{"id":56,"date":"2017-01-02T09:59:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T09:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.themegrill.com\/flash-default-2\/?p=56"},"modified":"2020-08-22T11:48:58","modified_gmt":"2020-08-22T11:48:58","slug":"5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my two year journey through Indian politics I\u2019ve learnt a lot of important lessons about how politics and policymaking function in this country. A lot of the lessons have come through the analysis of electoral data but the truly eye opening lessons have come from travelling with party leaders and karyakartas. This article is a compilation of five lessons I\u2019ve learnt about Indian politics in the last two years but only recently crystallized while travelling across eight districts of Tripura with BJP\u2019s National General Secretary, Shri Ram Madhav.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It\u2019s the hardest job<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Grassroots politics is not what is reported to be politics from the TV studios of Delhi. It is one of the most grueling professions than anyone could chose to embark upon. The toughness of politics doesn\u2019t come from the long work hours or the rigorous workload; it comes from the uncertainty involved. The people who\u2019ve chosen to enter politics need to work for a political party or a constituency without the slightest surety of winning, or even getting a party ticket to contest. Everyone in politics is essentially a volunteer and the only real motivation to put in the hard work is self-motivation. A person who has entered politics from the grassroots is someone who is willing to travel from village to village meeting people for weeks and months while spending his or her own money with an expectation of a future reward that might never materialize. It\u2019s this risk that prevents educated people from entering politics. Most people who can get high paying jobs wouldn\u2019t even considering foregoing that income to indulge in the risky business of politics. Even after winning an election you only have job security for five years.<\/p>\n

    2.<\/strong> Unlimited Patience<\/strong><\/p>\n

    There are a few Members of Parliament (MPs) who won elections during a wave when anyone who\u2019d gotten the party ticket would have won. Some of these politicians got the ticket due to their proximity to senior leaders, their successful careers outside of politics, their intellectual abilities, their performance in TV studios, and some even got tickets just through luck. The number of such politicians drops drastically as you go lower down the political hierarchy to the level of Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs). Most MPs and almost all MLAs come from the grassroots and are people who\u2019ve spent years cultivating relationships in their constituencies. These politicians must possess the quality of unlimited patience because they are often responsible for hosting multiple meetings a day where exactly the same issues are discussed. They must patiently listen to constituents who come to them everyday with problems that they have no jurisdiction over, yet they must attempt to help or at least assure the voter of trying. Very senior leaders of the party like Ram Madhav ji often attend over half a dozen meetings each day with party functionaries from the State and Mandal level in states that are going to polls. These meetings last from 7:00 AM in the morning to 2:00 AM the next day and the leaders have to repeat the same messages during all of the meetings. The issues raised by party functionaries from different Mandals are also largely the same and they are repeated multiple times in all meetings by different people. Grassroots politics isn\u2019t for someone who can\u2019t bear with the monotony.<\/p>\n

    3.<\/strong> Diversity of character<\/strong><\/p>\n

    This one isn\u2019t strictly a requirement for success in politics, but the trait is required for someone to be a good politician. A good politician must have the diversity of character to meet people from all walks of life and from all socioeconomic backgrounds. They must have the capacity to interact with foreign diplomats in the morning and maintain equal enthusiasm in meeting with illiterate laborers from the most backward areas of the country the same evening. Exhibiting this trait sounds much easier than it actually is, and I\u2019ve rarely met politicians who can do this well.<\/p>\n

    4.<\/strong> Never stop learning<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The media has branded the Indian politician as a brash individuals who knows nothing beyond caste and votebank politics. In the constant fight for survival that politicians must endure, a lot of them do forget that there is more to politics than winning elections. Every politician must keep learning about his or her constituency, voters and the changing power dynamic within their party, but there are several great politicians in India who are learned individuals with a surprising breadth and depth of knowledge. They are informed about the happenings of the world and are voracious readers. In my two years in politics I\u2019ve met several politicians who defy every stereotype people hold of the Indian politician and they often know far more than most highly educated corporate employees. Constant learning and a habit of reading are essential to politics because a good politician must be able to connect ideas from multiple places to form a novel narrative. The job of winning elections also involves a lot of monotonous work and travelling, from which reading is a welcome respite.<\/p>\n

    5.<\/strong> Persistence wins<\/strong><\/p>\n

    This lesson is the secret to succeeding in politics. If a person has no other skill put persistence he or she will likely succeed in politics. Every incumbent is bound to mess up eventually. If you can position yourself as the alternative then the people will sweep you into political power. The secret is to always be the primary opposition, and you are bound to become the incumbent in due time.<\/p>\n

    The End.<\/p>\n

    Connect with me on Twitter: @ShivamShankarS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In my two year journey through Indian politics I\u2019ve learnt a lot of important lessons about how politics and policymaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[200,216],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail - Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shivam Shankar Singh Author Data Analyst How to Win an Indian Election Schwarzman Scholar Michigan LAMP Fellow Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities Penguin HarperCollins Information Warfare\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail - Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shivam Shankar Singh Author Data Analyst How to Win an Indian Election Schwarzman Scholar Michigan LAMP Fellow Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities Penguin HarperCollins Information Warfare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-02T09:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-22T11:48:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Image-Meeting-Politics.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shivamshankars\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@shivamshankars\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@shivamshankars\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"shivamshankars\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"shivamshankars\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/7a3211e520464ecb31de1541719c9a9f\"},\"headline\":\"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-02T09:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-22T11:48:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/\"},\"wordCount\":935,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/7a3211e520464ecb31de1541719c9a9f\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/\",\"name\":\"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail - Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-02T09:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-22T11:48:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"Shivam Shankar Singh Author Data Analyst How to Win an Indian Election Schwarzman Scholar Michigan LAMP Fellow Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities Penguin HarperCollins Information Warfare\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/\",\"name\":\"Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/7a3211e520464ecb31de1541719c9a9f\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/7a3211e520464ecb31de1541719c9a9f\",\"name\":\"shivamshankars\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/ShivamShankarSingh.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/ShivamShankarSingh.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"shivamshankars\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Shivam Shankar Singh is a data analyst, campaign consultant and author of the bestseller, How to Win an Indian Election (Penguin, 2019). His recent book, The Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities (HarperCollins, 2021) deals with information warfare. He started out in the policy realm as a Legislative Assistant to Member of Parliament (LAMP) Fellow and went on to witness the process of conjuring political realities while managing data analytics for some of India's largest political parties. He is a panelist on national television and writes for several news publications on data and politics. He graduated from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and is a 2021-22 Schwarzman Scholar.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shivamshankars\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/author\/shivamshankars\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail - Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant","description":"Shivam Shankar Singh Author Data Analyst How to Win an Indian Election Schwarzman Scholar Michigan LAMP Fellow Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities Penguin HarperCollins Information Warfare","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail - Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant","og_description":"Shivam Shankar Singh Author Data Analyst How to Win an Indian Election Schwarzman Scholar Michigan LAMP Fellow Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities Penguin HarperCollins Information Warfare","og_url":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/","og_site_name":"Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant","article_published_time":"2017-01-02T09:59:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-22T11:48:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":330,"url":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Image-Meeting-Politics.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"shivamshankars","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@shivamshankars","twitter_site":"@shivamshankars","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"shivamshankars","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/"},"author":{"name":"shivamshankars","@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/7a3211e520464ecb31de1541719c9a9f"},"headline":"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail","datePublished":"2017-01-02T09:59:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-22T11:48:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/"},"wordCount":935,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/7a3211e520464ecb31de1541719c9a9f"},"articleSection":["Blog","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/","url":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/","name":"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail - Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-01-02T09:59:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-22T11:48:58+00:00","description":"Shivam Shankar Singh Author Data Analyst How to Win an Indian Election Schwarzman Scholar Michigan LAMP Fellow Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities Penguin HarperCollins Information Warfare","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2017\/01\/02\/5-lessons-about-politics-from-the-campaign-trail\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"5 Lessons About Politics from the Campaign Trail"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#website","url":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/","name":"Shivam Shankar Singh | Author, Data Analyst and Campaign Consultant","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/7a3211e520464ecb31de1541719c9a9f"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/7a3211e520464ecb31de1541719c9a9f","name":"shivamshankars","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/ShivamShankarSingh.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/ShivamShankarSingh.png","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"shivamshankars"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"Shivam Shankar Singh is a data analyst, campaign consultant and author of the bestseller, How to Win an Indian Election (Penguin, 2019). His recent book, The Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities (HarperCollins, 2021) deals with information warfare. He started out in the policy realm as a Legislative Assistant to Member of Parliament (LAMP) Fellow and went on to witness the process of conjuring political realities while managing data analytics for some of India's largest political parties. He is a panelist on national television and writes for several news publications on data and politics. He graduated from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and is a 2021-22 Schwarzman Scholar.","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/shivamshankars"],"url":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/author\/shivamshankars\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Image-Meeting-Politics.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2172,"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/2172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}