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The received wisdom of our time is that elections are a matter of strategy, particularly the variant of the game that has clever people doing delicate analysis far removed from the heat and dust of India to throw up a master plan that will decimate the Opposition. Number crunching, resource planning, candidate pick and issues to be highlighted, not to speak of election advertising and social media analytics -- all of these are then the vital ingredients that determine the course of electoral battles. Further, there are special people who do this very well and can stitch together winning strategies and are then wooed by various political parties. One of them is Prashant Kishor, and one wonders what he thinks when a host of media organisations refer to him as the “political strategist” who played a crucial role in Narendra Modi bagging an absolute majority in the 2014 general elections. The very idea is fanciful but it sticks, so much so that it is now the calling card of Prashant Kishor, whether he likes it or not. In a vast effort like an Indian general election, inputs, organisation and events like the ones Kishor planned and helped execute are important ingredients but to cast them as the most important (or even one of the more significant parts) of scripting an electoral victory is relying too much on tools that have a chequered history.
One of the leading experts spoken of is Prashant Kishor, and one wonders what he thinks when a host of media organisations refer to him as the “political strategist” who played a crucial role in Narendra Modi bagging an absolute majority in the 2014 general elections. The very idea is fanciful but it sticks...
As the 2019 battle nears, there are a host of organisations and political leaders who are either planning to or have already begun to work with elaborate budgets to set up “listening posts”, analyse the mood, do dip stick surveys and script responses based on what people are doing on social media. One Union minister (and there will be more) apparently has a consultant team working out of his home to offer daily analysis of what has appeared, making sense of that material and building strategies to enter the conversation and to mould it to the desired direction. This is not to speak of the ongoing analysis at the level of the political parties (both the BJP and the Congress) that apparently informs their responses to the unfolding of events. The ones playing the games are said to have a head start, and those individual leaders who do not might then be looking to clamber on and get on the with the backroom journey before it’s too late.
In this light, it is not surprising that the decision of Prashant Kishor to join the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) is the subject matter of headlines. There is intricate analysis on how Kishor has come the full circle – from the BJP to the Congress and back to the fold of the BJP ...er the JD(U) – and on what this means for the political battle and which side will have the benefit of his inputs. This of course comes just a few days after he was invited to a leadership summit at the Indian School of Business, ISB, where he reportedly told the audience that he would not be joining any political party for the 2019 polls, and that he would be returning to the grassroots to “work with the people”. His exact words last week at ISB, as reported are as follows: "There will be speculation... the media speculates all the time, I have lived with this for the last six years. Today media is speculating that because I have chosen to speak publicly for the first time, there must be a reason. I can tell you the media will be wrong again.... I am telling you I have worked with big leaders enough, I want to work with people at the grassroots now...."
The problem is not that he jumped sides or did strategy. The problem is with a system and with the entire ethos that appears to suggest that there is a clever person out there who can do the analysis and get in the numbers. This makes the search or hunt for such a person all the more urgent, and more so the need to latch on to the person who may have got the chance to wear that label.
From the way he has moved sides to the ambiguous statements he has offered and now to the decision to join the JD(U) – Kishor shows the hallmarks of an overly pragmatic politician not particularly seeped in any ideology or stand or for that matter cause or purpose. He now joins a host of other politicians who might fit that description, and he must, as all of them do, try his prowess and skills at the altar of the people and seek their verdict. He has, however, given himself a head start. All of this is fine. The problem is not that he jumped sides or did strategy. The problem is with a system and with the entire ethos that appears to suggest that there is a clever person out there who can do the analysis and get in the numbers. This makes the search or hunt for such a person all the more urgent, and more so the need to latch on to the person who may have got the chance to wear that label. This is the idea of elections that is far removed from what elections in India actually are (and of course what they are meant to be). It is the desperate search for the magic pill that will get votes, unmindful of the simple fact that such a formula does not exist, cannot exist and hopefully shall not exist in the vast, complex, thriving, alive and bubbling ocean that is the Indian electorate. This ocean is full of intelligent life and it is known to see through the clever ones though it often has the onerous task of choosing between two bad options. Further, the problems and issues of the people of India are not the kind of problems and issues that marketing geniuses may come across when speaking to a diverse consumer segment, so a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) cannot do what a political leader is called upon to do or can achieve.
The idea that one person (who is usually younger than the ago-old politicians who are in the fray, or a technocrat with labels like IIT or one who has worked in some global capacity), can bring in solutions when the problem is dealing with the aspirations of the people of India is preposterous. This person can be useful if used to build eclectic teams. The plan can help bring in a diversity of ideas, open up new platforms to reach out to the youth, and become one of many inputs that will be required. Anything beyond this shows that the direction itself is wrong.
The idea that one person (who is usually younger than the ago-old politicians who are in the fray, or a technocrat with labels like IIT or one who has worked in some global capacity), can bring in solutions when the problem is dealing with the aspirations of the people of India is preposterous.
Prashant Kishor is also known for groups and committees like the “Indian Political Action Committee”. This is in the mould of the PACs set up during the US elections, which go on a spending spree and are used to support one of the two candidates. These are the committees which did much to malign Obama during his elections and the tools that were used to discredit John McCain in the Republican primaries. Take the example of the “Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain”, a PAC that made controversial allegations against John McCain concerning his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. McCain was called an agent of the Vietnamese and even accused of collaborating with the enemy – astounding lies that were a part of the US campaign. If this is what PACs can bring to the Indian election scene, India is better off without them, and without the strategising that the modern day strategists are supposed to bring in.