What went wrong? Important Lessons from the Assembly Election 2018
What went wrong?
Important Lessons from the Assembly Election 2018
By:
Vijay
Sardana
Disclaimer: Views are
personal
Twitter : @vijaysardana
Feel free to share
Twitter : @vijaysardana
Feel free to share
I am fortunate that I travel a lot and get
chance to interact
with all sections of society across the cities and societies from small farmers to power centers in global forums. Interaction
gives a lot of insight about how and what they think and reason their-off.
I wrote my learning after every election. Let me continue to share the same. For
your benefit, you may search the links of all of them on the same blog.
Now,
the biggest question is why BJP lost the election
in all 5 states?
Imagine a party which is power at center with full majority, dominating both houses of parliament, managing almost 20 states
managing RBI, CBI and ED, offices in every district of India, most important having
a solid backing of largest cadre based network of RSS and most effective orator
in the political system today, managing and controlling all source of
communication and media channels, getting largest corporate funding among all
the political parties in the country, tight grip of bureaucracy, polling crowd
in political rally and NRI rallies in abroad and no meaningful political opposition,
with all this (nothing can be better than this for any political leader) if the
same party under the same leadership lose elections in all the 5 states, this
definitely says something great about democratic values and political maturity
of illiterate people suffering from unemployment, poverty, and hunger.
It is the high time all thinkers and planners of this country, those who
claim they understand the political pulse
of India and understand what India needs must go back to basics and start
unlearning about India and people of India
and must take a refreshers course to learn what India thinks and expects from
the political leaders.
May political experts comment, it is anti-incumbency after 15 years. The question
is, are people fed-up with the decent work done by the ruling party and leaders? Or people
are fed-up with the faces of political leaders
ruling the government?
What is anti-incumbency – let us go deeper into it.
In my view, a few messages are clear, which I observed during my visits to these states in the last few months and weeks, and during my interactions with local people in various walks
of life.
Let me share what I understood from what
people were saying:
1.
People want to see tangible results on the ground,
not any assurances
and hope from anyone.
2.
People want accountability of the present
rulers and not about what was the mistake
done in the history of India and who did what in the last 70 years.
3.
They want
the result from people those who were
voted to power to deliver results and not excuses. Leaders must display report
card of their performance which people can correlate
in their life. If soil health card is made and crop insurance is done, but
income has not improved, it has no meaning to them. If MSP is announced but at
the time of sale of the crop, farmers get
less price, this sends negative message.
4.
People want the positive message to feel happy
and want hope in life when they go back home, they are not keen to carry
a negative criticism of opposition. This doesn’t add any value to their
life.
5.
People want to know your plan and agenda
not what others are doing wrong. Without
any tangible plan for them, they have no
reason to vote.
6.
Political leaders mainly in power
generally surrounded by sycophants and get only filtered information. This only colours
their own thinking but also frustrate
their own supporters because they lose access to
communication to power centers. They feel
demotivated and demoralized if they are side-lined by the same people when they
came to power. This is sending a negative
message throughout the organisation
mainly cadre.
7.
When leaders come to power they assume
that cadre and their followers will remain committed to them even if they don’t
care for grass root workers. This is a big mistake. The fact is cadre want they
should also feel empowered not neglected.
8.
Too much exposure in media also brings staleness and fatigue. Bollywood or
politics both must be careful about this.
9.
Lack of desire to build the second
line also kills the enthusiasm in
aspiring leaders and they only do the minimum to remain relevant. If the leader is
not keen to share the credit for success with honesty (not just lip service) this kill the spirit of winning in
the organisation.
10. Imposing
leaders from the outside and ignoring the
local leaders for power send a message of hopelessness. This takes away the enthusiasm from local leadership because they
see no hope for themselves. If local leaders’ leader has no hope to become Chief
Minister, will he work hard to get the favorable results?
11. Once
people are getting what they want in daily life, then they are keen to have a lecture on global politics and trade issues, not before that.
12. Corruption
is a critical issue if people don’t face any corrupt department or officer in their
daily life and if people trust in the political
system. When people feel all political parties and systems are corrupt, the lecture on corruption makes no sense. Definitely it is not an election agenda even in present government, because suffering of common man due to corruption continues.
13. Nowadays people don’t change their mind so easily once they form their mind to vote for a
particulate party. The outcome of the
assembly election was visible about 6 months in advance. This will impact
the 2019 elects as well.
14. Once
the credibility of leadership comes under a question
mark, every announcement made by leaders consider as a political
gimmick. Every negative or positive incidence is considered as a political ploy
and people detach from those activities or incidences.
15. Emotional issues are important but they also follow the “Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs”. Unfortunately, political leaders start in the reverse
direction and ends-up making a mess of their own agenda. Political parties must
understand these things when they plan their manifesto.
17. According to my experience with electronic and print media, most spokespersons and experts talk the facts only off the camera, not on the camera. In public, people speak what is politically and socially acceptable on that day. This sends wrong message to public outside and leaders. Leaders must keep their communication channel open to get uninterrupted and honest signals about the ground reality. This communication problem is very common in business and politics, that is very often corrective action is not visible on time and government and business fail.
Hopefully before 2019 general elections, we may see some more developments. Please note, core voters constituency remains intact, but floating votes decide which way the election outcome will emerge. It will be important to see what action will be taken in coming days to galvanize the support from floating votes.
Hopefully before 2019 general elections, we may see some more developments. Please note, core voters constituency remains intact, but floating votes decide which way the election outcome will emerge. It will be important to see what action will be taken in coming days to galvanize the support from floating votes.
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