The 3 Ds Of Indian Politics: What the masses crave from their leaders — Drama, Drama and Development

Ask anyone who covers politics if BJP has lost the plot somewhat, and most will say yes. But probe further and people find it difficult to put their finger on it. Here’s the simple reason: lack of drama.
There’s an iconic line in the film Dirty Picture, “Films work because of three reasons: entertainment, entertainment, entertainment.” For politics, all three reasons will not be entertainment. Political success today comes from three factors: drama, drama and development.
Yes, it is true. The increase in media penetration, arrival of social media and smartphones, lowered attention spans and India’s love for spectacle have led to a unique phenomenon: the constant demand for content.
Hence, a politician is relevant only if he or she is seen and packaged as content. Just being seen is not enough. You have to do something in the form of dramatic and entertaining content. This requires a fair dose of controversy and conflict. Say something shocking, do something bold, create a debate and grab headlines.
The trick is not to be so outrageous as to damage your credibility. In fact, if you are smart, the outrageousness can be positioned as positive and help your political clout grow. Shock, get noticed, rise. Shock some more. Rise some more. Rinse. Repeat.
Nobody understands this better at the moment than AAP. Whatever you may say about the morality and ethics of it, AAP’s PR strategy has given them what they crave – a national stage, primetime coverage, positioning of their leader as head to head against PM Narendra Modi.
In the last few weeks, AAP has managed to do all of the following: deflect attention from its own problems (including a 400% pay hike for MLAs and an ill-conceived, tokenistic odd-even Delhi pollution plan), put BJP on the defensive, made the finance minister of the country run to the courts, created a rift within BJP, placed AAP in primetime news for weeks, had the entire Parliament in a twist and positioned CM Arvind Kejriwal yet again as Modi’s rival number one, and thus the go-to person if you hate Modi for whatever reason.
Sure, one can question if Delhi or the nation benefits from all this constant confrontation. Such questioning is relevant for the third D of politics – development. However, drama has twice the weightage of development in these times.
Do note drama is not used here as a derogatory term. It is what people want. If you want to be relevant, you have to provide it. This is where BJP has lost track. In pre-Lok Sabha election days, they had one of the most entertaining campaigns (often at Congress and Gandhi family expense). Now, BJP’s PR is simply boring.
Yes, we do see the PM on TV. But how many guard of honour ceremonies for the PM can we watch? How many chest thumping NRI meets can we witness? Neither is Mann ki Baat the same as taking extempore questions. The PM’s initiatives, like Swacch Bharat, are all sweet and nice and important, but hardly controversial.
When BJP has created content, it is for the wrong reasons and by the wrong people. Yogi Adityanath and his like have given us drama, but it’s drama that damages the BJP brand. The trick is to come up with content that is brand value accretive to the party. Frankly, at the moment, BJP is hopeless at it.
BJP talks up how many villages it has electrified, or how many countries are coming to invest in India. Maybe it is true. But it only gives them a score in one subject out of the three – development.
There are solutions. Where is the PM’s wit and charm, which was used so successfully in the LS election campaign? Why do BJP ministers have to behave like grumpy uncles? If Arvind Kejriwal attacks BJP, why make defensive statements like ‘we didn’t raid him, we raided the principal secretary’? Or ‘we haven’t done anything, we will take you to court’? Why not a smile, followed by ‘Arvind ji, we know you want to live in 7 RCR, should we arrange a room for you there?’
For all of BJP’s conspiracy theories, the media isn’t biased towards any party. It is biased towards drama. Even Donald Trump, a US presidential frontrunner and creator of enormous drama, admitted that the media covers anything as long as it gets viewers. He said you could cure the world of a major disease, but if you don’t get ratings you will not be covered. If you bore, you don’t deserve the media. Simple. And if you are not covered in the media but your rivals are, you will suffer politically.
BJP needs a major wake up call. It must alter not just its PR strategy but its entire political strategy. A party with everything going for it less than two years ago has become easy game for all. Lack of talent, over-confidence, misjudgment of the current political scenario have led to this situation. BJP’s worst nightmare is a hotchpotch coalition – a Maha Federal Front – defeating it in 2019. This wasn’t a real possibility a year ago, but it is now.
India needs development. However, Indians also love two other things a politician must provide to stay relevant – drama and drama.