What's Up with the Choice in UP?
I so agree with this line from Santosh Desai’s article : “The selection of Yogi Adityanath as the UP CM is not an easy decision to read and make sense of.” This choice seems so counter to the BJP approach in the Modi-Shah era, namely: “So far, Hindutva has been used as a retractable weapon, deployed with some flexibility. It comes to the fore on occasion, and is otherwise deployed symbolically… The implicit promise is that Hindutva would be assertively deployed to win elections, but the focus would shift to talking about development and governance once victory was achieved.” Why then did the BJP chose this man as UP CM? After all: “The current strategy is working and the landslide win in UP is proof of that. What additional gain can a more muscular display of Hindutva bring to the party?” Desai’s answer/guess? The BJP/RSS is thinking beyond Modi, i.e., beyond 2019 (or 2024, if Modi wins again in 2019). Is the RSS/BJP (correctly) assuming that the man after Modi probably...