Democracy is not just about winning elections. When you compromise with your core ideology to win elections, your party is taken over by & #39;winnable& #39; politicians, who take the party towards the exact opposite of your core politics. (1/n)

The idea that you can win elections by using methods that are against your ideology & then somehow return to your core AFTER winning, is a naive fantasy. The social groups, pressure-alliances, castes, classes, that coalesce to bring you to power do not allow you to change. (2/n)

That is why playing soft-Hindutva never helped the Congress party, because when it did, it was taken over by those who BELIEVED in soft-Hindutva. Democracy is not a 20-20 match. It consists of small battles, that might have to be lost, to be able to win the ideological war. (3/n)

From the perspective of people living in the present this seems futile & meaningless. They want change right now. In the long run they& #39;d be dead. But, from the point of view of a generation, the long duree is of utmost importance. Any compromise now is a compromise forever. (4/4)