What sells in politics

With reference to Shekhar Gupta’s article, “Hamara desh badal gaya hai” (July 29), when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was facing an election in 2004 during his second term as prime minister, no one thought the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be defeated despite the “Indian Shining” campaign and its good, visible impact. That means one can never take Indian voters for granted. 

So, should the BJP assume that it will come to power in 2019 and Narendra Modi again become prime minister even though the BJP has become strong in the recent past? Of course, Modi and BJP President Amit Shah are master strategists; they are working meticulously to ensure the party spreads its footprint throughout the country and the Opposition’s power gets diminished. 

I agree with the writer that voters today are smart enough to ask politicians the right questions and have expectations from them. They consider it a positive thing when politicians take a tough stand against corruption and walk the talk. People were hassled for months due to demonetisation but they still supported it. 

What Nitish Kumar did might be called defection, betrayal, opportunism or something else, but he knows what sells and what does not in the political arena of India today.

Bal Govind   Noida

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