Anti-masterstroking thread
Masterstroking rhetoric is getting very dumb. Rallying around the flag and backing your party is for elections and such, not for internal discussion about strategy.
Specifically:
Ceding to opposition’s demands is bad politics (makes you look like a rip-off and submissive; it doesn’t “take an issue away from the opposition” bc the opposition will just keep drifting to the left).
This is the mistake UK Tories made. They kept moving to the centre for the short-term political dominance implied by median voter thm; causing Overton window to shift left, resulting in their ultimate complete wipeout this year.
That strategy only works if you’re willing to exploit the short-term political dominance it grants you by going full authoritarian! I was fine with this until 2024 bc I thought this was the plan, but recent events show it simply isn’t, and they wasted the political dominance they had from 2014-24.
Appointment of Dilip Mandal is not in itself a big deal, but gives new information – it means Mandal is not a govt asset on the other side, but vice versa.
Because Mandal isn’t some kind of folk hero or community leader among Dalits that the BJP can use to influence; he’s an Ambedkarite intellectual with no sway over voters (and his supposed influence in academia is obviously a farce).
If the plan was to develop him into a spy, you wouldn’t give him a govt pos.
Sowing the seeds of an opposed intellectual ecosystem (Ambedkarism) is a really dumb idea.
People/communities (e.g. Dalits) can be won. Ideologies cannot.
Apparently BJP is genuinely under the delusion that Ambedkarism can lead to Hindu unity: https://x.com/satoverma/status/1826676966424207658
US (specifically lib/democracy-fetishist) meddling seems to be growing unopposed in India.
This is all quite in the open: think-tankies & lib media celebrating the Bangladesh coup and denying Sheikh Hasina’s visa while issuing cheeky “official” denials; sending observers to the J&K election; meeting opp leaders (this one could still be benign); Sheikh Hasina’s warning about Manipur.
I’m of the opinion that there’s nothing stopping govt from simply unleashing a reign of terror against American assets (NGOs, Congress/TMC/SP, media outlets, Google & Meta, prominent leftist social media personalities) overnight – and that this is worth doing even at the expense of becoming a pariah state for a few years.
No doubt the US is powerful, but even countries like Turkey know how to hold them off. They’re not going to wage war ffs.
Yes, you need some build-up, but there’s not even any messaging from govt; instead you have them actively covering for the US by deflecting to China or Pakistan (lol).
Heck, they refuse to act against bad actors even when they’d have wide popular support on their side (e.g. TMC)
So the conclusions I draw from this are:
Modi truly, genuinely believes he can win over American libs’ affection by persuading them he’s not what they say he is. This is why he subtweets them in his independence day address saying “I’d like to assure you that we’re a land of buddha not yuddha, you have nothing to fear from us” rather than any direct messaging towards the people about American involvement.
- The BJP truly, genuinely believes Ambedkarism will lead to Hindu unity, and doesn’t understand how good leftists are at capture of institutions.
The BJP truly, genuinely believes in Gandhianism. They do not have that “intent to kill” in them against their enemies that leftists do.
They play as Yudhiṣṭhira against Śakuni, when they should be playing as Kr̥ṣṇa.
They’re just not as politically smart as I once thought them to be.
Their victories were against Indian liberals, but now they’re in the big leagues, facing the mightiest political machine in history: Western liberalism.
Epilogue
Modi is still worth backing. This will never change.
But we no longer have the security of “Remain calm, patriots are in charge”.
Because now the objective results (Jun 4, Bangladesh, repeated policy rollbacks, lost SM dominance, jātitva victory) are out.