, content people would actually stop and watch.
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“Young audiences are on Instagram. This is a large section of citizens that all of us need to stay connected with,” Modi reportedly told ministers, according to people familiar with the conversation. He also made clear that just reposting government updates wouldn’t cut it anymore — ministers needed to talk to young people directly, not just talk at them.
Worth noting why the timing matters here. This instruction came not long after a month-long protest wave led by the Cockroach Janta Party over the NEET paper leak scandal, which eventually forced Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign. The protests, centered at Jantar Mantar, drew huge numbers of young participants, and almost all of it played out on Instagram — memes, reels, banter, real-time footage from the ground. Hard to miss which platform actually carried that movement. The government clearly didn’t.