When Politics Mistakes Noise for Strength
When Vilification Becomes a Political Strategy BY : Jameel Aahmed Milansaar. Politics in India has long relied on spectacle, but spectacle is not the same as substance. When public figures build their careers on relentless hostility, personal abuse, and the routine stretching of facts, they may win momentary attention, even applause from loyal supporters. What they do not always win is durability. Over time, politics conducted in this register begins to exhaust itself, because voters eventually distinguish between conviction and performance, between criticism and caricature, between leadership and mere noise. That is the context in which the recent reversals involving several prominent opposition leaders should be read. It is tempting for their critics to frame these moments as a moral reckoning, as if electoral setbacks were proof that the politics of invective has finally been punished. But the deeper point is simpler and more sobering. A style of politics built around permanent anta...
