What caught my attention was an interesting explanation for Obama’s popularity, given by Joe Klein, Time magazine’s celebrated columnist. “Young Americans are rooting for him because Obama is campaigning in poetry whereas Hillary is campaigning in prose.” To know what this means, read Obama’s riveting campaign speeches, especially the one he delivered after he lost to Clinton in New Hampshire.

He said: “Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can.” I urge every serious-minded Indian politician to read that speech, about which the anchorperson of MSNBC had this to say: “If anybody in America has heard a better speech in modern American political history, please email me.”

Campaigning in poetry is not about using nice-rhyming phrases provided by admen working on fat contracts. It’s about delivering a message of hope and inspiration, of igniting inherent idealism among the people, and of one’s personal commitment and determination to change the existing state of affairs. If Obama is connecting with young voters in spite of the pigment of his skin, it is because he is promising them, with trasparent conviction, that he will withdraw America from Bush’s hopeless war in Iraq, curb corporate greed, improve the living conditions of poor and middle-class Americans, and re-unite a deeply divided American society.

Who will win? Obama? Clinton (who is courageously challenging male supremacy in American politics)? Or a third person? It’s for Americans to decide. I am rather concerned about how India’s next parliamentary polls will be. Will there be any poetry in the campaign for electing the 15th Lok Sabha, or only dull prose? Will any leader offer a real agenda of hope and change, of resolutely addressing the big challenges before the nation? Or will it simply be an exercise in retaining or changing a government?

Don’t expect any poetry from the Congress leadership. It has little to offer except repeating an old tattered line (‘Defeat communal and fascist forces’) and a new falsehood (‘We’ll remove power scarcity with the Indo-US nuclear deal’). Anyway, which Congress leader today looks, or sounds, even remotely prime ministerial? Don’t expect it from the communists and UNPA either. That leaves the BJP, which, along with its existing and new allies, has a distinct chance to return to power. In 1996, 1998 and 1999, its lead campaigner was Atal Bihari Vajpayee, himself a poet. His campaigns also had poetry, some of which indeed got translated into his performance as India’s third longest-serving prime minister. Question is: Will the BJP campaign in poetry or prose in 2008/09? Will it offer real hope to the aam aadmi, beyond merely accusing the Congress of betraying him? A concrete plan to mitigate the plight of kisans? An agenda to achieve something as big in ‘bijlee’ and ‘paani’, as it did in ‘sadak’ during Atalji’s six-year reign? Will it promise India’s ambitious youth: “Dream big; we’ll work with you to make your dreams come true”? Will it open the doors of opportunity to crores of deprived children with mega-improvements in education and healthcare? Will it dare to make development and good governance an emotive issue? And taking a leaf out of Narendra Modi’s recent campaign in Gujarat, will it pledge zero-tolerance on corruption, a pledge it could not quite keep in the NDA rule?

Finally, zero-tolerance towards jihadi terrorism is a must; but will the BJP also pledge to work for riot-free India? Appeasement is detestable, but will it reach out to poor Muslims with a programme based on its own slogan of “Justice for all”? Or will it, in spite of disastrous results in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, yield to the influence of those who think that Hindutva simply means consolidation of the “Hindu vote-bank”?

L.K. Advani is Atalji’s worthy successor in the BJP. He is not a poet, but nor is Obama. Who says only poets can campaign in poetry? There is no other leader in India today who can deliver a reassuring message rooted in oft-tested personal conviction than Advaniji. Some might argue, as Hillary Clinton actually did last week, “You may campaign in poetry, but you have to govern in prose.” She said it to underscore her message that while her rival talks well, only she has the experience of 35 years of public service. On the count of experience, too, Advaniji, who entered public life before 1947, stands unrivalled. And who says only the young can inspire the young? A few months ago, when he (then nearing 80) went for a function at Raigad Fort, the majestic mountain-top capital of Shivaji, a 40-year-old BJP leader in Maharashtra told me, “Advaniji shamed us by walking and climbing the steps faster than we could.” It’s now for him to prove he can climb to the top.