Advani for Change or Change for Advani?

Barrack Obama's election to the office of US president would have got many amongst Indian politicians thinking on what worked in the US and can some lessons learnt be used for the upcoming general elections in India. One factor that stood out was that it was a positive vote for "change" and the use of "youth" as a proxy to bring about that "change". India with its umpteen problems is in as much need of change as the US.

India's grand old party Congress has woken up to the changing demographic profile and resultant change in the mood of the nation and announced that ~30% of its tickets will go to youth. In Rahul Gandhi, it also has a young leader of national appeal, though it may just fall short of projecting it as their PM candidate this time atleast.

On the other hand, NDA's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani at 80 does not intuitively represent change but he is pulling all stops to make the point that he indeed does. Lets take a step back and see where LK Advani is coming from and what this election means for him.

Through his life, he has either played a deputy to or has swapped positions with Atalji and now after Atalji's retirement, at 80, this is probably his only and the final shot at the top post. To my mind, he along with Atalji have had the most successful political careers in today's India because they led the BJP through its lifecycle making a humble start in 1984 when it just won 2 seats in Loksabha to becoming the largest party in the house in 1996 by winning 161 seats. Most successful congressman have either been products of Gandhi dynasty or have enjoyed its blessings to secure the top jobs. Politicians from all other parties have failed to create national level political platforms and hence dont quite pass muster.

LK Advani came from a modest apolitical background and has risen through the ranks first in RSS and then built the BJP from scratch. If India today has two alternatives to choose from at the national level, the credit largely goes to Advani and Atalji else India would have always been a Congress Vs the rest kind of non-ideal political battleground. Despite not being a great orator and not enjoying a following like Atalji, to my belief he has been more instrumental in BJP's rise especially by orchestrating the Ram Rath Yatra in 1990s which was a watershed event for the BJP and Indian polictics. In tune with prevailing times and moods, he has continuously devised means and methods of mass mobilisation like yatras (eg Swarna Jayanti, Bharat Suraksha etc), coined and gave currency to terms like psedu secularism, Indian shining, Hindutva etc.

To bolster his chances of becoming the PM, he is aware he will have to shed his perceived dubious image on securism (Babri, Gujarat), national security (Kandhar) etc. In a bid to push the envelope and become a truly pan-India leader, he even risked his position in the Parivar by making unacceptable utterances on Jinnah in Pakistan. For a while, he became the Wrong man in the Right (winged) party while trying to emulate Atalji's image of Right man in the Wrong party.

While, it will be harsh to say he has taken a leaf from Obama's book on campaign given his own exemplary credentials on electoral tactics, there are parallels in the the campaigns of inarguably now the world's most powerful person and arguably the modern India's most successful policitian. The parallels are also attributed to the similiarites between the two of the world's largest democracies

1. Both the nations take pride in being technology champions of sorts - Advani has put up a very informative website http://www.lkadvani.in/ like Obama's http://www.barackobama.com/. Advani's campaign like Obama''s intends to use web and technology to the hilt to influence the tech-savvy youth and opinion makers. Glimpses of his campaign can be seen on facebook, orkut, youtube and footage will only increase as we approach the D-day.
   



2. While being a family man is a given in India for anyone who wants to make it big in social / political scene, in the US showcasing your family orientedness is a big resume plus - Obama drove home the point hard through his speeches and appearances. Advani has used his family-man image smartly and sparringly - to his credit no other family member appears to be involved in active politics or have taken benefit of Advani's stature, unlike most other politicians in the country.
   



3. While Advani needed to fix his image given his doubtful credentials on several issues to have a mass appeal like Atalji, Obama wanted to create an image from scratch as he was not much heard of before. Both used autobiographies as a medium to achieve their objectives as that is the most potent weapon to influence the country's large intellegentsia / media who in turn can shape the mass opinion. Advani timed his book "My Country My Life" release to suit the general elections timing the way Obama did with his release "The Audacity of Hope".
   



4. Both India and US are celebrity crazy nations and to have them on your side can help you in your cause in a big way. Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Warren Buffet et al came out in the open support of Obama and the total celebrity support outnumbered that of McCain by far. While Advani may not enjoy a similiar level of celebrity support he has tried to make several right connections with the influential - a. Aamir Khan arranged a special screening of TZP for Advani and his family and then Aamir used Advani's softer side / tears for TZP's promotion, b. Big B finds a special mention on his website. Big B and Ash also attended his book release function in Mumbai, c. Country's top 15 industrialists including the Ambani brothers were invited to his residence to discuss the country's economic outlook, d. Despite being hard on the Saffron party in the past, NDTV awarded LK Advani the "Lifetime achievement award for 2008" in a celebrity studded function.
   



5. Both nations have huge racial, color, ethnic and religious diversities and both Obama and Advani have tried to strike the right chords with the fence-sitters and non-core contituencies. Obama did well to woo fair portion of Hispanic, Asians and white votes esp youth in addition to the overwhelming support from Afro-Americans, heloed by a specific strategy to address concerns of each of the group. Advani is letting the RSS / Rajnath / Modi do the talking to retain core constituencies and is wooing non-core votes like Muslims, Christians by subtle messaging - urdu section on his website, focus on his love for and early days in Karachi and convent school background.
   



6. Democratic principles are ingrained in physche of both the nations and more participatative the process more comfortable the people feel. Obama raised huge sums of money from public for his campaign both on and offline thereby making them feel a part of the campaign. "Advani Gaurav Nidhi" may have been setup to inculcate a similiar sense of belongingness in people's mind.

India does not have a presidential system of election unlike the US and the prime ministerial choice may ultimately become a function of seats arithmetic and coalition compulsions - whosoever wins the only hope is India gets a stable, action-oriented and accountable government. May the best man assume the top office!!

Jai Hind, Jampak