Hillary Clinton, too, needs a Prashant Kishor to win

With commentators, both serious and the not-so-serious, pointing to the similarities between Donald Trump and Narendra Modi, especially their surprisingly popular anti-establishment stance, it is a wonder that Hillary Clinton has not yet reached out to India’s poll-winning whiz-kid Prashant Kishor.

At least it does not seem that she has reached out as Kishor has now taken on the onerous task of pulling off a political miracle for the Congress party in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Of course, since the UP polls will take place six months after Americans vote for the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he could still nip over and help the Clintons return to the White House 16 years on.

At a time when Indians are making their presence felt in the US from banking and infotech to Hollywood and Nasa, it makes eminent sense for the world’s oldest democracy to draw upon a signal talent from the world’s largest democracy.

Kishor would be a shoo-in for an H-1B visa, given his very specialised skills and insight into dealing with maverick political personalities. Since his forte is campaign management, regardless of ideology and political project, his work would be measured purely in terms of professional excellence. Unless, of course, a certain Karl Rove starts a Make-in-America campaign to keep Indian competition out.