Ah yes, the evergreen complaint in Indian politics. No matter how bad the current government is, it’s supporters will claim the alternative is worse. Even when tens of thousands of people were dying because of COVID, people like this would say “abe librandu (hey libtard), if not Modiji then who?”

Such people missed the obvious answer - the other side might not be perfect but anyone is better than someone who boasted about hosting the largest crowds he had ever seen … during a pandemic.

That's the issue in many (or most?) countries' politics.

Rather than focus on the issues, just keep shouting about how bad the other side would've been if they had been in power.

Somehow, UK tories always found a way to make it Corbyn's fault. Trump ads showed pictures of Trump's america, claiming that's what would happen under Biden.

It's literally the easiest scare piece you can write.

Yes, it's bad, but IMAGINE HOW BAD IT WOULD BE IF THEY WERE IN CHARGE.

Regardless of who THEY is, the people who will respond to those ads will do the actual legwork of filling in all the awful gaps in what could be happening.

It's ridiculous that it works, but it really seems to be effective.

Creating an enemy is politics 101 and routinely used by people of all walks of life. It's the easiest way not only to excuse your low performance, which is suddenly made to look good by comparison, but will also keep the people busy with worrying about that "larger evil" while you do your thing. Sets a low bar and distracts you from real issues.

The opposition would have crippled the country even worse, that other country violates human rights far more egregiously, and that other plumber would have needed even more attempts to get that "paranormal" leak fixed.

These are valid criticisms though

Nobody else will run, because by not being a career politician it means you didn't curate your life to be devoid of different random criticism from people just looking to derail your ambitions and character on the inter/national spotlight.

I'm not even remotely a BJP supporter, as my comment history will attest to.

The union government's Covid response has been spectacularly bad, anyone who argues otherwise is a brainwashed idiot.

If INC was in government some of the more megalomaniacal screwups might have been avoided. Lockdown wouldn't have been announced just hours before it went into effect for example.

However, I don't see the overall results being much better. Be it Sanghis, Commies, Congressis or any flavour of regional satraps, I can't think of a single state government that actually did a halfway decent job.

Kerala did much better than other states in terms of a rational and effective response to covid.

This was a narrative, but not necessarily true?

Early 2020: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53431672

Late 2020: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/compelling-que...

The failure narrative is not necessarily true either. Are we to trust British state propaganda of all things?

I never claimed it was false. I said it’s not entirely true. I think like most states, Kerala has a lot of misplaced pride, and fail to see that their politicians are similarly problematic. Just like the common criticism of BJP, they too neglected COVID policies during voting periods.

By pretty much any metric Kerala handled the pandemic better than other states. It’s worth looking at the material interests behind narratives. British imperialism (as export of capital at usury rates) is still heavily invested in India and communists winning in other states would threaten profits.

The CPI (M) can hardly be compared to the BJP, they’re complete opposites.

Nobody is saying the metrics are identical, nor the parties. I’m saying that politicians are fallible, and commit similar injustices to their citizens. I believe it’s crucial to have a nuanced discussion where any side is criticized for their shortcomings.

From the Hindu, a decidedly anti-BJP, left news org: “Political exigencies also led the government to deliberately delay conducting a serosurveillance study till local body poll results were out”.

It still looks to me like comparing minor flaws to active state oppression and neglect. “Both sides” arguments imply some sort of equivalence which the outcomes don’t support in this case.

> British imperialism (as export of capital at usury rates) is still heavily invested in India and communists winning in other states would threaten profits.

What?

Which bit is confusing?

Imperialism as a stage of capitalism is alive and well. Rich countries remain rich by extracting wealth from poor countries, generally in the form of exporting capital to exploit cheap labour.

Communists are anti-imperialists and if elected in all of India would fight against British (and US and Western European) exploitation. The British state propaganda arm would of course be opposed to communists in India, so as to not threaten the profits of the British ruling class.