By Sidharth Mishra

From being toast of those who saw a middle-class hero, an aka Amol Palekar of middle-of-the-road Indian cinema, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has graduated to be a ‘mass’ leader, as in a church congregation. Delhi Chief Minister attired in silk with his consort in attendance and bhajan singer Anoop Jalota singing Raag Darbari, completed the metamorphosis of leader who came to power pleading to fight ostentation to becoming a symbol of flashiness.

For those who may not know, mass is the central act of worship of the Roman Catholic Church, which culminates in celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist. On Saturday last, when Arvind Kejriwal led the city in the act of worship, he was closer in imagery to the Diwali celebrations in princely states than any act of sacrament of sacrifice. The Indian royal couples of the yore often saw themselves as incarnation of Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi. Delhi Chief Minister this Diwali night indulged in no less an act.

By Sidharth Mishra

While penning obituary to the memory of one of the best-known modern day intellectual from Bihar, Arvind N Das in year 2000, his mentor Dileep Padgaonkar wrote, “In his (Das’) eyes, Bihar was a metaphor for India itself. At a pinch, he would have deemed it to be the very centre of the universe. While he loathed its venal, caste-ridden, ineffective governance, the violent nature of its society, its decrepit intellectual and cultural life and the slothful ways of its elite, he never missed an opportunity to recall its rich cultural and spiritual legacy, the noble character of its long-suffering people and the revolutionary potential of its youth.” A social scientist, Das’ collection of seminal essays were published as book titled Republic of Bihar.

By Sidharth Mishra

Despite the intervention of Delhi High Court and its clear direction that the salary bills of 12 Delhi University colleges funded by Delhi Government be immediately cleared, there seems to be no relief forthcoming for the starving teachers and the staff of these colleges. Delhi’s Education Minister Manish Sisodia has now come out with an ‘audit report’ prepared by a functionary of his party, which claims that these colleges are paying salary to ghost employees.

This is startling move to cock a snook at the High Court. It’s not far to seek what’s the politics behind the Minister’s move to even risk the wrath of the High Court. At the bottom of the problem is the financial model of subsidy which has been followed by the Delhi Government, which has left it hard put to release funds for salaries, not just for these colleges but various other arms of the government.

By Sidharth Mishra

Narratives do matter in polls. They increasingly started to influence voting patterns ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) unveiled the power of social media during the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls, emerging as a political force from almost nowhere. Prime Minister Narendra Modi quickly picked the threads and patented it during the 2014 campaign.

The spin masters and media strategists were never as important they are today in any poll campaign. Though the best-known political spin master Prashant Kishor is conspicuous by his absence from campaign in his home state, the spin of words is complementing the pace and gruel of campaign at grassroots.

By Sidharth Mishra

The poll results in this country, elections after elections, has always been driven by an X-factor. This X-factor largely goes unrecognized by the analysts covering the campaign, which post-result they find it convenient to define as under-current. 

As the poll campaign for Bihar Assembly elections 2020 steams ahead, the analysts in the war rooms of the political parties are busy crunching numbers, especially on which caste goes whose way. The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) garners its confidence from the fact that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) is back with them.

By Sidharth Mishra

The preface to the unfolding Bihar 2020 poll story has become very intricate with first the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) walking out of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and then its leader Ram Vilas Paswan walking out of the world. However, the loss of patronage from the first family of Dusadh community (not to be confused with another Dalit community identified as Pasi) of Bihar may not necessarily paint an abysmal picture for state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Those who follow the politics of the country’s politically most convoluted state, would recall that Nitish Kumar had initiated the social engineering process to create the voting vertical of Mahadalits to counter the influence of comparatively powerful communities of Chamars, aligned for a longtime with Congress (largely due to the presence of Babu Jagjiwan Ram and his daughter Meira Kumar) and now with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and Dusadhs, where Ram Vilas Paswan’s influence was taller than anybody else.

By Sidharth Mishra

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2016, during his monthly radio programme, ‘Maan Ki Baat’ had advised print and television media to carry positive stories that inspires the nation. The advice has not been heeded to goes without saying, as media today, especially television, is about anything but positive news.

Sometime in 2011, then leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley while addressing a seminar on the civil society upsurge under Anna Hazare, which was being witnessed then, had a very telling comment to make. Jaitley had said that Anna was making to television because cameras like sad pictures. Prophetic comments indeed!

By Sidharth Mishra

The much awaited, debated and speculated report from the team of experts of the department of Forensic Medicine of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the Sushant Singh Rajput (SSR) death case came on Saturday last. Given the airtime which has been consumed by this particular unfortunate incident in the past three months, it should have invited several sessions of intense debate on television.

It did not happen that way, as the AIIMS report came, as English poet TS Eliot had penned, “Not with a bang but a whimper.” The report was conclusive -- there was no evidence of poisoning. The AIIMS forensic team’s description has definitely taken the wind out of the sails to those having concluded that SSR was “drugged and murdered.” They would now have to invent new theories to keep themselves afloat