So-called ‘political analysts’ misled us for years. Now it’s time they chose a different profession

In the run-up to the elections, the country had witnessed many propaganda peddlers masquerading as political analysts who had taken it upon themselves to enlighten the people as to the trends which ‘implied a non-BJP government’. However, with a massive NDA victory of 353 seats in which BJP alone has got 303, the pseudo-political analysts are left chewing their words. Their predictions couldn’t be further from the truth and have the public wondering if they were just monumentally stupid or were plain dishonest, neither of which is good for the integrity of the public discourse in a democracy.

These pseudo analysts had made tall claims that BJP is over in the country and that the BJP had come to power previously due to the ‘Modi wave’, which is no longer present.

Tufail Ahmad, a political commentator, known for his political acumen and global journalism, has proven himself to be the most imbecile of the lot. According to him, BJP was supposed to lose in a majority of the major states including, Rajasthan, Gujarat, MP and Maharashtra. Along with this, BJP was supposed to be completely ‘wiped off’ from UP. In reality, the saffron party has secured all the Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan and has emerged in majority in all the other states mentioned, along with most of the other Indian states.

Yogendra Yadav, a well-known psephologist and academic had been urging people to choose NOTA this time around and had predicted that BJP wouldn’t even get 200 seats.

Alyssa Ayres, a senior fellow for India and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations had authored an article published in the TIME magazine with the title, “Why Narendra Modi’s Ruling Party No Longer Looks Invincible in 2019 Indian Elections”. According to her analysis, BJP had failed to deliver any economic benefits to the people and at the same time, had propagated a religious nationalism-based agenda which the people didn’t find compelling. All this according to her, would make people choose a different leader.

Unfortunately for these ‘expert’ analysts, the results have painted a completely different picture. In fact, even before the results, during the campaigning stage itself, it had become clear that BJP is going to emerge victorious; the only thing the elections were supposed to ascertain was by what margin. The liberal establishments were well aware of this and in an effort to dissuade the public, tried to build a narrative that Modi government is done for good. By creating this false façade, they believed the voters will get convinced that this is the end for BJP and vote for the other alternatives. It is clear that their “Modi is done” chants were borne out of wishful thinking and not hard analysis of the facts or the public mood.

These very liberal intellectuals often accuse the BJP of being ‘anti-intellectual’ but in the last five years displayed such intellectual bankruptcy, which is far removed from the pulse of the nation. An individual doesn’t even have to be ‘intellectual’ to gauge the public sentiments; they just have to be observant which the analysts have thoroughly failed at. They are more than welcome to their own opinions, but to actually portray their opinions as the public mood is not acceptable. The predictions have proved that these political analysts or liberal intellectuals serve no particular discernible purpose and it would be prudent for the citizens and the country if they were to excuse themselves.