Politicians always win votes through Oratorial Skills! How?

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Donald D'Silva, Karkala, Mira Road
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By Donald D’ Silva, Mira Road, Karkala

Donald D’ Silva is an Advertising Professional & Brand Strategist managing his own Digital Marketing Company in Mumbai. He writes about Current Affairs, Political Analysis, Bollywood Happenings and a variety of Social subjects.

Politicians always win votes through Oratorial Skills! How?

In the whole world, all the politician’s do is talk!! They give fiery speeches always!! Oratorial skills are a politicians’ mighty weapon. The master orator always attracts crowds and fan following. They are the toast of the town!  During any political rally, election campaign, the master orator Is always the star speaker. His speech will be the last speech of the day.

The trick is to make the audience wait till the last. If the star speaker gives his speech early, then the audience will be reduced to half! Or they will start marching to their homes!

One of the great orators the country has seen, George Fernandes had a great gift of the gab! He could enthrall his audience for hours, be it in Hindi, Marathi, his mother tongue Konkani or even in English. He drove crowds in hordes to his speeches.

Same could be said of late Balasaheb Thakeray. He united the Maharashtrian manoos who had gone astray. The mill workers who lost their jobs got government jobs. His weapon, his oratorial skills. He could mobilize support from the youth, adults alike with his fiery speeches. This made the young and young adults take to the street. They went berserk on the street upon calling by their god.

The incited mob went on a rampage and brought the successive state governments to their knees. The demands were met. Bala saheb and his party men were happy. Also the followers, supporters were delighted.

These repeated oratorial hammerings most of the time brought unexpected results too. This created a law and order situation for the Maharashtra government and also put pressure on Mumbai’s Police Comissionerate.

The Master orator Balasaheb could not be arrested as Mumbai will burn. The only courageous person in the history of Mumbai was, Chagan Bhujbal who could reportedly put the Tiger behind bars for a mere two hours. Then he secured bail. But, there was no violence. The home ministry was headed by Bhujbal, and he left no stone unturned to see that not even small skirmishes happened on the streets of Mumbai or elsewhere. Raj Thackeray has taken after his uncle and is a master orator himself!! He speaks in chaste Marathi and enthralls the audience whole over Maharashtra.

Sharad Pawar is not a great speaker, but knows the Indian politics and the administration as well as is excellent in foreign policy monitoring. His suggestions, allegations or problem-solving skills are lapped up by the crowd. So, even though He is not a great orator, as He has proved in Maharashtra and at Delhi, how good an administrator that He is, people throng to lend an ear to him.

Nehru was not a great orator, he could manage to convince people. He had a mass following, maybe He was the first Prime Minister of India, people thronged to listen to him. He could make his points, views register in the minds of the people. But, compared to him, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was a master orator! He could aggressively hold fort and the masses loved his speeches with gestures and animated slogans etc. He was a crowd puller too.

Mahatma Gandhi was a skilled speaker, but with a soft demeanour. One could sense the stubbornness in him while dictating terms to the British Raj! He was soft-spoken but determined and aggressive in putting practice to preaching. The crowd followed him to his Dandi Yatras, Quit India movements, Simon go back agitation and several other protest marches. Thus, even he did not have mastery in oratorical skills, still, he was the chosen one for the Indian populace as they saw in him a great leader who could liberate India!

Lal Bahadur Shashtri managed to attract the crowd with his slogans. He had his own way of seeking attention from the crowd.

Lok Manya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a great orator. British wanted to silence his guns. They arrested and put him behind bars for several years in Mandalay prison, in today’s Myanmar. He was a fiery writer too. His animated speeches made the crowd turn violent and furious against the British.

Indira Gandhi was an excellent orator. Being the Iron lady that she was, more women flocked to listen to her. She could speak like a man. She could go on and on till the crowd go berserk and were ready to get into any trouble for her. She had great convincing powers over the masses. Though, she could barely be able to convince her adversaries such as Morarji Desai, Jagjivan Ram, Charan Singh, Brahmananda Reddy or any other political heavyweights during her tenure.

Her sheer guts in standing up to the Pakistan- Bangla problem, The emergency era, the Henry Kissinger, Nixon needling, Bhutto’s empty threats and the challenges she faced from the regional political heavyweights be it from her party or the opposition, She stood tall in front of all of them!! Her mastery in oratory was accepted widely by the Indian populace and the opposition parties alike!!

Vajpayee was an ace orator. He could unsettle the opposition or the ruling parties with his witty rhetoric on whichever side he was! He could with his gestures of hands and skillful mastery in Hindi completely swiped the crowd off its feet!! The masses lined up to listen to his doctrines. They went home happy after his speech that they could look forward to a new beginning. So as Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Kapil Sibal who knew how to attract the audience!

In today’s times, we have two strong contenders for the master oratory prize. They are none other than Narendra Modi and the inimitable Arvind Kejriwal. They have a style of their own. They cover maximum points, issues, solutions to the problem in their speeches. They make the crowd listen to them. They bring facts and figures in front of the populace and the crowd goes gaga over them!! The masses get a new dosage every now and then and that makes the adrenalin getting pumped into them!!

Kejriwal won Delhi for the third time with a thumping victory!! His performance has been lapped up by the Delhi populace!!

But, there is a slight problem about Modi’s past history!

Modi has been in power for 15 years and has proved to the state of Gujarat that come what may, He is an able administrator and he would like to march to Delhi and rule India. Fine! Yes! He did so in 2014 and in 2019, is still ruling India with an iron fist!

The Congress rule started getting into trouble since 2011. L K Advani was very aggressive, attacking Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh. He led the BJP from the front and gave the PM’s chair in a platter to Modi, who had the fame of ruling Gujarat state for 15 years and the Godhra issue on him.

As soon as Modi hugged the PM’s chair Advani was sidelined. He has become a very tiny figure among all other functionaries.

Nobody ever thought that a man who led the ‘Rath Yatra’ and Babri Masjid demolition has been reduced to a caricature of himself. The same gentleman who got 88 seas in 1989 from the only 2 seats BJP bagged in 1984 post Indira Gandhi’s assassination is nowhere to be seen today!

Was it wrong on Modi’s part to sideline Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and try to become a Dictator? But, with no knowledge in National Politics has been his weakness or the Dictatorial ways he functions with party colleagues?

Surprisingly, Modi criticized the mighty Sharad Pawar and his party ‘NCP’ and called it National corruption party. But, he has come to Baramati to inaugurate one of the Agricultural outfit founded by Pawar and his family and inaugurated a Bhavan as well!!

How this about turn took place?

He calls Pawar his Guru. Since when this Guru Shishya relationship started? He initiated court proceedings against Ajit Pawar and his ministers regarding the irrigation scam through Maha CM Fadnavis.

But no one has been arrested and nobody and his grandmother know where are the case papers?? Who is leading the inquiry commission and what stage the case has reached? It has been many years…. still, nobody has been arrested. Except the inimitable…. irrepressible Lalu Prasad Yadav…but his case was pending since 12 years….and the Congress regime had initiated the proceedings…so Modi can’t take credit for it!!

The Robert Vadra case, Augusta Case resurfaces only before any assembly elections of states. Otherwise no proceedings on the matter!!

Modi and Shah insulted Uddhav Thackeray many a time after their 2014 elections victory. That made them go separate ways for Maha assembly elections and secure 63 seats. Then again as it happens in India they jointly formed the government post the assembly elections. Then onwards Shiv Sena chief has been attacking The Maha government led by Fadnavis and Modi, Shah Duo and their daily acrobatics!

Today, Uddhav has joined hands with the secular parties, NCP led by Pawar and Congress led by Smt. Sonia Gandhi! He thought BJP will write his obituary. Now, due to the Coronavirus attack, he is in the docks! Mumbai may become fast the world capital city of COVID-19 affected!! The mortality rate, however, is low and the recovery rate is very high, though!! The Uddhav baiters, including Amit Shah and Fadnavis and other BJP stalwarts, are after his blood!!

Uddhav is not a great orator, but a silent assassin!! He goes about his job non-nonchalantly and has managed to silence his critics so far!!

Going back, the 1966 born first Indian Hindutva party was sidelined by Modi. Again a very wrong way of treating an old ally.

BJP was born in 1982 with great efforts from Maharani Vijayaraje Scindia, Vajpayeeji from Jan Sangh and Advani from the RSS. It was hence called the Sangh Parivar.

Incidentally, Modi survived because of Bala Saheb Thackeray. Post the 2002 Godhra kand, Advani, Vajpayee consulted Bala Saheb. They wanted to sack Modi because the party had suffered greatly.

But, the Sena Supremo stated that if Modi was to be sacked, the BJP will lose Gujarat permanently. This made the then top order of BJP to continue with Modi and the same man attacked the Sena after his elections victory in 2014. Isn’t it surprising?

Uddhav has already proclaimed that in 2019, there will be a Marathi manoos PM! All know that Modi jumped back with thumping majority in 2019 Lok Sabha elections!!

Only there has been no Marathi PM till now. Karnataka had Deve Gowda, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, UP, all had their PMs. Maha is still waiting. Sharad Pawar tried in the 90s but lost the battle! In the future, the chances are grim!!

The Demonetization fiasco, the GST high rates initially, the great escape of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi…the Banks in great debts with NPAs rising, The false assurances by Modi and un-fulfillment of pre-election promises. All these have dented Modi’s popularity. The opposition was baying for his blood!!

The Indian electorate feels they have been cheated…Only JIO Digital is raking in millions…!! Post the FB deal and many others to come, Mukesh is laughing all the way to the banks!!

Also, some ten noted Industrialists are laughing all the way to the banks. Adani is one among them along with the Rafale tainted former billionaire, Anil Ambani, but today he is bankrupt!! He does not have money to pay his debtors! Once, Mukesh paid his debt of 440 Cr to Erickson and now he has to pay $700 to three Chinese banks because of his loan defaulting as per the supreme court order within a week!!

Modi has introduced many policies and has managed to win the situation post Corona attack and his lockdown announcements ‘if not early, still, on March 24, this year have reduced the casualties!!

Modi is a great Orator and finishes the opposition with his mighty dialogue delivery, be it at rallies or in the parliament!! Modi’s profile in India is huge!! He takes personal credit for all initiatives! His picture appears multiple times in all the editions of the dailies, whenever his government introduces new initiatives! His Mann ki Baat and TV interviews make the audience lend an ear to him because of his wise rhetoric!

The BJP has had an extraordinary control of the political narrative during the 2019 election, aided by its extremely large war chest which has helped it penetrate even deeper into traditional and social media. Modi led from the front!!

His oratorical skills with facts and figures demolished the opposition!!

While only a quarter of Indians use WhatsApp, still it is more than 300 million people – the creation of promotional material specifically targeted at different segments of society has played a huge role in advancing a particular political narrative. Facebook has been filled with Modi and his policies regularly!! He has already said, he is not worried about the Memes making fun of him by the opponents!! His opponents run away when he starts to speak!

It has been proved, time and again, oratorical skills always garner votes for the politicians!! India is no different!

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4 Comments

  1. Indian electorate is gullible and clueless. It can not tell apart political left from the right. The present central government won their mandate for their purported right wing ideologies but what it’s doing in its current rule is nothing but socialism which is driving us towards Venezuela. BJP tied up with Fernandes’s Samata party which is a far left radical wing infamous for strikes and yet Fernandes was a bedfellow for BJP till his end. If you are a right wing party you do not call for strikes but that’s exactly what Naveen kateel did a couple of years ago. BJP and Marxism does not go together but Tarek Fatah is a sworn Marxist who is a dear friend of BJP. Indian politics is a joke.

    Give me the name of one mainstream party which preaches and practices conservative ideology? It’s easy to implement left wing policies because it’s always somebody else’s money which the government uses to buy off the voter through free money projects.

    • I think it is not accidental that the present central government doing a lot of socialistic ideas. There are a lot of reasons. A couple of strong ones:
      Having seen from a close quarters, I see RSS-ideological parent of BJP is closer to left than right. RSS emphasis on equality and simplicity, discouraging personal grandiose, giving importance to local as aginst Videshi, seem like more socialistic. An important aspect that I see pole apart from leftists is the religious/cultural aspect. That is why I like BJP. It has best of both worlds.

  2. Excellent article except for a couple of detours. Modi’s past and Post-Godhra etc were irrelevant for the topic. if you are bringing in politics, you missed writing about Indira Gandhi’s emergency misadventures. A very true and sad part is Modi sidelining Advani. But again, this was unnecessary. There were a few more minor detours. leaving out those points would have enhanced the quality of the writeups.

  3. Betrayal of the electorate in an election is a surefire way of extinction for a political party. Now BJP can remain in power for some time because they have able leadership at the center. Apart from their handling of the economy I do not have any gripes for now. That said, there were millions of middle class and merchant class voters who had voted for BJP who today feel betrayed when Modi has covertly embraced socialism. This creates a void in the political spectrum and gives rise to another “conservative” party rearing its head in the near future (just like AAP did on the left of the spectrum a decade ago).

    At the moment our political left is heavily overcrowded (because it’s easy to do politics using leftist ideology). This creates a massive imbalance however. But the long term stability of a nation depends on the balanced left and right, because everyone’s voice needs to be heard. But if one political party tries to please everyone then that also sows the seeds of its own destruction in the long run. It’s impossible to please everyone because we all are unique and yet different. If you go to the social media today you can see the once-hard core BJP supporters have changed their stance. I can almost sense if there was another right wing faction came up all those disgruntled voters would be easily swayed. That would massively affect BJP. Personally I don’t care with that outcome but I can’t resist pointing out what I am seeing.

    Socialism eventually runs its course when there is no more money left. We see that in US, UK, Turkey, Hungary where right wing has taken over after a long time. What we are seeing today in US or Europe is the final throes of socialism which is fighting for its survival. Moving forward it will be either Stalinist Totalitarianism or total anarchy. Indian politics should wake up to this reality and learn its lessons.

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