To all those who kindly mailed to ask why I had gone AWOL and if all was well, thanks — didn’t realize that in these days of saturated surround-sound commentary, one voice among many would be missed.
My apologies for the silence — a hectic few days of necessary travel, mostly in areas with dodgy net connections, and then a bad bout of hay fever as soon as I got back home, kept me off the net.
Still recovering — this is the first I have been online in about two weeks, but I will hopefully be fitter, and more able to resume normal service, this coming week (which, as it turns out, begins with the election results in Gujarat — and Himachal, of course, but mainly Gujarat.)
See you sometime tomorrow; until then, be well all.
5 comments
“one voice among many would be missed”
You are not just one voice. You are OUR voice. Sorely missed!
Thank you, Darshak. No pressure, then. (Sorry about the absence — I never thought what felt like a simple head cold and mild fever would turn out to be so debilitating)
Dear Sir,
We missed you…
Get well soon…
A thought…
Even if Mani Shankar Iyer had not given him the metaphorical slog over free hit, it was a given that the PM would have created/engimeered one.
It is that straight forward.
Why are we so surprised?
I suspect the Mani Shankar Iyer comment is being given way more importance as a game-changer than it deserves. This election was won and lost on other factors — most importantly, the organized ground game of the BJP as contrasted with the top-down methods of the Congress. (For a proof point, check out the number of close contests — with winning margins under 2000 — that the Congress lost. A back of the envelope calculation indicates there were at least 12 of those; all collectively indicating that the opposition’s main failure was in its inability to get the vote out with anything approaching the efficiency of the BJP/RSS machinery).
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your response.
My understanding is that the Gujarat’s own son, as a victim against the elite, with a verbal Molotov cocktail laced with asmita, moved voters and votes back to the BJP, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
The ground game helped, certainly. But post the CM becoming PM, the political landscape in Gujarat has changed dramatically.
Please understand, Gujarat is BJP’s enduring citadel. BJP is the default option across the state,for voters.
Thus,the opinion, exit pollsters have hardly understood the ground reality.
Go deeper, there is a huge story waiting to be told.
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