Dhruv Rathee slams Yogi Adityanath’s ‘Legalized Bribery’ of paying influencers ₹8 lakh; Gaurav Taneja hits back

After the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government announced its new social media policy for influencers, a war of words broke out between YouTubers Dhruv Rathee and Gaurav Taneja.

Yogi Adityanath government's new policy states that an influencer can earn up to ₹8 lakh each month "for promoting the government."

While Rathee said the policy is a misuse of taxpayer's money, Taneja offered a rather different view of it. The 29-year-old Rathee said the policy is a "legalised bribe".

“Uttar Pradesh Govt is saying it will pay up to ₹8 Lakh to Influencers to promote the government. This is Legalized Bribery. From Tax Payer's Money," Rathee said in a post on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter).

"Any influencer who does this should be publicly shamed,” he added.

The post of Dhruv Rathee, a known left-winger, has now gone viral with over 2.6 million views.

To this, YouTuber Gaurav Taneja questioned Rathee on his view while defending the UP government's policy.

"Should all Newspapers and TV Channels, be also shamed, who show paid ads to promote any govt in power?" the 38-year-old asked.

Notably, this is not the first time that Dhruv Rathee and Gaurav Taneja exchanged barbs on social media. In June, the two clashed over the ‘India vs Bharat’ debate.

The duo's contrasting views also attracted a slew of reactions on social media.

"There is always a disclaimer that it's a paid advertisement. But the way you are defending, it looks like you are already a paid agent," an X user said.

"A party can pay with Electoral Bond Money if they want to promote their party and their propaganda but they wanted to use hard working taxpayers money for social media inflencers on the name of promoting govt schemes. We are against it," read another comment.

"So you are saying even you are a paid agent. How much did you get for selling your soul?" another user said.

"Not necessarily.. But praising a nearly failed govt for monetary gains is indeed despicable. There has been almost no development nor is there any semblance of Law and order in UP and so anyone who tries to sugarcoat this Jungleraaj should be rightfully shamed," said a user.

UP government’s social media scheme

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet has sanctioned the Uttar Pradesh Digital Media Policy, 2024. This policy will enable chosen influencers to receive state advertisements to promote government schemes of Uttar Pradesh on their social media channels.

Under this policy, influencers will receive a maximum payment of ₹5 lakh, ₹4 lakh, ₹3 lakh, and ₹2 lakh for their accounts on X, Facebook, and Instagram respectively.

According to the policy, the category-wise maximum payout limit for videos, shorts, and podcast payments on YouTube has been fixed at ₹8 lakh, ₹7 lakh, ₹6 lakh, and ₹4 lakh per month, respectively.