LONGish POST WARNING
The protests suffer not just from weak topics, but bizarre schizophrenic messaging shifts
They started with SIR. You knew the battle was lost when you had to start clarifying everything & got bogged down in micro-detail. Clearly that wasn’t gaining traction so now it’s moved onto “right to wave the flag”
Leave aside the lack of messaging discipline, this is tactical suicide. You’re attacking the BJP on its strongest USP. You never attack the enemy where he’s strongest - the flag & nationalism.
The BJP was just waiting for the message to shift - possibly with a cabinet reshuffle. But then the CJP & INC themselves shifted it - first to police “brutality” & then to the flag. Godsend for the BJP
To win elections, you have to shift parts of the right to your side. SIR as a topic was never going to shift RW votes. Police “brutality” was never going to shift RW votes. And now after decrying nationalism for 12 years, you think you’re going out-nationalism the BJP? Keep dreaming.
The best part is these 3 clowns & Rahul don’t even realise that they’ve lost collective messaging discipline- buoyed as they are by support from foreign celebrities & the foreign press.
Worse still when you wrap yourself in the flag, your own fellow travellers are the ones
• calling for a coup
• calling for regime change
• celebrating a violent Islamist regime change of a friendly neighbour
This isn’t a protest. This is a collective clown-show. You’ve shifted the narrative, You’ve lost the momentum, You’ve fumbled yourself onto a battlefield of your enemy’s choosing. Heck you’ve lost the whole goddam plot.