Make 2024 Modi vs Priyanka and get me the popcorn

This Sunday something extraordinary happened. The entire counting day, I did not have a single drop of whiskey. You will be wondering if I had vodka or gin, but let me assure you I did not touch alcohol. And it helped me see the elections for what they are. So here are my takeaways, not coloured by any shades of the bottle.

Modi magic

For the first time since 2014, Narendra Modi was not the biggest factor in an election. Unlike earlier elections, we didn’t see planted reports in the media that claimed how Modi turned things around in the last one week with his magnificent oratory and spectacular roadshows. One big sign that even the BJP was cagey about putting the PM in the front. But seeing how things turned out, Modi won the elections for the BJP in two states - in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where ED too probably did its bit with its election-eve raids and arrests. Madhya Pradesh was won by a cornered Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

The 3-0 sweep of Hindi heartland however has added further to the Modi aura. It will inspire BJP voters and workers and demotivate Congress workers. Invincible Modi is the branding that is getting traction.


Cong clueless in Madhya Pradesh

If Chhindwara was a state, then Kamal Nath would be its CM. The trouble is Chhindwara is not a state, and outside of Chhindwara, Kamal Nath doesn’t have much appeal. Kamal Nath has been around since 1975 when emergency was imposed. If he had to become a CM, he would have become one in the 50 years or so he has been in politics. The other leader Digvijaya Singh, became a CM in his 40s. He is keeping the seat warm for his son, possibly to make a serious bid for power in the next elections. In 2018, the Congress had all the regions covered with the Scindia-Digvijaya-Kamal Nath trio. But after the elections, the old guard smoked out Scindia or Scindia walked out for a bungalow and power in Delhi, whichever version you want to believe. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was their best bet, and the punt failed.

Hindutva

2014 was a vote for Vikas, 2019 was a vote for Hindutva-plus, but 2024 will be a vote on governance. Many analysts will say the Congress lost the three states in the Hindi heartland because of Hindutva, because of Udhayanidhi Stalin’s comment on Sanatan Dharma. That is the easiest excuse to make. The Congress vote share in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh has remained roughly the same. No Hindus switched their votes from the Congress to punish the party and save the religion. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the vote share of other parties came down and the BJP was the beneficiary. Leaders like Kamal Nath, Bhupesh Baghel feared Hindutva so much, they got busy making schemes for gauraksha and gobar and lost the larger plot.

We should remember that Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao – all of them pandered to Hindu sentiments. Sonia Gandhi brought a kind of liberalism into politics which helped the BJP play the “Hindu khatre me” card. She also brought in the concept of rights-based governance in a society where people are used to mai-baap culture. Ten years later, the BJP has occupied the national party space, reducing the Congress to a few states.

Today the non-core Hindu voters of the BJP feel their religion is safe under Modi, they are voting for Modi because they think he is doing a great job. Now, what you think are failures of the Modi govt in matters of governance are being seen as good policy by these voters. Remember even deaths during second Covid wave and demonetization did not change the view of these voters despite suffering so much pain and loss.

Hindutva has run its course. It has saturated in many parts but will find some growth areas too. But if the BJP wins 2024 it will be because the voter likes Modi’s governance.

North-South divide

The North-South divide is real and has been there forever. Make no mistake, Hindutva has takers in South India too. At some point the BJP will open its account in Kerala and it could become the principal opposition in Telangana or Andhra Pradesh. Hindutva can help the BJP attain a critical mass, like in Karnataka, but the party will have to look beyond Hindutva to rule the southern states.

One reason is that people of these states have strong feelings about their culture. Any attempt to impose one shade of Hinduism will meet with stiff resistance from them.

The Congress, however, can’t give the North-South divide as a reason for their failings. Instead they should export the energy and enthusiasm shown by its cadres and leaders in Karnataka and Telangana to north India.

After all what is the use of contesting elections if you have already given up the fight? If that is the case Congress might as well shut shop and go home.

Caste census

The caste card remains the biggest antidote to Hindutva. Analysts will say it didn’t work in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. These states though were not affected by the caste politics in the Nineties though, why should they be now? Caste census is an issue for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the original Mandal vs Mandir battleground. More than the Congress, it is an issue tailormade for parties like the SP and RJD.

Priyanka factor

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remains the best communicator the Congress has. Rahul Gandhi can walk all that he wants, but he is unable to send his message across effectively. His image among many Congress sympathizers is that of a ‘nice boy not meant for politics’.

Unlike Rahul, whose every statement is distorted, his sister has a knack of effectively countering her rivals’ political attacks. Her punchy dialogues at election rallies in Karnataka have defanged the victim card played by Modi very often during elections. She merely asked, “How can a man who has been in power for so many years, flies superjets, come to you complaining about insults instead of listening to your troubles?”

Brand Priyanka is no match for Brand Modi, but it is the best Cong has today.

Why Rajiv is under fire from Modi

Modi is Douglas Jardine and Bradman rolled into one

Elections are to Narendra Modi what runs were to Sir Donald Bradman. Except, cricket was a gentleman’s game then, and there was never anything gentlemanly about politics.

Modi will do anything to win elections. He will stand tall one second, he will stoop low the next.

The airstrike on Balakot marked a big shift in India’s strategy in the fight against terror and its chief sponsor Pakistan. For the first time Indian Air Force jets crossed the line of control since 1971. But for the BJP, it wasn’t good enough. They needed to a put number to the kill, a number good enough for their 56 chaathi leader. So they said 300 terrorists killed, though the govt officially never mentioned it.

That is Modi’s style. Now endless memes and fake news videos will be circulated in the most effective election tools of our age, that is Whatsapp and Facebook.
And people generally believe whatever they get on whatsapp. 2019 could well be an election which will be decided by fake news and innuendos.

That much is evident from Modi’s statements since the air raid. He is already asking people ‘are you with us or them’, bracketing the opposition with terrorists. No one has done this before, probably no one will do later.

The opposition’s challenge is to find a leader who can pay Modi back in the same coin. Someone who can be as mean, as arrogant, as angry, and at times as witty as Modi. And that somebody must speak Hindi. Hindi heartland is where the BJP needs to be defeated if opposition fancies any chance of winning power.

What are their options then?

Nitish Kumar was a good bet, but he chose to sleep with the enemy.

Lalu Yadav could have done it, but he is in jail.

Akhilesh Yadav has the ability, but his popularity is restricted to UP.

Kanhaiya Kumar can do it, but he is in the wrong party, and lacks stature.

You are left with Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul has many strengths. He appears sincere, has a boyish charm. He has his weaknesses too. He can’t be mean even if he wanted to. He can’t be witty, that doesn’t come naturally to him.

They are left with one person who could do the job. Priyanka Vadra. For some strange reason the Congress has restricted her to some 35 seats in UP, where they in any case don’t stand a chance to win much. Any gain the Congress makes there will only weaken the SP-BSP and help the BJP. The party is saving its brahmastra for bigger battles ahead which makes one wonder what can be a bigger fight than the Lok Sabha election.

Like I said, votes are to Modi, what runs were to Bradman.

Modi however is more than that. He doesn’t play by the rules. Modi wants to make the 2019 elections presidential. He is telling the voter, it is either me or that dimwit Rahul. To hammer this message, he can go to any extent. He will call Rahul mentally retarded, that is what he meant when he called his rival dyslexic, pardon his ignorance and insensitivity. He will call Rahul anti-national, don’t be surprised if one of these days he calls him a terrorist as well.

Whatsapp and social media have made politics as thrilling as a Twenty20 match. And just like we appreciate Virat Kohli giving it back to the Aussies, society as a whole, especially middle class, like the crass sledging Modi and his teammates indulge in.

Modi is ready to play dirty to win a match, whether it is underarm bowling or bodyline bowling. Modi is Douglas Jardine and Bradman rolled into one. Now that is a combo hard to match, tough to beat.

A gazillion reasons why Priyanka will fail, and one reason why she may not

In our childhood we rarely got to eat out. Once in a while we would go to nearby arrack shops to eat beef or mutton. Now, because it is a rare occasion, we cherished those visits. So much so, we wouldn’t use the soap to wash our hands in order to preserve the aroma of the spicy food. Every now and then we would smell our hands and relive the taste.

When Priyanka Gandhi campaigned in Bellary for her mother in 1999 against Sushma Swaraj, she broke the security cordon to interact with women and kids. All she did was shake hands or pat the cheeks, but the recipients of the affection were left in awe and admiration. The joke then was that those who got to shake hands with her, including journalists, didn’t wash their hands to savour the perfume she was wearing.

That was then. The Bellary of 2019 is not the Bellary of 1999. What was then a poverty-ridden countryside is now home to millionaires who rode the wave of liberalisation and mining scams. The region has a thriving middle class today.

What I mean is India has changed. The Congress is not going improve its tally in Uttar Pradesh just because Priyanka Gandhi is going to campaign for them.

A Congress bhakt can argue Priyanka is sundar and susheel, but then so are Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone. Would they win elections for a party because they are sundar and susheel?

The surname? The less said the better.

As things stand now, even the big daddy of Gandhis - Mohandas Karamchand -- will not win an election in UP, if he were to contest today. You would call me ignorant and stupid for saying so, but damn it, there are enough BJP bhakts who believe the Mahatma lent the Gandhi surname to Feroze so that Indira could spawn a dynasty.

Priyanka’s resemblance to Indira is also of no use. Those days people had to stand in long queues every month for their share of ration and felt in debt to the Iron Lady for providing do waqt ki roti. Those very exact people are now above 60 and would add up to less than 10% of the population.

The rest have heard stories of Indira of winning a war against Pakistan, but have also heard stories of how she didn’t keep the spoils of the war. They have also heard stories of licence raj, bank nationalisation, etc , etc… No matter what the Gandhi family says, this lot would rather believe a Modi when he says he spends 5 days in a jungle every year or he does yoga every day or he killed a crocodile as a child (which his bhakts claim).

Why go back, there is enough evidence to suggest Priyanka’s campaigns won’t work. She did campaign in 2014. You can’t say it doesn’t count as she limited herself to Amethi, these days you don’t need to physically campaign in remote locations, television and social media are there to spread the message. More recently she campaigned for brother Rahul and Akhilesh in 2017. What came of it?

That doesn’t mean it’s a hopeless scenario.

A journalist once described Priyanka’s role in politics so far, as that of an item girl, but she has now graduated to the main cast. It certainly brings some opportunities for the Congress.

Rahul is not a natural when it comes to countering Modi’s attacks, especially when he gets personal. The Congress president has countered that weakness by being the ‘good boy'. With Priyanka, she is capable of payback. And she is a woman. Even a Modi will think twice before passing a comment on her.

If the Congress denies BJP a majority in 2019, it will not because Priyanka entered politics, but because people are unhappy with Modi. Priyanka’s job, Rahul’s as well, will be to tap this frustration and expose the rival effectively.

The Gandhi surname can help Rahul become the president, and Priyanka become the general secretary, of the Indian National Congress, but people of India don’t vote for them anymore because they are Gandhis.

Lessons for Rahul from the Hindi Heartland

1. Make no mistake, verdict is against Modi

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are like galli cricket captains. When you know you are going to lose you find excuses beforehand and try to stay away from the defeat. When you get out, you express your disappointment by shrugging, feigning helplessness, showing anger. The expressions are meant to say, “What all can I do alone?”

Now the trouble is Modi expected his party to lose in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and lose badly at that. So he addressed fewer rallies there. When he spoke, he spoke about the Nehru-Gandhi family, his govt’s initiatives, the failures of the Congress, but didn’t have anything nice to say about Shivraj Singh Chouhan or Vasundhara Raje. It was as if Chouhan and Raje had done nothing of significance to be highlighted. Essentially he was saying, “How can I score all the runs always?”

Was it anti-incumbency that ended BJP’s terms in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh as pundits on TV would want us to believe?

No. If it was anti-incumbency, the BJP would have been wiped out. Without much help from the central leadership, Chouhan and Raje were able to put up a fight. In both states, the Congress wasn’t able to get clear majority. If anything, the vote was anger against the Modi govt’s policies than the state govt’s.

2. Rahul vs Modi is not a walkover 

Rahul Gandhi should not shy away from a duel with Modi. Especially in states where the Congress and BJP are in direct fights. What is the point in saying 'I have several batsmen like Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia', and score no runs yourself. People will be tempted to ask if you are a non-playing captain, then why do we need you at all?

3. Play to your strength

Modi knows this better than anyone else. He is a very good orator, but not the Vajpayee kind. He is more the angry man who taunts and mocks his rivals. Rahul shouldn’t try to be what Modi is. The country has space for only one Modi, not two. In any case, a clone is unlikely to be better than the original. Rahul can play the sheet anchor role. But then who does all the slogging that is needed. Let leaders like Navjot Sidhu do that. The Left may lend a helping hand, by unleashing Kanhaiya Kumar in the rural belt. Stay away from Kanhaiya by all means, but if he can swing a few votes, why not?

4. Hindutva Lite is working
Soft Hindutva is working, let there be no doubts about it. A Hindu voter in today’s India, especially the middle class one, is not going to the polling booth thinking, “I will not vote for Rahul because he is making an exhibition of his religious beliefs. How the hell he can do that in a secular nation? It is against the spirit of the Constitution, I will vote to uphold the Constitution.” Soft Hindutva is not going to win over Modi bhakts, but it definitely works with the fence-sitters. Given a choice between a Hindu with spears and an unarmed temple-hopping Hindu, the voters in the cow belt chose the less violent one, didn’t they?

5. Stop listening to liberal intellectuals 

Empty symbolisms mean nothing. Rahul will get ample time to do that if he comes to power. Liberal intellectuals live in a fantasy world. They can write about the transformation of the Congress into the B team of the BJP because they are not the ones fighting elections. They just have to write from the comfort of their study or debate on primetime TV from the comfort of their homes (these days OB vans go to their houses). In the unlikely event of Rahul listening to them and losing elections (which he may still do), they will tell Rahul how incompetent he is. What a morale booster that would be. 

BJP loses Hindi heartland, Modi & Co brainstorm

If Hedgewar was a great son of Mother India, who was Gandhi?

Last week I was having beer with a few friends. At some point we decided to go to Haridwar. I was bored of drinking at home, wanted to drink in a new setting. Of course I wanted to take a dip in Ganga to absolve myself of all sins that I had committed till then, so that I could start committing new sins.

The point is there was a purpose to that trip. We do things purposefully, even if we don’t acknowledge it. Now what inspired former president Pranab Mukherjee to fly down to Nagpur and attend the RSS convocation ceremony?

There could be many reasons.

Mukherjee says dialogue is the essence of democracy. One should keep the dialogue on. So he wants to have a dialogue with an organisation which couldn’t tolerate a nuanced homage to Muhammed Ali Jinnah by L.K. Advani in Pakistan.

Advani had said, “His (Jinnah’s) address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, is really a classic, a forceful espousal of a secular state in which, while every citizen would be free to practise his own religion, the state shall make no distinction between one citizen and another on grounds of faith.”

The RSS cracked down on Advani and later Jaswant Singh who wrote a book on Jinnah. This is their level of intolerance and Mukherjee wants us to believe he wanted to have a dialogue with the RSS.

Mukherjee probably rates his oratorical skills very highly. He may have thought he can reform, if not the Sangh leadership, the fresh graduates and make them give up their Hindu rashtra dreams. He is probably reassured by the successes he had while playing the role of mediator for the UPA. He had handled Anna Hazare so well his prodigy ended up becoming the CM; he neutralised Ramdev, who became a business tycoon, if not for Pranab the yoga guru could have become the UP CM for all you know.

Don’t let the Pranabda fan club in the media mislead you. Mukherjee didn’t go to the lion’s den and take the bull by its horns.

The speech in itself was mediocre. It could have been any of the speeches he made as President of India after Narendra Modi came to power. He just toned it down a bit, edited out references to gau raksha, lynchings, bigotry. In its place he copied a few lines from his other speeches about the 5,000 year old Indian civilisation, the sone ki chidiya that India was, the glory of Nalanda, all that are music to RSS ears. A Sangh spokesperson on TV channels said as much -- he said pretty much what we say. 

Mukherjee quoted Jawahar Lal Nehru from his book Discovery of India, but made only a passing reference to Gandhi. He said, “As Gandhiji explained Indian nationalism was not exclusive, nor aggressive, nor destructive.” Just one line on the Father of the Nation who spearheaded a freedom struggle that was boycotted by the RSS. Gandhi who lost his life to the ideology of RSS almost became a footnote in his speech, though it appeared in the middle somewhere.

The real news came a few hours before the speech. From the memorial of RSS founder K.B. Hedgewar. There Mukherjee noted in the visitors’ log, “Today I came here to pay my respect and homage to a great son of Mother India.” Anyone who reads it would think Hedgewar was some big hero who was denied his due by a repressionist regime for decades.

You could argue there is no need to read much into it. It was just an old man writing something about a dead man because he had to do write something. Journalists quoted ‘sources close to him’ as saying “What does one say of a dead man, especially who has been the Organising Committee Chairman of the AICC Session in 1920?”

Anything. He could have written anything. Mukherjee made a career out of writing convoluted, un-understandable resolutions with sentences so long, one would lose count and sight of the commas and semicolons. Anything Mukherjee writes, there is a method to it.

Arun Shourie very famously described the Modi govt as UPA + cow. Mukherjee’s speech was a bit like that -- RSS minus the bigotry.
So what was the purpose behind the speech?

The only good defence in Mukherjee’s favour I can think of is - he was bored, visited RSS headquarters for some sightseeing and went back after a guided tour.

In describing Hedgewar as a great son of Mother India, Mukherjee came off as an opportunist,  a backstabber and coward.

Why can’t Rahul Gandhi become the PM?

Rahul Gandhi has said he will be the Prime Minister if the Congress is the largest party. Quite a lot of people are surprised by this admission. Especially the media.

I don’t know why.

What did you expect? That he does all the hard work, run from temple to temple, visit churches and masjids in between, and then if the Congress wins the elections, anoint somebody else as the PM.

Yes, he and his mom have done it in the past. He could have become the PM anytime he wanted between 2004 and 2014. Manmohan Singh did everything, other than beg, to make him a minister in the Cabinet.

The guy has decided ‘not any more’. If he wins the elections he will be the PM. And why not?

Because he is a Pappu?

If he was ridiculed as Pappu earlier, today the word is looked upon as ‘cute’, especially since a name called Feku gained currency.

Because he doesn’t have the brains?

We are not aware if he is capable of any policy making. But there is one guarantee, he won’t do a demonetisation. He qualifies on that one count.

Because he will be dependent on people like Sam Pitroda?

It is always better to have good and informed advisors. Hopefully his kitchen cabinet won’t be quack economists, babas & swamis.

Because he is not 56 chhati?

He is a regular at the gym and may have a four-pack, if that helps.

Because he is not a fakir with a jhola?

Rahul has shown his kurta pockets have holes in them. You can’t be more fakir than that.

Because he is a Gandhi?

If a doctor's son can become a doctor, an engineer's son can become an engineer, a scavenger's son must become a scavenger, a Gandhi's son can become a PM. Anyway, it's not his fault Modi and Vajpayee aren’t married.

There is only one reason why Rahul Gandhi can’t become the PM.

Because he doesn’t have the numbers. Once he has them, it's his job to take.

5 lessons for Rahul Gandhi from Gujarat elections

Play according to pitch
Winning an election is like playing a Test match. You have to read the pitch correctly. In Gujarat Rahul Gandhi read the pitch correct. In a state where 90% of the population is Hindu, in a state which is an advertisement for Hindutva, in a state that swears by the Gujarat model, in a state where Muslims have been reduced to political irrelevance, soft Hindutva was the right and only option. Rahul did what needed to be done, he lost the plot in the slog overs.

Never go on the defensive 
Those days when batsmen grafted runs and battled to save a Test are over. Most elections in the recent past have thrown up a clear winner. So playing for a draw is not an option. The fight for Gujarat began well for the Congress. Rahul raised questions about business dealings of Amit Shah’s son, but later he lost steam. Give the voter a talking point every now and then.


Fight Bodyline with Bodyline
Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are the Douglas Jardine of Indian politics. There is no limit they won’t cross to win an election. In the final stages of the campaign when PM Narendra Modi accused the Congress of conspiring with Pakistan to win Gujarat elections, Rahul Gandhi and company went numb. They had no clue how to deal with the beamers. Against such hostile attacks, inane comments like ‘hum pyaar ki boli bolenge’ don’t work. Having been fed steroids for a long while, people of Gujarat , or for that matter India, are not going to settle for a cup of coffee. So accuse Modi of doing something nastier, the Indian voter may not fall for it, but they enjoy this kind of mud-slinging. If not that, Rahul could have said something like, ‘Modi went to Pakistan uninvited and gatecrashed a wedding, if he wanted a hara bara kebab, we could have got them for him from a dhaba here (make sure you don’t say Karim’s). You get the idea.

Underarm bowling is fair
In a match there are many things a captain may not want to do but gets his players to do it. Outsource such work to state leadership, they know the pitch better than you, let them bat freely. Elections are about divisions, caste divide vs Hindu-Muslim divide etc. In Karnataka, Siddaramaiah has his own fringe army - the Kannada activists - to fight the parivar fringe. The ban on Sunny Leone for instance. Even before the likes of Sri Ram Sene could raise an issue, the Kannada activists entered the stage and stole the show. They even insisted Sunny wear a saree. It couldn’t have gotten better. Please don’t spoil it by reining in Sidda anna.

Migrate to cities
Politics of 2 rotis a day doesn’t work anymore. India is rapidly urbanising, people are shifting from farming to other activities, nobody can win power by not winning the urban votes. Dump garibi hatao, coin a new slogan. Ghar ghar, ek car, or something more materialistic and aspirational. No, free pastas and pizzas through PDS won’t do.

Here is raising a toast to Modi and Rahul. Keep us entertained.

Rahul playing soft Hindutva, he has no reasons to be ashamed of it

Politics is not for nice people. You may act the simpleton but deep inside, you must have that ruthless streak that makes you do anything to win. Victory at any cost. Modi and Shah know it, they are proud of it, and they are praised for it. When they make derogatory statements, they are lapped up without any question.

Now with Rahul Gandhi, the story is different. He will rehearse every line he says, at times makes a total mess of it, though he does it less these days after taking lessons from me, but he rarely makes casteist or communal comments. For example, he won’t be caught saying ‘Modi is Khilji ka aulad or Modi is Aurangzeb.’ He might say ‘Modi is Mohammed bin Tughlaq’, but that is not a reference to religion but to policies pursued by his rival.

Rahul won’t say ‘neech’, for one probably he doesn’t know the meaning of it, two his speech writer seems to be a decent guy. But Rahul will be hauled over the coals for remarks made by loose cannons like Mani Shankar Aiyar, who does it to his own partymen too. He had once wondered how did Ajay Maken use the word ‘dichotomy’ in his letter to PM Manmohan Singh as he was just a B.A. (Pass) from Hansraj College and couldn’t have had the brains to know the meaning of the word.

And Rahul will definitely not accuse Modi of plotting with Pakistan to win Gujarat elections. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi did just that today. He might do more than that tomorrow. Now get one thing, Modi, when he makes these baseless charges, knows or certainly hopes the Gujarati voter will believe him.

Modi has reasons to think so. Nobody reads Gujarat’s mind like Modi, he has won election after election there. The state has 90% Hindu population, among the highest concentration in the country. They have been fed Hindutva steroids for years now, and many of them can’t live without it. Fifteen years after one of the bloodiest riots broke out in Gujarat, there is still no remorse. In fact the violence is held out as an example to minorities elsewhere in the country.

When a Rahul Gandhi steps out to campaign, he is appealing to this set of voters. Right now they are addicted to Hindutva and de-addiction can’t happen in a day. Merely talking about vikas or development won’t help, like Subramanian Swamy said once. “Even Manmohan gave development, but he lost,” he often says while demanding construction of Ram Mandir.

So when Rahul gives his war cry against a GST or a demonetisation, he may have to make it from the Somnath temple or any other temple he can spot. It definitely can’t come from a masjid.  You can’t annoy a considerable chunk of 90% voters to show solidarity with 10% voters who anyway are voting for you. Rahul Gandhi may be accused of playing soft Hindutva, but in light of recent happenings, he has no reason to be ashamed of it. And mind you, it is not Modi or Rahul who is on test, it is the Gujarati voter who is on test.  

One year after demonetisation