It in unlikely that any party using dated slogans and misfit social constructs will win this election
Soon after the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, I met a busybody attached to the highest decision-making levels of the ruling party at the Centre, at one of Delhi’s never ending chain of cocktail parties. The person did not have the smug smile of those who believe they are in active communication with power centers. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s much projected charisma had failed to produce the numbers in Uttar Pradesh. The so-called four cornered contest saw the emergence of only one centre of power. The search was on for answers. A cardinal faith of planning for the next 20 years of political power seemed under scrutiny.
This person took no time to get to the point. After having made the preliminary opening statements about how he read regularly what I wrote, he popped the question: “What do you think needs to be done to alter the ground equations in Uttar PradeshIJ” This was the first time I had heard a political creature use the phrase “ground equations”. Clearly there was a serious attempt to ‘Discover India’ once again.
I responded by saying, “Rahul must add: Singing Phag (a performing folk-art associated with Holi celebration), enjoying festivities and empathising operationally with the misfortunes of the common man etc to his social mannerisms. Dining with the reserved category does not create sufficient bandwidth”. The person almost ruefully responded: “I know. I have said the same thing. No one listens to me. Would you repeat what you just said to Rahulji, if I set up an appointmentIJ”
“Of course, I would”, I said, “It is about connecting with people in their joys and experiences in everyday lives. It cannot be episodic or statement oriented”. The winning party in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election had achieved this affinity. like many other cocktail conversations, the idea melted with the evening, and there was no follow up
Winning votes on dated slogans and misfit constructs seem unlikely. Whatever the hoardings or the electronic promotional shots may claim, it can be no body’s case that the lives of the majority of people have been changed in the last 10 years. The NDA was punished when it missed this point in 2004. ‘India Shinning’ was a slogan understood only by a small percentage of the people, most of whom never queued up to vote.
In the upcoming election, the talk of ATMs and airports is important but it does not touch the lives of most of those who toil and weep. Even the illusory breakthrough of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is no longer appealing.
Speaking of the Mahatma, on March 9, I came across a quote from him in a national daily. It said: “I bow my head in reverence to our ancestors for their sense of the beautiful in nature and for their foresight in investing beautiful manifestations of nature with a religious significance”. I suppose by the present trend of discourse of some public figures, this would qualify as a ‘communal’ statement.
Endless references to the 2002 Gujarat violence and similar themes make the people yawn. The BJP needs do little more than cash in on the importance that its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s denigrators have given him, through constant derision and accusation. It is Mr Modi’s opponents that have made him the central person of the current campaign. Mr Modi’s admirers have had the limited task of drumming up his name and the currency he has acquired, to start branding him with some credible achievements.
The truth is that even in a millennium city like Gurgaon, a speed post envelope from, say, Udaipur takes upwards of 10 days to be delivered. How many have, in between the sloganeering and advertising, bothered to look at how much things have changed at the ground levelIJ In such an atmosphere, to say that even the dispatch of cheque books will be by post, does not enforce a sense of security but only exasperation.
The endemic rampage of negative skills of the incumbents of various jobs only shows the price we are, collectively, paying for having messed up misplaced populism with much needed professionalism. Universal functional skills are necessary to keep society breathing.