Delhi Results: Kejriwal’s Art And Science Lesson In Taking On BJP

Is politics an art or science? It’s a vexed question that, I reckon, Plato must have struggled with in his time. While I am not an Athenian philosopher, I would wager that politics is a cross between the art of symbolism and the science of electoral arithmetic. If a politician can dexterously, even perilously, strike a balance between symbolism and arithmetic, that is between the art and science, s/he can win power and cement the ideological base.

Arvind Kejriwal: Canny Politician Or Soft Communalist?

Now coming to the big political event of this week. I disagree with people who are castigating “superman” Arvind Kejriwal for “contaminating” his astounding victory with a dash of soft communalism. They cite his silence on the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the fact that he steered clear of Shaheen Bagh or JNU or Jamia where atrocities were committed on innocent protesters, and, heavens, because he read the Hanuman Chalisa, thereby wearing his religion on his sleeve!

So, What Is The Art Of Symbolism In Politics?

It’s those actions that create an emotional ether of instant attraction. For example, Kejriwal’s muffler or Modi’s ethnic turbans. Or the bow and arrow that every prime minister of India wields on Dussehra to slay Ravana’s giant cut-out. Or Pandit Nehru, sticking a resplendent rose in his achkan buttonhole, surrounded by giggling kids on his birthday. Or Indira Gandhi riding an elephant through a swollen river to reach the devastated Dalit village of Belchi. Or Modi holding hands with Trump and doing a victory lap in a jam-packed Texas stadium. Or Rajiv Gandhi feeling at home in a hi-tech simulator. Or Vajpayee reading poetry, passionately, at a kavi sammelan in Lucknow. Or VP Singh riding a bicycle in the sweltering summer to win the Allahabad by-election in 1988. Or Rajnath Singh cracking a coconut on the first Jaguar fighter plane. Or Rahul Gandhi wearing a grey tee and blue jeans for a bevy of adoring Chennai students. Or Modi meditating in a cave in Kedarnath.

And What Is The Science Of Arithmetic In Politics?

If all these are examples of intangible symbolism, what is the science of electoral arithmetic? It’s the creation of social coalitions, via political or economic inducements, that become devoted ‘vote banks’ of ‘the leader’. I know ‘vote bank’ is a much-derided phrase, but honestly, all politics is about creating coalitions of followers whose self-interest coincides with yours. There is no shame in it, nothing to get defensive about.

It’s the political version of the truism that ‘if I scratch your back, you will scratch mine’:

• When Indira Gandhi abolished privy purses and nationalised banks in the late 1960s, she created a horde of young admirers who were chafing at the astonishing inequality of wealth between rich and privileged capitalists and common, under-employed Indians. She won a resounding mandate on her garibi hatao (remove poverty) slogan in 1971.

• When Manmohan Singh risked his office to close the nuclear deal with America in 2008, he was igniting the aspirations of young Indians excited to see their country at the global high table. With the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, he caught the imagination of poor, seasonally employed villagers. No wonder he got re-elected in 2009 with a sweeping victory in urban and rural India; he also won with the highest accretion in any incumbent’s mandate.

• When Prime Minister Modi destroyed terror camps in Balakot with high precision missiles, abolished Article 370 that many saw as giving a discriminatory special status to Kashmir, got his Attorney General to convince the Supreme Court to allow the construction of a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and cleared the rites of passage for ‘persecuted non-Muslims’ from three Islamic neighbours, he brokered a powerful coalition of voters wedded to the trishul of majoritarian Hindu nationalism. This constituency saw his actions as correcting or avenging the wrongs of history. No wonder he continues to enjoy approval ratings of nearly 70 percent after six years in office, flying in the face of a weak economy and record unemployment.

Did Arvind Kejriwal Cross A Lakshman Rekha?

But die-hard, uncompromising secularists are a tad dissatisfied. If he had revved up such an unbeatable combination of voters, why did he need to play the ‘soft Hindutva’ card? Why did he need to ‘tar’ his victory with this ‘compromise’? In other words, why did he try to ‘seduce’ voters with the art of symbolism when he had ‘killed’ the science of arithmetic?

It’s what I said in the beginning. A good, effective politician must be allowed to create a delicate balance between the art-symbolism and science-arithmetic of politics, if s/he must be victorious within a desired ideological spectrum. In this case, the forces of communal hate and violence had to be vanquished; those advocating peace and religious equality had to win. And if the ultimate outcome was delivered within acceptable boundaries of ideological compromise, well, welcome to the world of realpolitik!

Lage raho (go for it) Kejriwal!

Raghav Bahl is the co-founder and chairman of Quintillion Media, including BloombergQuint. He is the author of three books, viz ‘Superpower?: The Amazing Race Between China’s Hare and India’s Tortoise’, ‘Super Economies: America, India, China & The Future Of The World’, and ‘Super Century: What India Must Do to Rise by 2050’.