Blockbuster PK, and desi politics

So the story goesmdashsoon as hersquod succeeded as a political strategist between 2012 and mid 2014 for the PM aspirant Narendra Modi Prashant Kishor nee Pandey asked the BJP president Amit Shah ldquoAfter May whatrdquo After May Shah said not missing a beat ldquoJunerdquoItrsquos an assertion that Kishor 44 has repeatedly denied Suggesting he and Modi parted ways because of a broken promise of establishing a corporate like thinktanksetup operating within the PMOmdashblueprint of which was mapped with help of management consultants Accenture and McKinsey PM Modi had other matters to take care of upon his appointment Kishor got impatient and leftAs a rule Kishor also believes only a person ldquounder constitutional oathrdquo must directly interfere in the working of government Which of course doesnrsquot match with his idea of parallel consultants reporting to the PMThe point I guess was to laterally induct into the government even if temporarily the most accomplished domain experts in place of a highly generalist permanent Indian civil service that lords over decisionmaking in bureaucratic IndiaHe believes for a reason almost all major statesponsored lsquorevolutionsrsquo in postindependent Indiamdashtelecom Sam Pitroda space Vikram Sarabhai missile programme APJ Abdul Kalam lsquogreen revolutionrsquo MS Swaminathan lsquowhite revolutionrsquo Verghese Kurien Aadhaar Nandan Nilekanimdashhave been led by specialistslateral entrants after allAs for entering electoral politics for too long Indiarsquos educated upper class has believed itrsquos something other people namely lsquopoliticiansrsquo do Only 78 per cent of parliamentarians Kishor reckons are under 40 it was about 23 per cent in the first1952 Lok Sabha Of which anyway about 70 per cent come from lsquopolitical familiesrsquo Around 17 per cent MPs are over 70mdashthat number was negligible around 1 per cent in the first three Lok Sabhas Fruits of labour appear too farAlso I suspect you can rise in electoral politics only if squarely committed to caste or religionbased parties if not wholly smitten by an ideology unless serving in a topheavy GOP like Congress that for decades has attempted to be everything to everyoneFulltime politics seems a profession fraught with umpteen risks so why bother if you have other options parents would say Same with popular artsentertainment Therefore professional dynasties with intergenerational experience plus savings have traditionally prospered in both leaving less room for fresh air Emergence of Aam Aadmi Party 2012 in the halfstate of Delhi and neighbouring Punjab is an exception that proves the ruleKishorrsquos consultancy firm Irsquom told temporarily hires a couple of thousand interested minds some of them from Indiarsquos best colleges IITs etc before elections to become part of the political process without permanently aligning with a party Kishor is the sole face of his firmmdashwe havenrsquot heard of no twothree noLikewise his campaigns are based around personality cults with onground programmes called ldquomodulesrdquo specific policy promises socialmedia polemic datacrunching to gauge public mood and occasional negative planks lsquooutsiderrsquo lsquoinsiderrsquo for a leader both in Bengal and Bihar to emotively hook the potential voterHe politically identifies himself as ldquoleft of centrerdquo which I guess economically is pretty much all desi parties Hersquos worked closely hence with the full spectrum of Indiarsquos electoral alphabet soup BJP INC JDU DMK TMC YSRhellip Clearly rival politicians as a class are hardly as adversarial in real life as they pretend in publicThat Kishor has an enviable electoral success rate often against heavy odds tells you more about Indiarsquos voter than its political parties And that with all things equal if you put your heart and head to it you can chart a common route to the topmdashonly no situations vacant So you do it for established othersAs has Kishor whorsquos a Biharborn initially Patna Science College dropout son of a doctor In 2011 he published a paper on malnutrition in Indiarsquos highest income statesmdashGujarat ranking the lowest on itmdashsitting in Chad in northcentral Africa where he was a bureaucrat for the UNModi then Gujarat CM had a word with him In 2012 he moved in to the CMrsquos home ostensibly working on health policy then writing speeches for Modi heading a newly formed digital divisionSince 2014 hersquos switched from black Tshirt jeans consultant casual to white kurtapajama politician uniform joining Nitish Kumarrsquos JDU briefly then back to black tees and announcing his retirement from consultancy yet againIn less than a decade pollsters lsquopunditsrsquo and journalists look up to him as a phenomenon of sorts Which is spectacular only when you consider a profession dominated by either lsquograssrootrsquo geriatrics with command over a loyal cadre their chamchas or their progeny with a fair and natural goldpass into this complex universeAn anomaly obviously piques public interest Usually backroom bosses are faceless Kishor made his first public appearance at Hyderabadrsquos ISB only in 2018 Bingeing over several hours of his interviews online you find him smartly simplifying realities of Indiarsquos politics with plainspeak only never getting personal Thatrsquos an assetExcept that rare moment when coaxed to point out Modirsquos one personality flaw he says ldquonot benevolentrdquo enough Shah more recently he called an ldquooverrated electionpolitical managerrdquo Woah Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper