A K Bhattacharya: A new breed of campaigners

In the last one year or so, campaigns in elections in India have seen a significant change. This is a change that is yet to receive adequate attention from social scientists. Nor has its import been fully appreciated by the country's national political parties. What India has been witnessing in the last few elections is the emergence of groups of voluntary activists, who play a crucial role in effectively communicating the message of the political party or its key leader to the electorate using a variety of ways and media instruments. These groups work for the political party and its leader they have chosen to support. And it seems they also receive logistical and infrastructural support from the political party concerned for carrying out such campaigns.

The key difference for the voter, as a result of this new phenomenon, is that the cause of a political party and its leader is not espoused just by local volunteers or paid workers of the party, but also by these groups who have got together only for the purpose of campaigning with a belief that seems to flow from sincerity of purpose and a personal commitment to bringing about political change in the country. Their campaigning, therefore, sounds much less partisan than that of the ordinary party workers. Nor does their call to vote for the party of their choice sound like endorsements from paid party workers, who voters quickly realise are in any case paid to do that job.

Thus, one saw India Foundation, an organisation that focussed on the issues and challenges faced by the Indian polity, working tirelessly for the Bharatiya Janata Party and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the run up to the May 2014 general elections. The Foundation's work was largely restricted to holding conferences and seminars in urban and semi-urban centres to help Mr Modi communicate his economic beliefs in an environment where such an exercise would have a greater effect and credibility.

At the ground level, there was the Citizens of Accountable Governance (CAG), which helped the BJP and Mr Modi design the political campaign, often guiding the direction of its campaigning strategy in response to the evolving political equations and developments. Even the campaign of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leader, Arvind Kejriwal, benefitted from the participation of groups of professionals, who were apparently apolitical but had got together to bring about a change in India's politics through Mr Kejriwal and AAP.

And now, in the run up to the Bihar Assembly elections, there is a new organisation that has come up to champion the cause of the Janata Dal (U) of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Several members of this group, known as the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC), are also fired by the same passion for bringing about political change in Bihar and many of them have quit well-paying jobs in multinational organisations. Indeed, a few of those who were part of CAG, which campaigned for Mr Modi in May 2014, are now part of IPAC to secure victory for Mr Kumar in his fight against the BJP.

There are a few obvious factors that are common in all these initiatives and it would be instructive to list them for a better understanding of the changing dynamics of India's electoral politics.

One, most of these groups are primarily formed by professionals who earlier had little interest in organised politics at the state or national level, but now feel that they should make a difference to governance through their help to a dominant political party and its leader to help them by taking part in the campaigns before the elections.

Two, many of these groups are driven by Indians who have either gone abroad for work or are working with multinational firms or multilateral institutions. They are all hugely successful professionals, but have stayed away from the hurly-burly of politics for much of their life. Their plunge into political campaigns for a party of their choice thus shows a rare passion, drive and commitment.

Three, they all use technology to help their party and the leader to communicate their message to the voters. Because of their international exposure, they are obviously more methodical and scientific in their approach. And perhaps for this reason alone, they end up making a far bigger impact on the electorate. What makes their appeal to vote for their party and the leader more compelling is their credential that they have no personal stake in the party's victory, unlike perhaps a political party worker would have. The only reason they seem to work for a party is their belief that the party of their choice would improve governance and politics.

And yet it is not clear if this trend of new groups of professionals playing an increasingly critical role in political campaigns is an unmitigated positive for India's democracy. For one, it is not clear if these groups of professionals are so professional that their restlessness with lack of change and inexperience with the reality of India's politics and its comfort with slow change make them quickly shift their allegiances. That is perhaps why you see the same professionals who had helped the BJP's campaign in 2014 are now engaged with Nitish Kumar's campaign to defeat the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state. There are obvious concerns about such groups batting for Mr Modi in 2014 and endorsing Mr Kumar in the 2015 Bihar elections.

To be sure, political parties love such professional groups. For, they can help influence both the rural voters with their much-hyped selflessness and professional commitment. At the same time, their professional status and sophistication arising out of their western education can positively influence the urban voters. But with such fickleness already in evidence, it is not clear what adverse impact the rise of such professional groups as key campaigners of political parties will have on India's democratic processes and the electorate's faith in the system.