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The rise and fall in support for PM Modi will prove a lesson for all Indian politicians in humility, culture and the futility of trying to feed manufactured narratives to the Indian voters.

The reasons I highlighted in my surprisingly viral post on resigning from the BJP constitute my heartfelt feelings on where the party has gone wrong, but I always knew it would be politicised. That is a risk I was willing to take to let people know that criticism of this government is acceptable, and that we must not surrender our abilities of critical thinking at the altar of any political ideology or rhetoric.

Indians have come to expect that politicians and people involved in politics only resign for personal benefit. They either resign to get a cushier position elsewhere, or because they’ve had a personal spat within their party and want a way out. But, sometimes, there are people who can afford to take a principled stance. I just happen to be privileged enough to not have to bury my convictions.

As a lot of people had predicted, journalists and politicians jumped onto whatever I wrote and used it for their own purpose. Some web portals reproduced my Medium post alongside a picture of me with my former boss, Ram Madhav, the BJP general secretary.

That was entirely unintentional and happened because I had told journalists to take my picture from my Facebook account, and some of them happened to choose that one. For this, I owe Ram Madhav a huge apology. There are great people within the BJP and he is definitely one of them. He has been a voice of reason even at the peril of his own politics, and will continue to be an inspirational leader for India.

The other major correction required is that a lot of journalists labelled me a BJP leader — I clearly am no such thing. I was a member of the party and worked on campaigns as a consultant and data analyst.

Some former colleagues of mine have also decided to take the same route I talk against in my post and attack me personally. They’ve levelled juvenile allegations like I was an “intern” working under them or that I was never a member of the BJP. My only recommendation to them would be to read the post and work on correcting the flaws in the party — these personal attacks won’t work forever.

There are a lot of great people in the BJP and at India Foundation who are committed to making India a better place. I also have friends in the Congress who are equally committed to the national cause. This is a statement very few people have the privilege of making in this polarised political climate.

What I am against is this culture that has taken over our political landscape in recent years. The previous governments in India achieved a lot of great things and they also failed in a lot of ways. Criticism of the failures is deserved, but we must also be willing to acknowledge the successes.

The reactions I received from the voting public are phenomenally supportive and positive. This should worry Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah much more than the post itself.

To make a claim as arrogant as “nothing happened in the last 70 years”, and to claim that all the development we see around us is a result of the last four years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brilliance is to make a mockery of public discourse.

The reactions I received from the voting public are phenomenally supportive and positive. This should worry Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah much more than the post itself.

The vast majority of people responded with resounding support for the points raised in the article and several messaged me privately on how disillusioned they were with the party. Most of these people were former supporters who really believed in PM Modi’s promise of a better India. They’ve lost this faith not just because of the work the government is failing to do, but also because of the arrogance with which the BJP disregards genuine concerns, crushes dissent and peddles propaganda. The tide seems to be turning and a defeat for the BJP juggernaut seems inevitable in the upcoming elections.

The rise and fall in support for PM Modi will prove to be a lesson for all politicians in India in humility, culture and the futility of trying to feed manufactured narratives to the Indian voters. It’s my hope that they’ll all take these lessons to heart.

Shivam Shankar Singh handled data analytics for the BJP’s poll campaigns in the northeast, is a 2015-16 Legislative Assistants to Members of Parliament (LAMP) Fellow, and an alumnus of University of Michigan, where he studied economics.

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