It’s all about the messaging

In simple terms – it’s all in the messaging and how deep down it has percolated. Narendra Modi loves the term ‘last mile connectivity’. And he has assiduously promoted that. And it’s the simple things like DBT, toilets, roads, water, housing, mobiles, and basic healthcare. If Modi has managed to take those benefits and the messaging his government have been talking about, to the last man, he has little to worry about.
I remember an election in the South during Indira’s time all of us thought she would lose, which she ended up winning. When journalists asked the people who they voted for and why, the answer was simple and uncomplicated: ‘Indramma’. It wasn’t the candidate or the party. The poor villager only identified her with the vote because she was was the face. And this was when very little of the basic services had reached the poorest villager.
In ten years, has Modi changed that? I think he has – at a frenetic pace. And he has shown time and again that he has no time or patience for slackers. It’s for the government and the party PR machinery to continue to reach out and do the rest. How well all of that counters the Congress narrative of ‘intolerance’ and ‘bigotry’ in each state and district is what will matter in the end. Because that is where the Congress and Opposition is going to hit them hard in the next 10 months. They have nothing else to take on the government with. And the government and the party need to confront that head-on.
You can sneer at his Mann ki Baat but what it has done is taken Modi’s messaging right down to the last man. He might claim it’s not political but who’s he kidding? Imagine the prime minister of the country calling up someone in a small town about debating something no one had heard of. And the whole country is listening. He has used the ubiquitous radio to reach the last man while we were squabbling on social media and thinking we were Tees Maar Khans.
I am only afraid of one thing – the MPs who owe their seat to Modi seem to have become complacent and arrogant. Not all, but there are many who believe winning their seat is his problem, not theirs. He keeps warning them that they need to work in their constituencies but how many do?
Just making a comment in favour of Modi or his policies on social media arent going to win a politician an election. For that he/she needs to roll up their sleeves and get to work.
Verbal wars on social media are also not going to win elections, whatever the Left-Liberal or the Right might think. Even they need to understand that abusing and trolling, often personal and vicious, isn’t really helping the cause.

Glad to see the new ruthless BJP. Hope it lasts.

I, for one, am glad to see the new BJP. They have to win 2024 at any cost, and to hell with social niceties. I hope this isn’t an aberration.

You can be politically correct, ethical and moral when the people on the other side display similar qualities. By now, it’s pretty clear those ranged against the BJP have no such sterling qualities.

I’m glad the BJP has finally overcome that psychological hurdle that it is not sacrificing its core political ideology, even as it bends its own rules of being a party with a difference to beat the Opposition at its game.

This Opposition that accuses the BJP constantly of being a washing machine, in effect, collectively runs the largest political laundromat in the world. And there are innumerable examples. Take Arvind Kejriwal. Since he entered politics, his political life has been a litany of broken promises. There is not one politician left who he has not accused of corruption and threatened to lock up. But has he? Even one?

And yet, for political expediency, he has hugged and shaken hands with all of them. He might wear the same shirt, but I am sure it goes to the laundry every other day, like his political beliefs. He’s the new Mr. Clean.

Then there’s Nitish Kumar, who runs his own laundry service that whitewashes his political ideology as he swings from right-wing to secular left-liberal at his convenience. Do you want me to mention the Yadav families of Bihar and UP? I don’t think so. The one in Bihar is preparing to spend some quality time in jail, again.

Look at the Communists who claim they have no religious ideology but send their atheist thoughts to the cleaners when they want to support parties that believe in a hardcore religious doctrine.

And finally, there’s the Congress. What do you say about India’s oldest political party?

They are the last people to lecture the BJP on political morality. From strong-arming a President to sign an Emergency proclamation to having another who was ready to sweep the floor for one of their kids, to have ‘committed’ judges, to have a battery of lawyers prepared to save their first family from corruption cases…the acts of malfeasance indulged in by the Congress are too many to mention here.

Its leaders can abuse right-wing parties, the RSS and its ideologues and then quickly slip into a dhoti, spread Vibhuti on their foreheads and fall at the feet of any God or Goddess before an election. The next day wearing skull caps, they can support politicians who hate cows enough to eat them and, with a straight face, say only they can ‘save’ the Minorities from the BJP.

Rahul Gandhi goes abroad and cavorts with all those actively engaged in anti-India activities. Then, even before he returns, his faithful advisors run his views and the dubious company he keeps through the party laundromat, and they all vanish from sight! And the 53-year-old Boy Wonder is back to showing his dimples.

And the latest circus to hit town is the Patriotic Democratic Alliance (PDA), who all run their private laundry services. Although, one of them suffered a setback just a day before when the workers at its dry cleaning service revolted. They’re having some managerial issues. Let’s see when they reopen under new management!

Kaam chalu aahey.