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BJP’s real woes: Lessons from the electoral semi-finals

Piyush Kulshreshtha
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BJP’s real woes: Lessons from the electoral semi-finals

The prolonged silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah on election results was very telling. The results were clearly unexpected and possibly led to prolonged internal discussions on the future course of action.

It was around 9:50 PM that the Honorable Prime Minister tweeted about the election results, gracefully accepting the public’s verdict and another tweet where he tried to lift the morale of BJP karyakartas. BJP President Amit Shah has still not tweeted on the loss except congratulating K. Chandrashekar Rao for the stunning victory in Telangana.

But as it happens, BJP supporter base erupted with a wide range of emotions after a 0-3 drubbing the party received at the hands of chief opposition, the Congress Party. Many were old issues that had been brewing up for a while now.

For a while now BJP’s hardline Hindu supporters have felt not only ignored but also complained of BJP making overt appeasement moves towards India’s sizable Muslim population. Many others have raised the middle-class woes, chiefly, tax burden, fuel prices and the fact nothing specifically targeted at middle-class was launched by the government.

But these are all just symptoms. What is the real cause?

At the centre of it all is BJP’s severe lack of communication about what it is doing. It is either getting lost under the information overload or lack of craftsmanship. Prime Minister and other Ministers do tweet things from time to time. Prime Minister even tries to speak directly with the citizens through Mann Ki Baat but the fact is, there is not a single communication opportunity where government presents a gist of its activities. Something that gives a wider sense of direction the country is taking under its governance.

Even election speeches chiefly rotate around either few pet projects affecting the poorer communities or focus on the Gandhi Family of Congress Party.

Core Agenda – Positioning

BJP’s Core agenda, for decades, included the abolition of Article 370, Hindutva (Ram Mandir), Uniform Civil Code and National Security. Its previous communication was accordingly spread annoyingly between these wide positions. The same was then wrapped together and brought into the fold of a more cohesive slogan of ‘Nation First, Party Next and Individual Last’, after a Debate Facilitation Document was posted on the website of Friends of BJP in June 2009. Since January 2010, BJP’s positioning changed to the new slogan, but unfortunately, its real position remained the same – Article 370, Hindutva (especially via Ram Mandir), Uniform Civil Code and National Security.

Naturally, its long-term supporters expected it to deliver on these agenda after BJP formed a full-majority government in 2014, the first in India since 1984. While on National Security, BJP has done exceedingly well, and even the opposition has not raised any complaint, on UCC, Article 370 and Ram Mandir, BJP has failed to make any meaningful progress.

Ram Mandir issue is stuck in Supreme Court and BJP Supporters now expect the party to circumvent the Courts via legislation, on UCC BJP has tried an innovative approach like working on the components of the matter. Accordingly, Triple Talaq issue was raised and sorted through judicial intervention. On Article 370, Govt has complicated the matter by proposing to review and repeal Article 35A that bars the entry of non-J&K Resident from buying property in the State.

Fact is, the abolition of Article 370 is a lost cause. BJP doesn’t have the courage to explain this to its supporters. The bus was missed in 1956 itself when the Constitution of J&K was ratified and brought into force. Article 147 (c) of the Constitution of J&K prohibits the Legislative Assembly of J&K from making any amendment to the provisions of the Constitution of India, as applicable in relation to Jammu & Kashmir.

That simply means, State Assembly has no rights to pass a resolution to seek abolition of Article 370 of Constitution of India, which in turn means the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir cannot extend such a request to the President of India.

As if this problem was not enough, the Govt of India under BJP has complicated the problem by announcing its intent to repeal Article 35A from the Annexure 2 of the Constitution of India which stops rest of the Indians from buying properties in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 35-A was promulgated by the President of India under the provisions of Article 370.

Achhe Din

During the campaign for 2014 elections, BJP also made two tall promises. One, Acche Din and two, anti-corruption drive. Acche din was simply a reference to better economic management towards which it has brought a wide range of policies ranging from agriculture to innovation in the fields of science and technology. Finance has been made available to smallest of professions like barbers, beauty parlours, carpenters, vegetable vendors etc., while a specific focus on Start-up culture has been established in a format that needs further evolution.

The government has also opened up lately to MSME segment and has tried to provide the finances. Taxation reforms, compliance, large-scale infrastructure projects, wider distribution of power to households, renewable energy and many other projects have also been a key focus, but yet, nobody understands the big picture of Modi Govt’s economic development.

On corruption, especially a deep-rooted institutionalized form of corruption is not only difficult to remove but is sometimes fraught with dangers of ouster or fatal risks to the people leading such drives. Modi Govt has worked on three-pronged strategy – strengthen the institution and make them capable of self-remedy, reduce corruption in public and private lives and investigate some big ticket corruption cases involving powerful politicians like P Chidambaram and the Gandhi Family of Congress. People are baying for blood.

Strengthening of public institutions is not a popular agenda. Reducing corruption in public and private life is a welcome move but nothing more than an expected hygiene factor. The blockbuster entertainment is in the conviction of someone big, someone like Chidambaram Family or the Gandhi family. And that has not happened in 4.5 years.

Reduction of corruption and simplification of processes has increased India’s “Ease of Business” ranking, but people want to see someone big go to Jail. It’s not that none has gone to Jail. Maharashtra NCP Leader Chhagan Bhujbal was in Judicial Custody for nearly 2.5 years, on corruption charges. Laloo Prasad Yadav was finally convicted and sent to Jail by the CBI Court. Karti Chidambaram was in remand for 2 weeks. But not much has been achieved directly against either P Chidambaram or anyone from Gandhi Family. On the contrary government, itself was under attack for the escape of few big businessmen with ultra large NPAs.

That situation is now getting remedied with the custody of Christian Michel, the middleman accused in Agusta Westland Scam where BJP hopes to get a name of someone from the Gandhi family. Vijay Mallya’s possible extradition is also a major relief for Modi Govt and could change the narrative in coming weeks and months, before 2019 General elections.

Conclusion – Communicate Better

The components are all there. But there is nothing to tie all this neatly into a cohesive story that can be told to the simple voters. BJP is losing a perception battle and just like Nation First, Party Next, Individual Last became its neat mantra in the run-up to 2014 elections, it needs to get a fresh communication strategy put into place. It needs a team that specializes in this job and they surely don’t seem to be from its existing line of resources.

They better hurry and get it in place, no later than mid-January. 2019 General Election is going to be battle India has never seen.

Madhya Padesh: Shivraj Singh Chouhan decides not to stake claim to form government, to tender resignation

OpIndia Staff
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Madhya Padesh: Shivraj Singh Chouhan decides not to stake claim to form government, to tender resignation

After the very close defeat in the Madhya Padesh assembly elections, BJP has decided not to stake claim to form the government in the state. In one of the closest results in an election, no party managed to win the majority of 116 seats required to form the government in the 230-member house. While the incumbent BJP won 109 seats, the opposition Congress party won 114 seats, two short of the majority mark.

The difference between the votes polled by the two parties is less than 50,000, with BJP’s share 0.1% more than Congress. According to results declared by the Election Commission, BJP got a total of 1,56,42,980 votes, while Congress bagged 1,55,95,153 votes. The different being just 47,827 votes, while is just 9% of NOTA votes polled in the state.

As no party had got a clear majority, it was speculated that BJP may try to form a government by getting the support of 4 independent, 1 SP and 2 BSP MLAs that have won the elections, although that scenario was very unlikely.


Now putting all such speculations to rest, outgoing Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has conceded defeat and announced that the party will not stake claim to form the government. He informed that he is going to tender his resignation to the Governor, making way for a new Chief Minister from Congress.

In the meanwhile, BSP supremo Mayawati has announced that her party will be supporting Congress in Madhya Pradesh. With the 2 MLAs of BSP, the Congress party will be comfortably cross the majority mark. Mayawati said that the decision was taken to keep BJP out of power.

Filmmaker Sajid Khan suspended from Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association over sexual harassment allegations

OpIndia Staff
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Filmmaker Sajid Khan suspended from Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association over sexual harassment allegations

The Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA) has suspended filmmaker Sajid Khan for one year over complaints of sexual harassment against him. The decision which came in the wake of the #Metoo movement after several women accused the film director of sexual harassment.

IFTDA issued a show-cause notice to Sajid Khan in November. The notice read, “Your lewd and obscene actions have brought disrepute to Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association. We, therefore, want an explanation from you for such offensive behaviour within seven days of the receipt of the notice for further action as per the rules and regulations.”

They also stated that even after given an opportunity to put forth his defence, Sajid didn’t give any explanation. In reference to Sajid’s earlier interview, IFTDA also said that Sajid exposed his real self and admitted to being abusive and disrespectful towards women.

After such serious allegations coming his way, and after being called out by actors like Akshay Kumar and Farhan Akhtar, who stood by the victims, Sajid Khan stepped down as the director of upcoming comedy-drama ‘Housefull 4’.

The 48-year-old filmmaker was accused of misconduct by at least women who took to their respective social media accounts to speak up about their heart-wrenching ordeals. A freelance Bollywood journalist had taken to Twitter to narrate her ordeal as well.

Former Miss India and actor Niharika Singh too, opened up about her #MeToo experiences in entertainment industry calling out Bollywood biggies Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sajid Khan and Bhushan Kumar.

Hindi film industry actors, Bipasha Basu, Dia Mirza and Lara Dutta also came down heavily on the director.

Recently, ace tennis player, Mahesh Bhupathi had also given his take on the sexual harassment allegations levelled against filmmaker Sajid Khan.

As the #MeToo movement gained momentum in India starting with actor Tanushree Dutta accusing Nana Patekar of harassing her, incidents of harassment and sexual misconduct started coming out in the open, with allegations being levelled against many personalities in the media and entertainment industry, including Subhash Ghai, Vikas Bahl, Alok Nath, and Rajat Kapoor. Union minister M J Akbar, comedians like Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, co-founders of All India Bakchod were all accused of sexual misconduct. Notable filmmakers like Vikas Bahl, Sajid Khan and Journalists like Vinod Dua and Sidharth Bhatia of The Wire, Prashant Jha of the Hindustan Times have been accused.

Sajid Khan rose to fame with the ‘Housefull’ series he directed. The movie Housefull was released in the year 2000, which had four leading actresses, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone, Malaika Arora, Jiah Khan. Housefull was the last movie of Jiah Khan before her mysterious suicide in 2013.

Mayawati extends support to Congress for Madhya Pradesh, may consider Rajasthan ‘to keep BJP out of power’

OpIndia Staff
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Mayawati extends support to Congress for Madhya Pradesh, may consider Rajasthan ‘to keep BJP out of power’

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati today extended support to Congress in Madhya Pradesh, after the nail-biting finale which showed Congress emerge as the single largest party at 114 seats, 2 seats short of a majority.


Speaking to media, Mayawati said that the BSP had fought these elections to defeat the BJP but unfortunately our party could not achieve it. But we have come to know that the BJP is still putting up a fight to form the government. To stop that, despite not agreeing with the Congress on ideology and leadership, we have decided to extend support to Congress to form the government in Madhya Pradesh so that the BJP does not succeed. If we feel that the Congress needs out support in Rajasthan, then to defeat the BJP, we will extend support to Congress even then.

Demystifying Civil Society: Organization linked to ‘Urban Naxals’ wants schools to teach ‘Human Rights Education’

OpIndia Staff
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Demystifying Civil Society: Organization linked to ‘Urban Naxals’ wants schools to teach ‘Human Rights Education’

As per reports, Federation for Human Rights (FPR) urged the government of Puducherry to introduce “Human Rights Curriculum” in the school curriculum in the Union Territory. Secretary G Sugumaran said that various organizations had already made the demand before and the NGO ‘HOPE’ had prepared textbooks with the help of experts.

Considering the fact that it is an attempt to influence the minds of children, we decided to investigate the background of the NGO. In 2011, the FPR had urged the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa, to prevent the execution of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s killers.

Links with organizations linked to ‘Urban Naxals’

The organization also appears to have participated in the inaugural conference of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), an organization with intimate links to alleged Naxals, as is evident from the page on their website.

The above statement is undersigned by Surendra Mohan, A Marx, Amit Bhattacharyya, SAR Geelani, GN Saibaba, Rona Wilson. Geelani’s reputation is quite well known. S Gurumaran, the secretary of FPR, has worked extensively with A Marx and even visited together Ayodhya for an “on spot study” of the matter. A Marx is associated with the PUHR, an organization whose Haryana chapter is a member organization of the CDRO. The PUHR and FPR also released a book together titled “Beyond Violence and Non-Violence” written by K Balagopal.

NCHRO

Rona Wilson is one of the alleged Urban Naxals arrested in connection with the violence in Bhima Koregaon and the alleged assassination plot to murder Prime Minister Modi. Arun Ferreira was another person from CRPP who was arrested in the same matter. The CRPP, as we have reported earlier, has extensive links with alleged naxals and separatists. It is also closely linked to the CDRO although it is not directly affiliated with the organization. Secretary of FPR, Sugumaran has also participated in various events with members from the PUCL, a coordinating organization under the CDRO that again has a very dubious record.

A Marx, apparently a close aide of Gurumaran, is also the chairperson of the NCHRO. The NCHRO participated in a protest to demand the release of the arrested ‘Urban Naxals’ along with CDRO, CRPP, NAPM and others. The NCHRO also demanded the closure of the Sterlite unit in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, the closure of which has caused immense distress to those facing the loss of jobs as a result.

Glimpse into FPR’s worldview

Gurumaran of FPR was part of a team comprising of SAR Geelani, Rona Wilson, A Marx, and others that travelled to Jammu and Kashmir for a ‘fact-finding mission’. The findings of the ‘mission’ appear to unequivocally support the separatists as it states, “Whether it is the worker, student, academic, lawyer, trader, peasant, women or children-the people of Jammu & Kashmir are unequivocal in their demand for Azaadi. They say that by brutally beating up the people in the streets, firing at their peaceful demonstrations championing freedom, the Indian State is giving up yet another chance of peacefully resolving the Right to Self-Determination of the people of Jammu & Kashmir.” The team also strongly condemned the “fascist character of the Indian state.”

Like many such organizations, the FPR also appears to have a special interest in seeking the implementation of the draconian RTE Act that discriminates actively against Hindu-run schools. It urged the Puducherry government in 2017 to ensure strict implementation of the RTE. The organization also demanded that the Aurobindo Ashram be taken over the Puducherry government. After the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, one of the terrorists responsible for the Mumbai Terror Attack, FPR demanded that capital punishment be abolished in the country.

Conclusion

The latest demand by the FPR to include “human rights education” in the school curriculum in Puducherry is, thus, an attempt to indoctrinate children in their own controversial ways. The FPR is linked to organizations that do not appear to have the country’s best interests at heart. The conduct of the FPR itself and that of its secretary does not appear conducive for the nation’s interests. Under such circumstances, their attempt to indoctrinate children appears particularly dubious.

Begani shaadi mein Abdullah deewana: Delhi government wants to limit guests at your wedding

OpIndia Staff
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Begani shaadi mein Abdullah deewana: Delhi government wants to limit guests at your wedding

Arvind Kejriwal led Delhi government reportedly told the Supreme Court that it is in the process of formulating a policy which limits the ‘vulgar display of food’ at weddings lavish weddings in the national capital.

Appearing before the bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta, Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev said that the government “shares the concern” expressed by the Court and a “balance has to be maintained between the requirements of the rich and the poor” living in the city. He added that alternatives are being discussed by the government so that the food availability, as well as the number of guests at such wedding functions, are limited.

A policy, which could be formulated within six weeks, may explore the possibility of issuing a “guest control order” so that properties are not misused and it eases traffic congestion in the national capital. Dev said that there is an “artificial enhanced demand” for “extravagant” weddings in Delhi owing to which the food either goes waste or the caterers use the ‘stale’ food in subsequent weddings, which could lead to serious health issues.

The submission came in response to the 6th December Court’s order which questioned water storage capacity in farmhouses. These farmhouses reportedly have the water storage capacity of one lakh litres while other parts of the city struggle to find drinking water. The Court had also wondered that if the state favoured the rich and the mighty.

Rajasthan: Congress short of 2 seats from majority, rebel MLAs might favour Gehlot as CM

OpIndia Staff
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Rajasthan: Congress short of 2 seats from majority, rebel MLAs might favour Gehlot as CM

The race for the post of the Chief Minister in the state of Rajasthan has already begun. The Congress has secured 99 seats in 200 member Rajasthan state assembly just two short of the majority mark while the BJP won 73 seats. Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot and Rajasthan PCC Chief Sachin Pilot are in the fray for the post of the Chief Minister but the Congress high command is likely to favour Gehlot, as he is believed to more acceptable in the party and most importantly for the independent MLAs.

According to News18, Congress observer KC Venugopal has already arrived in Rajasthan and has met each MLA of the Congress party to ascertain the views of the newly elected members. The party observers have scheduled a Congress legislative party (CLP) meet at 11 am at Jaipur to elect the party’s Chief Minister after garnering the views of the newly elected members.

KC Venugopal has also met both Pilot and Gehlot individually. In a show of solidarity, both leaders had appeared before the media in Jaipur on Tuesday after defeating the BJP in the elections.

The Congress delegation led by KC Venugopal, Rajasthan in-charge Avinash Pandey, Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot is set to meet the Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh at 7 pm in the evening to claim the right to form the new government in Rajasthan.

Interestingly, Congress party which is just short of 2 seats is relying on regional parties like Bharatiya Tribal Party led by Chhotubhai Vasava and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal, who has already promised his support to the Congress party. Out of the 12 independents, 9 of them were originally from Congress party but had rebelled after being denied tickets will play a key role in the government formation. Reportedly, some of those members like Sanyam Lodha, Mahadeo Singh Khandela and Babulal Nagar are close to Ashok Gehlot and may support him to be the next Chief Minister of the Rajasthan.

Ashok Gehlot, who won from the Sardarpura seat is eyeing for his third term as Rajasthan’s Chief Minister. Sachin Pilot has been elected from Tonk constituency and has eyes on the post too.

Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Chouhan to address press shortly, state BJP President still hopeful

OpIndia Staff
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Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Chouhan to address press shortly, state BJP President still hopeful

After a long day of a close race of numbers for the Madhya Pradesh legislative assembly, at the final tally, Congress ended up a few seats ahead of BJP. Till last night, when the results of 229 seats were announced, Congress stood at 113 seats and BJP at 109 seats.

Counting for the last remaining seat reportedly continued today morning and finally it too, went to Congress, bringing its tally up to 114 in the 230 seat assembly.

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath had sent a letter to governor Anandi Ben Patel seeking time to meet and stake claim to form the government in the state. He has claimed that his party has a majority support.


As per reports, the state BJP is yet to accept defeat. Shivraj Chauhan has reportedly called for a press conference at 10 AM today. Yesterday, state BJP President Rakesh Singh reportedly announced that Congress has not got a majority in the state and many independent MLAs are in contact with him.


Samajwadi Party had won 1 seat and BSP has won 2. 4 seats have been won by independent MLAs. As the political atmosphere gets tensed in the state over the claim to form a government and last minute support, it is most likely that the independent MLAs and SP-BSP alliance will play kingmakers in the state.

Can the BJP satisfy its online supporters? If only it were Congress

Rahul Roushan
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Can the BJP satisfy its online supporters? If only it were Congress

As I write this, BJP has lost Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and might even struggle to keep Madhya Pradesh. While Rajasthan results were expected, given that the state has been alternating between BJP and Congress for many elections, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh results were dampening for BJP, even though one can say that it’s not easy to beat anti-incumbency of 15 years.

There will be a hell lot of analysis coming our way in coming days because these results were being seem as ‘semi-final’ for the parliamentary elections due in next 5 months.

There could be analysis if BJP faltered due to agrarian issues, or was it because of PM Modi’s pet projects for rural India not fructifying, or was it because lack of government jobs, or was it because of GST, etc. – such issues can be analysed with some data, though given the kind of media we have, one can expect that there will be no data provided in articles dwelling upon these issues.

Then there would be another round of analysis where basically you don’t need data, or where reliable data may not be available, but you can still argue in a seeming logical manner – e.g. if certain caste factors were at play, or if there was infighting within the party, or candidate selections etc.

And then there is a third type of analysis, where you are free to take a flight of your fancy and peddle anything – rising intolerance, Yogi Adityanath, gau rakshaks, Vikas vs Hindutva, IT cell, and so on. This category is something we all love, and perhaps with hint of irony, this article could fall in this category itself despite my mocking tone for it.

People who are active on Twitter would have been subjected to relentless analysis of this category, but I want to focus on those that were extended by some BJP supporters or the online ‘right wing’. There were all kinds of theories offered, many of them inherently contradictory. For example:

“BJP must focus on core and cultural issues, vikas is taking the party nowhere.”

“BJP focussed too much on pappu’s gotra and such issues, it should have focused on achievements.”

“BJP is not investing in creating ecosystem, look how Congress rewards people.”

“BJP has rewarded people who are incompetent.”

“Only Ram Temple or war with Pakistan can save us now.”

“Forget rhetorical and emotional issues, show some work!”

And so on and so forth.

While we may itch to reject all of them for being mutually contradictory, the truth is that neither each one of them is absolutely correct assessment nor is anything entirely invalid. And there lies a problem of the BJP – of communicating to its own (online) supporters.

Unlike what the ‘liberals’ love to imagine and actually believe in – BJP’s support base, especially online, is far more diverse than any diversity a JNU student group can achieve. This seemingly incoherent analysis by this bunch is reflective of this fact.

What BJP has failed to do is to communicate effectively with various subsets of this bunch. This would have entailed giving customized messages to each subset. Sounds like Cambridge Analytica?

Yes, it indeed sounds like Cambridge Analytica, but this communication strategy, especially in politics, is hardly something that was invented by Cambridge Analytica. In fact, Congress has historically done it so well. They supported and encouraged crony capitalism while their rhetoric cantered around socialism, or as I had written earlier, in Bihar, they were a party of upper castes while Dalits were painted as their ‘natural voters’.

Even in this election, while in Delhi studios and for their fans in Lutyens media, Congress was fighting against obscurantist views around cow and temple, their manifesto promised gaushalas and corridor named after Lord Ram. This parallel messaging is right from the top itself where Rahul Gandhi goes on to side with supporters of Periyar who hate Brahmins and support physical attacks on Bhramins, while being a janeudhari Brahmin of dattatreya gotra.

This is a trick BJP needs to learn. How do you convince a ‘core’ voter that cultural issues are not being abandoned while also push for ‘vikas, and only vikas’ approach.

BJP’s challenge is far greater than Congress due to two reasons – the media and the intelligentsia of this country don’t beat chests over this doublespeak by the Congress, while Congress’ supporters are.. well.. slaves, who don’t question the party at all.

If the party attempts to send mixed signals, before the media, BJP’s supporters itself start questioning the party. For example, take the issue of ‘Charter of Hindu demands’ – which is being championed by a BJP MP and which is like a dream come true for a ‘core’ supporter. However, the first reaction of a supporter is – Why this drama after 4.5 years? If party is serious, why don’t they simply pass this act in parliament? Etc.

It is said that politics is often about perception, and communication is an important part of perception building. Ironically, this was the biggest strength of the party and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the 2014 general elections. Somehow this advantage faded.

There was a need to recalibrate the communication after the 2014 victory, especially when it came to communicating to party’s supporters (not party workers, to make it clear). Perhaps even the party made the same mistake about its supporters, especially online supporters, which the opponents make i.e. it took them as homogenous group. It was not. It was never one.

A one to many mode of communication was needed. I don’t really mean it as a post that should have been created, but essentially the party needed respective liaison officers or ambassadors for different groups of supporters. To keep them hopeful that they are being heard, to keep them engaged, to keep them close.

There were some attempts made e.g. to arrange a meeting of online supporters with Prime Minister Modi in 2015 itself, but that got mired in controversies precisely due to the fact that this group was not homogenous. There were accusations that there was favouritism in selecting people, that ‘opportunists’ were invited, and all kinds of accusations. Perhaps the party developed cold feet after that and they didn’t know how to proceed further. That broken link of communication has got only worse over time.

It’s not easy, and I don’t have ready-made solutions, but I am pointing out that what a common BJP supporter can reject a fellow supporter’s grievances as ‘armchair analysis’ or ‘knee jerk reaction’ is reflective of a problem of communication, which was begging attention since long.

The party has got a lot of things to do – galvanising the karyakartas, working with allies, fighting elections, running the government, and so on, and online supporters might not be a top priority for it, but this is a problem that the party shouldn’t ignore, for it doesn’t enjoy the luxury of having supporters like those of Arvind Kejriwal or Rahul Gandhi.

Here is why BJP lost elections, and of course, it was deliberate

Nupur J Sharma
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Here is why BJP lost elections, and of course, it was deliberate

The BJP seems to have been routed in 3 states in which it held the power seat until today. Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh seem to be slipping out of their hands. As soon as the eternal hope withered and the reality of loss dawned, everyone started looking for obvious reasons for the loss. Beyond reasons for the loss, the eternal hopefuls always look for an explanation. Why did BJP lose? What happened? Is there some invisible hand that we aren’t aware of? Is there some inexplicable rationale that mere mortals like us might be missing?

Here, I must agree. There certainly is a secret, invisible, grand plan owing to which BJP lost. That grand plan is called the masterstroke of masterminds like Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah.

The only logical explanation for the loss of the infallible Modi-Shah duo is that they lost these elections deliberately. There are several reasons why the masterminds of the BJP leadership decided to pliantly lose 3 crucial states.

Firstly, they reasoned that if they allow Congress to win these elections, they would take away the annoying Congress drone that goes on and on about EVMs being hacked or manipulated or stolen or some such everytime they sniffers pick up the whiff of defeat. They win, they can’t blame EVM. If they can’t blame EVM, BJP won’t have to waste time mocking Congress for its glaringly duplicitous stand. Brilliant, isn’t it?

Next, the masterminds of Modi and Shah realised that victory has been taken for granted by the cadre. And hence, they orchestrated this entire facade of the Prime Minister talking in rallies after rallies. He did so just to give his cadre the illusion that Modi’s name could get votes in the states as well, just to yank to cadre out of their delusional stupor. Just in time for 2019, that too.

Interestingly, in the process of pulling his cadre down from their delusional high, he also magically transferred that delusion to Rahul Gandhi, because he just wasn’t delusional enough. Not yet. He ensured, by this orchestrated loss, that Rahul Gandhi would feel invincible and would turn 2019 into a Modi vs Rahul fight, all the while, strengthening regional players like BSP and SP to ensure they drive a harder bargain with Congress thus weakening the Mahagathbandhan.

While waking the cadre up, strengthening his best campaigner, Rahul Gandhi, weakening the Mahagathbandhan he also ensures that the ‘suit boot ki sarkar’ tag is shirked off. After all, he knew that the markets would crash and the Industrialists he is accused of befriending by the Congress would lose money. Industrialists lose money and suddenly, Congress would find itself sans their most asinine jibe.

In the end, he probably felt sorry for Barkha, and just to ensure that she isn’t branded as political bad luck, he let the likes of Sachin Pilot, Gehlot and the rest win. After all, he is a benevolent king.

All of this certainly sounds convincing. But delusions can often be convincing too. 

The fact remains that the country hasn’t seen such brute political dominance in the history of its democratic existence and the ones who make pitiable excuses for electoral losses must stop commenting on political developments.

What BJP supporters need to realise is this – no political party ever wants to lose and least of all, a party led by the two most politically aggressive politicians the country has ever seen. Conspiracy theories may be the balm that soothes the bruised ego, but every win is a chance to serve and every loss is an opportunity to introspect and if history bears witness, that is exactly what the Modi-Shah duo must be doing right about now.

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