A scorched earth election campaign
THE WEEK India
|September 14, 2025
One of the earliest historical examples of a scorched earth policy was during the Peloponnesian war nearly 2,500 years ago. The Athenians, facing an invasion by the Spartans, burned and destroyed their own countryside and retreated behind their fortified city walls.
Students of history will recognise the similarities of those tactics with what the Congress is now attempting in its agitation against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Its response to losing three successive national elections has not been introspection and a strategic reboot. Instead, the party has kept doubling down on its failed strategies, while also retreating behind the fortified walls of its few remaining demographic fortresses.
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