Statue-tory warning: Election symbols are being covered up around you. Umm...but why?
Mayawati, BSP, BJP, Congress, Election Commission, Mayawati statue, election symbols, political parties of India
Imagine a country where everyone walks around with mittens on — even during peak summers — to cover up their palms. While we’d all look like zombies from a B-grade movie at best, writing this piece — hitting the keyboard with all the excitement — would have been impossible.
But why am I imagining this bizarre scenario, you might ask?
Well, because it might just happen soon.
For demands to ‘cover up’ anything that is equivalent to an election symbol are rampant at the moment. And the latest victim to that is Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Mayawati — her statues and the statues of her party symbol, the elephant.
Yes, an elephant.
Now, how is one to decide which elephant statue is Mayawati’s party symbol — that needs to be veiled — and which is just a generic statue of one of the most magnificent animals in the animal kingdom? Shall we then cover up all elephant statues? Oh, does that include statues of the elephant god, Lord Ganesha, too? Shall we then raid temples? Wouldn’t raiding temples lead to another very different kind of problem?
And then, of course, the larger question is, where does one stop? If it's elephants today, it will be the broom (Aam Aadmi Party or AAP’s symbol) tomorrow, the train engine (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena or MNS’s party symbol) the day after, and the hand (Congress’s party symbol) the following day!
Psst... Now you know why I was imagining that bizarre scenario of mitten-wearing Indians.
Political parties in India have the darnest party symbols. From animals to flowers to inanimate objects that symbolise something greater — all to establish a very deep connect with the voters, at the most basic level.
But that doesn’t mean that when we look at a train, we think of Raj Thackeray! Shah Rukh Khan and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, yes — but NOT Raj Thackeray.
Similarly, the clock might remind you of Ghadi Detergent Powder, but not of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The lantern might remind you of that terrible movie that Ryan Reynolds starred in, which almost ruined his career but then, he met his now-wife, Blake Lively on set Green Lantern, and not the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). (The green backdrop only makes it better).
The cycle, thanks to those endless ads starring Amitabh Bachchan on television, will only make you think of agarbatti. Guess what — that’s the Samajwadi Party symbol.
So then, what is the logic of ‘covering‘ them up when none seem to have as much of a political recall as a pop culture recall??
Mayawati, however, has a tough question for her detractors — why is the Rs 300-crore Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel statue okay but hers is not?
Aside from the fact that we’d need a massive cloth to cover that mammoth statue, which would probably need to be flown over it by planes and then dropped on it — the stuff of Christopher Nolan movies — and making it look like a giant ghost, Mayawati’s point is as invalid as her opponent’s in this case.
But then, such craziness is not even new. Back in 2012, a jumbo cover-up operation in UP saw the draping of giant statues of Mayawati and the elephant statues. Just last month, Election Commission officials covered up rangolis in Tamil Nadu temple because they had lotus flowers drawn in them. And then, the Baramati administration covered up a British-era steam engine because, well...
As per the EC's latest data, there are 2,293 political parties in India — that means 2,293 everyday things chosen as symbols. That also means that everything up to your kitchen sink is probably a party symbol.
Now, you cannot brush everything under a carpet...err...a cloth, can you?
Here's a solution — instead of covering up the objects that could be a party symbol, cover your eyes like Gandhaari.
Na dikhega symbol, na... you know the rest.