Abhay Kumar Dubey’s column – Three examples of the strategy working behind politics | अभय कुमार दुबे का कॉलम: राजनीति के पीछे काम कर रही रणनीति के तीन उदाहरण

Abhay Kumar Dubey, Professor at Ambedkar University, Delhi

Politics is successful only when an efficient strategy is made. But we do not seriously consider the strategic aspects of politics. In the media he is simply called ‘Master Stroke’. But a ‘master stroke’ can only be a clever move, a strategy is made up of many master strokes.

Demonetization in 2016 was a step which had its own economic-social-psychological-political-organizational dimensions. Their objective was immediate as well as far-reaching. The immediate goal of removing from the discussion the clouds of doubt that had loomed over the BJP leadership due to the defeat in two assembly elections (Delhi and Bihar) was achieved through the painful chaos created by demonetization.

Then Prime Minister Modi had shown himself close to the poor by sharpening the class divide between rich and poor in the society. It also gave permanent birth to a completely new cashless aspect of economic exchange. But today Modi does not talk about demonetization because he no longer needs it. What demonetization was supposed to do has been done.

Arvind Kejriwal has set in motion a similar all-round strategy by resigning from the post of Chief Minister as soon as he came out of jail. Like Modi, he too has a sophisticated strategic mind. The reason behind resigning is the three-pronged goal of radical renewal of his image, the image of the party and the image of the Delhi government.

All three of these images had become obsolete over the last 12 years. On top of that, a planned effort was being made to turn this old thing into a bad smell through the intensive campaign of corruption allegations and arrests being run by the BJP and the Central Government for the last one and a half years.

It was necessary to do something new and unexpected. Kejriwal not only wants to change the situation but also wants to give a second line of capable leadership to his young and growing party, limited to the leadership of two individuals (Kejriwal and Sisodia).

If Arvind’s objective succeeds, then the majority of voters supporting him will once again see the same ‘activist’ leader who had entered politics promising to break new ground. BJP is worried about his ‘activist’ revival and is trying to guess what its impact will be.

Kejriwal knows that the launching pad of his politics is Delhi, even though its assembly has been reduced to a municipality. They are not ready to bear the loss of winning less than Delhi Ka Dangal 2015 and 2019. That is why he did not even take the name of Haryana in his resignation speech, even though he is from Haryana and his party is fighting on every seat there. His focus is on Delhi and will remain so for now.

There is another strategy which has been put into motion recently. At its center is the controversy over mixing animal fat in the laddus of Mahaprasadam in Tirupati. The operation of this multifaceted strategy is in the hands of not one but two parties. BJP and TDP: Both are in NDA.

The goals are also dual. TDP wants its main rival Jagan Mohan Reddy (who is Christian by religion) to be accused of being anti-Hindu in some way or the other. Chandrababu Naidu had made this effort for ten years against Jagan’s father Rajashekhar Reddy, but was not successful. So is this entire episode a political ploy?

The thing to note is that the country’s largest forensic laboratory run by the central government is in Hyderabad, but Naidu got the samples of laddus tested from a laboratory in Gujarat. There is no mention of this adulteration in the main part of the investigation report.

The file with it is in the ‘annexure’, but the report does not tell what is the amount of adulteration. This report had reached Naidu in mid-July. Obviously, after some thinking, he first put it on hold and then released it on September 19.

BJP is interested in this because after losing the majority at the Centre, it is looking for a trigger point through which it would get a chance to sharpen the polarization and take it to a new stage. He had also tried to find this in the atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh, but could not find it.

We do not seriously consider the strategic aspects of politics. In the media he is simply called ‘Master Stroke’. Whereas a good strategy can only be a combination of many ‘master strokes’. (These are the author’s own views)