POLITICS
Rahul Yatra: Congress’s political strategy faces too many constraints for a successful execution
Social justice for vulnerable groups is the ideological plank and a focus on tribal, OBC and Dalit voters is the electoral strategy underpinning the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Pulling it off for the 2024 Lok Sabha election looks a tall order
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Why 2024 is now close to a done deal
Analogies with 2003-04 when BJP lost in 2004 after sweeping the 2003 polls are flawed. Unlike in 2003, BJP put up its national leadership and its centralised ideological agenda for a popular referendum in the three Hindi heartland assembly polls, and there is much reason to believe that a similar strategy might work similarly well in the national elections
POLITICS
NDA’s narrative and ‘alliances’ are ready. Opposition’s challenge is to catch up
The Brand Modi narrative towers over BJP and NDA, so no alternative “coalition narrative” is possible. NDA parties are happy to ride on PM Modi’s coattails while BJP needs them to reach out to caste blocs. An agenda having national appeal while dodging both the “opportunistic alliance” taint and the leadership question is the Opposition camp’s holy grail
POLITICS
Why victory in every election is important for the post-2014 BJP
Every victory helps concentrate power with the BJP national leadership, build a formidable election machinery, raise further PM Modi’s charismatic appeal, renew his political legitimacy over critics and opposition leaders, and retain the support of the powerful RSS “sangathan”
BUSINESS
Politics and dirty tricks departments are old bedfellows. But Generative AI meeting WhatsApp will spawn a scary new deepfake era
Deepfakes will proliferate with generative AI tools becoming easily accessible. Political parties can be trusted to use deepfakes against each other given the potential for big electoral gains, low electoral costs, and plausible deniability. Election Commission’s inability to police the digital ecosystem will aggravate the deepfake menace
BUSINESS
Newly anointed national party AAP may well have peaked with its USPs losing steam rapidly
The Aam Aadmi Party is in dire straits with its anti-corruption halo busted, the “Delhi model” struggling to deliver results in Punjab, and an ideologically sharper Rahul Gandhi regaining ground for the Congress through the Bharat Jodo Yatra and consistent positioning against crony capitalism
