Do it yourself

Bihar assembly elections concluded last week with the incumbent NDA government registering an astounding victory, belying all expectations of anti-incumbency; a strong show by the opposition alliance (MGB); and a surprise by JSP (Jan Suraaj Party), floated by election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor. Almost every exit poll and ground report got Bihar 2025 spectacularly wrong. The NDA’s landslide was not a wave — it was an annihilation. In my view, the result was a foregone conclusion for anyone who looked beyond Twitter trends and Tejashwi’s viral reels. Numerous independent forecasters, reporters and experts, who claimed to have spent weeks “on the ground”, completely failed to assess the likely outcome of the elections. The opposition alliance completely lacked seriousness, strategy and resources; notwithstanding the social media noise. The new challenger JSP lacked resources and credibility (was mostly seen as a BJP agent put up to cut into opposition votes). They were ...

  Exploring India – Part 2 In the past three weeks our team travelled through eight out of ten administrative divisions of Madhya Pradesh (MP), covering thirty six out of fifty two districts in the state. I may share some key points from the socio-economic and political assessment made by the team. Socio-economic assessment From socio-economic perspective, MP comprises of easily distinguishable three states – 1.    Tribal areas that are extremely poor; lack basic amenities (especially health and education); not properly connected; agrarian; highly contended; and mostly integrated with nature. Though the non-tribal elements and cultures have started to make inroads in these areas from the fringes, the impact so far is limited. Mobile phones, packaged snacks, pan masala (chewing tobacco sachets), motorcycles (scooty), small solar panels, shirt-pants, denim, plastic crockery, are main signs of what is commonly known as “modern civilization” in the tribal areas o...