COMMENT The 14th general election is looming and the self-proclaimed First Lady of Malaysia is a bundle of excitement. If there is one role model the ruling party can copy in the hope of securing another victory, it is Mother India.

Rosmah Mansor has found in Narendra Modi a man to her liking because the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a hero who won the 2014 general election with a massive mandate to rule India.

The First Lady oozes with enthusiasm when she speaks about the chowkidaar – watchman - who crushed the leviathan Congress Party in one fell swoop.

In fact, Rosmah had been keenly watching the triumphant march of the BJP across the Indian landscape when it first sounded the battle cry. What particularly struck her was Modi's use of the social media to spearhead his election campaign.

So when Modi himself came to Malaysia, her admiration of the man must have known no bounds. Here is the man whose highly-charged “tech-savvy campaign” propelled him to the highest political office in the land.

Surely, this prime minister can offer the prime minister of Malaysia some great tips on how to capture power through the barrel of the social media.

Rosmah must be acutely mindful of the shaky position of her man, who has to seek another mandate two years down the road. So she tapped MIC president Dr S Subramaniam - an unfortunate choice, given the sorry state of his party - to help out.

"Subra, better go to India and learn how they do it... you can follow his (Modi's) methods for the 14th general election”, especially how he handled the social media so superbly.

The stark truth

If the doctor were to head for the sub-continent, he would return home - crestfallen, embarrassed, shame-faced. For what Modi had accomplished, no MIC or Umno leader can ever hope of duplicating.

Modi rode to victory on a tidal wave of 14 million “Likes” on Facebook, four million followers on Twitter and more than 300 million interactions. But that is only part of the story.

Subramaniam would have to report back to the First Lady the stark truth - that the majority of the 500 million voters who cast their ballots were won over by the message that Modi drove home relentlessly on social media: promises of growth (not dole handouts), jobs, low inflation and less corruption.

For Modi, the social media is important in his war on the Congress Party. It is the weapon that was used effectively to eventually topple the long-ruling, corruption-ridden party.

PHLIP RODRIGUES is a member of the Malaysiakini team.