This past fortnight has presented the toughest challenge yet to Brand Narendra Modi. Driven by student protests over a leaking examination system and the subsequent resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Prime Minister Modi’s meticulously crafted image of a leader “who never retreats” suffered a setback.No wonder the attempt at recovery was quick, determined, even personal.In just one week, PM Modi, taking charge of the situation, posted five selfie videos on Instagram in attempts to engage Generation Z which powered the protests that yielded a ministerial resignation — the first since 2014 in Narendra Modi’s entire term as prime minister.The selfies collectively garnered a near billion views on the platform Gen Z use most for short-form video consumption and chats.What’s more is — these record breaking views were also accompanied in part by memes as teenagers reviewed, judged and responded to the PM’s new communication strategy.Also, the selfie video posting plan was not limited to the prime minister alone. Top ministers and spokespersons of the ruling dispensation were asked to follow suit and have begun deploying the Insta reel tool as they attempt to understand and speak the language of Gen Z.The day Parliament passed the new anti paper leak bill, Jitendra Singh, Minister for Personnel, the nodal segment for the law, also recorded and posted a video selfie to drive home the message that the Government has delivered on what the PM had promised in his first Insta engagement with students on July 23.Other ministers have also been asked to dish out selfie reels to engage the new generation of youth the BJP believed is one of its core support bases.A realisation has also dawned in the BJP IT cell of how social media — the tool this department used to near perfection to mock political rivals, mostly Rahul Gandhi, has returned to challenge them as seen in the July 20 Chalo Sansad protest led by the Cockroach Janta Party. The police have ample evidence to conclude that the unexpected and unprecedented student mobilisation for the agitation happened across Instagram social media platform, through reels, videos and selfie posts.“We have to start engaging the new generation in their own language. That’s something we have to do,” said a BJP insider commenting on the sequence of events that took even a proven communicator like prime minister Modi by surprise.The Sangh parivar has also stepped in to weigh on future strategy on the saffron outfit which has five key battleground election going states to prepare for — Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa.The BJP is in power in four of these five states and is calculating the potential impact of student protests and subsequent police action on the electoral landscape.It is clear to the strategists that a punitive response to students would most certainly backfire.That explains the recent conciliatory notes the Sangh parivar has been striking.None other than Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of RSS, BJP’s mothership, remarked this week that the new generation will not accept anything easily.“They will argue, analyse and question and we have to change our approach of engagement and take the children along by affectionately understanding their viewpoint,” Bhagwat said as the BJP and affiliates gear up to recover lost ground.Another of Sangh’s major affiliates the Vishwa Hindu Parishad termed the Gen Z agitation as “legitimate”.VHP’s International President Alok Kumar while reacting to the agitation said the CJP movement at Jantar Mantar was a legitimate expression of the hopes and frustrations of students.“The issues they raised such as paper leaks are the ones that have really hurt the students. As for the police, they have found that over 2000 people with criminal antecedents had infiltrated the protests. I would not mind if action is taken against these people,” Kumar said, in context of the protest, the much criticised police action on students and the CJP’s non negotiable demand of amnesty for each and every protester, irrespective of the gravity of their acts during the agitation.Further, a debate is also raging around the limits of expression during street protests with videos going viral of some students using cuss words against the prime minister. One girl has even been booked.In his last insta video on the subject posted two days ago, the prime minister described the children resorting to expletives as a misguided lot and urged everyone to guide them back towards the right path.He also said he had forgiven them all and that everyone else too must move on from abuses and align their energies towards the broader goal of Viksit Bharat.