The state elections of Bengal have reached a midway point, and the initial projections by a slew of opinion polls indicating a comfortable TMC victory with Mamata Banerjee as CM have given way to either a hung assembly or outright BJP victory.

This has led to a meltdown of Mamata's election campaign. As a sitting CM, Mamata unprecedentedly asked for votes based on religion and tried to intimidate the security forces by asking for their 'gherao,' prompting EC to step in and ban Mamata from any campaign for 24 hours. To an observer, Mamata Banerjee's campaign strategy appears to be schizophrenic. Why would Mamata's key campaign manager publicly admit that TMC's own internal surveys indicated a loss for TMC?

Is there a strategy that is delusional, disorganized, listless, or there is no strategy at all? Mamata's best plan during Singur was to garner sympathy using broken leg argument. That would have worked during the Communist era. But when BJP workers in Bengal themselves are beaten black and blue if not outrightly murdered, the plan looking for sympathy using the broken leg argument proved futile.

Her original strategy was Muslim appeasement to garner the votes backed by women voters' bulwark while dividing the rest. Muslim appeasement led to some Hindu vote consolidation, but this consolidation got an impetus when Modi visited the Jeshoreshwari and Orkandi temples in Bangladesh. The rabid reaction from the Islamists consolidated the Hindu vote across the board. The so-called mainstream but essentially Lutyens media and assorted pseudo-left-liberals danced around the reasons for violent protests in Bangladesh by calling Modi a polarizing figure. However, the point is, if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can swear in an oath with two Bibles, cannot an Indian PM visit a Hindu temple? Even in his personal capacity? If not that, what are the Islamists protesting? That a Hindu cannot pray in her own Hindu temple!

From the above point onwards, the so-called secular premise of TMC totally fell apart. The so-called secular cabal that supports any opposite pole to BJP has been assured in the silent consolidation of the minority votes and never thought that a counter-consolidation can also occur from the grassroots. So assured were they in their delusions that the so-called secular cabal termed this counter consolidation as 'Communal.'

Let's take a look at the famous Clubhouse meeting.

The meeting was attended by some of the leading news anchors and journalists. One leading independent journalist was more interested in the private breaks for bathrooms of Mamata Banerjee rather than to gain deeper insights from TMC's primary election strategist, Prashant Kishore. They did not realize that the Clubhouse meeting was public. In fact, it is alleged that one of the journalists had actually put the Clubhouse meeting on Twitter, inviting everyone. All of them immediately exited when tweets about their conversations were live-streamed and they realized that what they considered a private meeting was, in fact, a public meeting. One of the prime-time anchors was wishing for an anti-incumbency wave against PM Modi in State Assembly elections! Another was trying to control the damage for TMC later by insisting in her tweets that TMC is indeed winning and that TMC's own internal surveys showing that they are losing is being misinterpreted! The borderline comedy performance by the Lutyens media on a serious topic is already documented here. However, one wonders what happened to journalistic objectivity and integrity?

Here is what is happening. The Lutyens elites have no access into the Modi government. Before the Modi government, they would just wine and dine all the way to a PM on his aircraft Air India One. News anchors will be invited by the Indian Navy admiral for an exclusive interview. They were able to get the juiciest information out and incept narratives into the administration (Radia tapes). They were the power brokers with power flowing through their wheeling and dealing. For this kind of wheeling and dealing, one does not need skills. Just a non-scrupulous non-empathy cruel mind that is self-centered to pursue selfish goals for power and money without a conscience is sufficient.

Now to even understand what is going on in Bengal, these same elites are reduced to sit at the table where scraps of information from Prashant Kishore are thrown. This is what is happening, it appears that Prashant Kishore is the only one on the side of the so-called seculars who can explain to them why they are losing election after election. He is the person who at least tries to bring meaning to the madness with which the political parties in opposition to BJP are losing both the elections and the narrative.

Mamata has no interest in developing Bengal. There is no vision to make Bengal the economic powerhouse and a fulcrum to the Indian economic lever that it was once. Mamata is in power for Power's sake. Her best idea is to provide free food, clothes, assorted freebies, and some government jobs for the teeming masses. The government will run buses, fisheries, granaries, trains, ships, horse carts etc and some scraps will go to the common people and they will be thankful to her and vote her back again. This is also the Kejriwal AAP model.  This strategy would have worked a decade earlier. Now the teeming Indian masses do not want that. People want safety, security and opportunities. Indians are already dreaming big. Why not have hundreds of smart cities? Why not have the tallest bridges? Why not have great roads and thus opportunities for the current and the next generation to find gainful employment and better their socio-economic status?

But Mamata and her ilk are stuck in the medieval era. Feudalism is what they know best. In Bengal, for instance, they kicked out the old feudalists (Communists in Bengal) and have in turn become the new feudalists arbitrating each and everything and creating a mai-baap sarkar.

Indians do not want the feudalist mai-baap scraps. Indians have tasted success. This is the barely adult generation who take on the formidable Aussies to their own ‘Gabbatoir’ on their own turf. This is the generation that goes to Pakistan, shoots down their F-16, demands chai, and waltz back as if that is a child's play. This is the generation that has seen through the chicanery of nepo kids of bollywood and failed their movies. See the failure of the movie Saadak and the success of Uri. And this generation currently sees no leader baring Modi who can tie their aspirations together. This generation wants PariBorton.

A curious interview of Karan Thapar and Sanjay Baru promoting his new book came about in the meantime. In the interview, it appeared that Sanjay Baru was lamenting the decline of elites who talk and think English and are associated with St. Stephen or Doon college. There seemed to be a visible disappointment in Baru when he pointed out that there are no alumni from St. Stephen or Doon college in the current cabinet, and neither alumni from any college of the metro! To an astute observer, it appeared that the Lutyens elite are regretting the class barriers being broken and the rise of people who think in vernacular. The network does not shield them from the competition. Yes, the elite networks help. But now they have to contend with hungry and eager Arnabs and Roushans who think in vernacular and are in no way linked to the elites. What goes for journalism goes for all other fields including politics. And this prospect naturally scares the current elite wedded to Nehruvian secularism.

Here is why Prashant Kishores are needed. For example, when AAP won with a massive landslide for the first time in Delhi elections, ordinary folks pointed out that Congress engineered a vote shift to keep BJP out of power. It was a tactically brilliant but strategically stupid decision on behalf of Congress. Point is, with data the results were explained. Prashant Kishore does the same for various parties (Samajwadi, TMC etc). That is, he brings comprehension to their current or prospective defeat at the hustings and hopefully plan a proper response. This leads to curious dichotomies like Rahul Gandhi donning a janaeu, declaring himself a Brahmin, and abandoning Amethi to stand up for office from Kerala's minority-dominated seat!

Hence the schizophrenic reactions from parties and their supporters in Lutyens elite in opposition to Modi. There is no other sinister game other than the fact that they are running around like headless chickens and in the process may end up causing some real damage to the polity of the nation. We are seeing a transformation of the voting public aspirations and goals.

References:

1. India News Jan Ki Baat, https://www.inkhabar.com/national/india-news-jan-ki-baat-opinion-poll-bengal-tmc-bjp-mahajot-vote-percent-in-west-bengal-assembly-election-result-2021-708145
2. India TV Peoples Pulse, https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/west-bengal-opinion-poll-bjp-tmc-seats-prediction-people-pulse-c-voter-cnx-survey-latest-news-693268
3. Swarajyamag, Bengal: Today's Events Show Why EC Would Be Justified In Banning Mamata Banerjee From Campaigning Any More
4. LiveMint, https://www.livemint.com/elections/assembly-elections/ec-bans-mamata-banerjee-from-campaigning-in-any-manner-for-24-hrs-11618236588024.html
5. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56586210
6. https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/train-temples-attacked-in-bangladesh-clashes-over-pm-modis-visit-2401163
7. https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/why-did-bangladesh-witness-anti-modi-protests-45426
8. https://swarajyamag.com/politics/bright-wing-prashant-kishor-speaks-on-west-bengal-elections-on-clubhouse
9. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ndtv-exclusive-interview-with-naval-chief-admiral-rk-dhowan-full-transcript-1273797
10. Biswarup Ganguly, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, Bamboo Bridge across Stream Ichamati - Purba Para - Baduria - North 24 Parganas 2015-04-11 7260.JPG

Image provided by the author.