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The school of thought that supports change to the process of political thinking has cringed at the seesawing between extremes. Nationalism and too left-leaning views, though perhaps temporarily the right-fit for the times, have undone much of the continuous good work of laying brick after brick. And if one had run out of new ideas, the Indian National Congress has taken a novel step. In the previous Indian elections, Congress were virtually swept out of parliament in the face of a Narendra Modi magic that transcended saffronisation and reflected the view of a public that was utterly fed up with a party that hadn't just paled and shrivelled-up but one that had no answer or new ideas on offer. With about a year to go for the next call on the electorate and pretty dismal showing in state hustings, the Congress is approaching matters afresh.
Congress has used, among other platforms, an advertisement in Linked-In seeking a strategist who will, in essence, use professional tools and processes to test the pulse of voters and then inform the communication platforms to reach out to them. Last time round the PR (public relations) firm in charge of Bharatia Janata Party's (BJP) electioneering campaign was accredited with success though Mr. Amit Shah's mentoring was as big, if not a bigger, factor. Mr. Barrack Obama was essentially the first to fully leverage social media, Awami League embraced it well in Bangladesh. But in essence, it has been PR firms that decided not just which speech to use but also the dress code and even hair-styles, ranging back to the days of Sir Edward Heath's successful run.
Elections are obviously more than strategies and campaigns. The economy, the vox populi, issues and events stirring public conscience and feeling are as important. Vote banks count for little as the numbers of undecided and new voters increase in numbers. With the second largest population of the world, some debate the largest, Indian politicians have a major task in sifting through the maze of expectations, regional issues and overall demographic realities.
Whoever is appointed will have an extensive travel schedule that will take him or her to remote areas and impressive cities with groups of impoverished that have their own views of what really counts. The red-faced analysts cowering in the wake of some spectacular prediction failures will want to treat the next Indian election with kid-gloves. This is an experiment of sorts in that the Strategy Function hasn't really stamped its impact on a top business organisations and isn't really time-tested. It's new territory for politicians, not least for India. Congress leaders, licking their wounds and bedevilled by desertions, can be forgiven for biting their finger nails.