What price strategery?

Serious question: Just what is the belief that the BJP is the master of the political strategy based on? Certainly not recent activities south of the Vindhyas and in Gujarat.

Kerala was doing its thing when the RSS/BJP combine decided to stir things up in the Kannur/Kasargode region. When that particular kitchen became too hot for comfort the party apparatus pulled out its default stunt — the yatra — and ended up with the dampest of damp squibs. So much so that in order to get some media attention, Amit Shah had to transplant the Kerala yatra to New Delhi.

WTF Just Happened: Sept 23

#1. March 28: PM Narendra Modi outlines seven-point scheme to double farmers’ income. Yesterday in New Delhi: Modi asks cooperatives to get into new business streams to double farmers’ income. By 2022. Varanasi, today: Modi says his government is trying to double farmers’ income by 2022.

Back in 64 BC, the orator par excellence Marcus Tullius Cicero was contesting for the post of consul of Rome. His brother Quintus, a Senator, wrote a primer on how to fight elections, titled How To Win An Election. It is an interesting read — the recommendations of then continue to figure in the playbook of today. One such tip, which should be familiar to anyone who has followed any election, anywhere, runs:

Promise everything to everybody.

Back in 2014, Modi in course of his election campaign told farmers that the minimum support price formula would be rewritten — “the entire cost of production, plus 50%”. This was in line with the MS Swamination Commission’s recommendations made during the UPA regime.

Is this blasphemy?

Wasn’t MS Dhoni, among others, issued with a non-bailable warrant for offending Hindu sentiments thusly?:

`Goddess’ #Jayalalithaa seen in hoardings in #Madurai on the #Amma of all birthdays. From @Akshayanath #UpSouth pic.twitter.com/AtdhbTO8sS

— T S Sudhir (@Iamtssudhir) February 24, 2016

But then this is Amma — the Queen of Bad Taste. Whose photos appear on relief materials when Chennai is flooded. And next to the coffin of a slain soldier.