Better The Devil You Know Than The Devil You Don’t

The political debacle of Prashant Kishor, also known as PK, the founder and strategist of the newly formed party Jan Suraj, flabbergasted his fans, party workers, members, and people in the recently concluded election in the poll-bound State of Bihar. 

Nobody expected that, considering the galvanizing moments his team had created on social platforms, and the 3 years of intensive foot marches he and his party workers did.

It was an earth-shattering moment for someone held in high regard as India’s arguably most influential political strategist, whose portfolios boast of impressive political victories of many prominent Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A man of such standing, having lost all 238 seats on which his party launched its candidates, not only blunts his so-far dignified (or overestimated) clout as India’s best political strategist, but it has also put in the spotlight some of his character weaknesses, including blabber-mouthing and sentencing condescending jibes to anyone, whether they are journalists or other leaders. 

While much has been said about him in the form of sympathy, condemnation, mockery, and derision, I am going to talk about something pertaining to his party’s embarrassing debacle in the Bihar Election 2025.

What I am going to discuss in this write-up is purely my subjective standpoint, not a narrative influenced by what social media and tele-media have been blathering about. 

Yes, I feel they are talking nonsense about this man because he has tasted the taste of failure in his first political startup mission, starting from his own birthplace, that is, Bihar. 

Many naysayers now seem to question his very political acumen and the dexterity with which he had helped many leaders win their respective elections.

Some journalists now are being too audacious as to say that PK just stole away the credit of those leaders who would have won their respective elections without his help. 

But that’s not my point here. I am discussing something very important not yet been talked about at great length.

I am talking about some factors that may have caused Prashant’s JSP to fail miserably in the Bihar Election, directly or indirectly. The reason why I am discussing this is based on my cognition as a person born and raised in Bihar, who has at least this inkling of the ground reality of his birthplace.

Better the devil you know…

I was born and raised in Bihar’s Darbhanga district. By the time I attained adulthood, the realization about the ground reality of my birthplace grew on me, that I was in a landscape deep-rooted in the unavoidable reality of casteism and bigotry.

But apart from these realities, the birthplace I grew up understanding was also under the influence of the conventional wisdom of not appreciating anything or anyone that challenges people's own preconceived notions. And that was because of age-long deprivation of quality education that would have edified people about the modern reality of how the world was changing around them.

Even today, when you talk about something new that doesn’t accord with a villager’s own perception, whether it is delusion or falsehood, you will have a tough time dealing with their argument, questioning your logic.

So, in villages, you will find many people who don’t acknowledge the presence of someone who speaks something never heard before, thus frightening them about the person or questioning their integrity. 

In the context of Prashant Kishor, a similar thing happened. Actually, Prashant understood that poverty and migration are some of the most burning issues of the State, but he missed one very reality of the Biharis, that they are psychologically driven to favor someone from their own community or someone they know, even if that someone is corrupt or good-natured. 

For them, what matters is the absolute familiarity with the new face, irrespective of how they conduct themselves.

Let me make you understand my viewpoint with the following example.

Suppose a person who is fighting an election on the ticket of the BJP, and there is another person who is fighting on the ticket of the JSP. While the BJP candidate happens to be from my village and naturally a familiar face for my family, the other candidate is new and so is unfamiliar.

Even though the new candidate has a nice manifesto that is full of reformative promises, if I decide to cast my vote for this candidate because of his poll promises, my father, in most likely case scenario, will forbid me from doing that.

He will tell me something like this, “No son. Don’t cast your vote for this candidate. He is strange.” And if I say something like this to him, “But dad, his political manifesto seems very convincing to me, and I think he is a good candidate who talks about developments.” 

At this, my father would say, “I get that. But the BJP candidate is from our own society. All of us know him very well. Yes, he is a liar and of bad manners, but at least I know him, and he won’t refuse my request for help in times of need. I am convinced about it. But I have no such conviction about the other candidate.”

That’s the psychological reality I am talking about.

People tend to see the main face of a party leader, not its candidates, just as it happens in the case of Modi. Today, you will find many people saying they vote for a BJP candidate because of their affection or devotion to Narendra Modi. And it took Modi nearly twelve years of consistent political practice to build that kind of unmistakable identity or familiarity among people across India.

When Prashant started his political campaign, beginning his foot march from Gandhi’s Champaran district and vowed to change Bihar from its current backward state to a developed one, villagers with a conventional notion of questioning an ideology of such a person looked at him with mixed feelings of doubts, mockery.

Prashant, to them, was like a newly-wedded bride who was educated but unfortunately was married to a guy hailing from such village dominated by people of orthodox thoughts.

So, what happens here is everyone in the village comes to see the bride, listens to her witty talks, and then laughs, mocking her arguments.

Why?

Because those villagers were conditioned that way through years of living under illiteracy, which reduced their cognitive capacity to process a new ideology of someone outside of their living standards.

Therefore, such educated brides who happen to be in a place controlled by conventional thoughts and beliefs will always be mocked or held in suspicion until the right time comes when familiarity with such people grows solid.

Even today, when you come across someone who doesn’t understand your logic based on his preconceived notion on any topic, he will retort to you with his own logic that may not be true, but for him, it is.

That’s the psychological reality of the villagers I grew up watching around me.

It will take Prashant some years of continuous and diligent political campaigning to establish a solid familiarity with the masses who actually represent the soul of India. 

Even Gandhi said that true India lives in its villages. Until and unless such familiarity is developed, trust of Biharis will remain an elusive concept to JSP. 

Prashant is a new guy who has intentionally jumped into the quagmire of casteism and communalism of the State that once was a foundation of knowledge and wisdom for the world.

Best of luck for his future endeavor, and hope to see him fulfill his political promises by understanding the psychological reality of what makes Bihar a unique State, when seen from a political lens.