This morning I woke up uttering the word ‘idiots.’ There was a speaker blaring loud, inane songs*, the lyrics of which were interspersed with mention of the symbol used by one of the major** parties here.
There are certain things that I don’t understand. Canvassing methods used by the political parties here is one such recent mystery. While technology and advertising have taken giant steps forward with all their subliminal messages and whatnots, the canvassing methods seem to have got stuck in a time warp. There is nothing subliminal about them. Absolutely nothing.
Well, I must confess they have made some sort of progress. They used those larger versions of bullhorn sort of speakers before. Now the normal kind of speakers are used, although that still hasn’t affected the quality of sound.
And oh, I’ve also managed to catch glimpses of different dances and buggy rides that have been used in canvassing in certain other parts of the country. From what little I saw/read of those, it just looked comical.
From what little I have perceived in the last couple of months, this year’s canvassing seems to have turned away from all the real issues and have turned toward these varying kinds and degrees of stupidity. This, I believe, is a ‘distraction technique’ something akin to what we would do to keep a child from crying or something like that.
Coming back to the issue at hand, perhaps, what happened this morning was a stride forward in canvassing techniques. May be, just may be, the opposing party was the one that was blaring the noise so loud, at 6 am in the morning, so that people will be put off from voting for that particular party.
All this makes it increasingly difficult to ‘choose’ whom I should vote for. Or perhaps, should I say, this has only made it easier?
* They couldn’t exhibit creativity even in the songs! The tunes are all popular Tamil movie song tunes, which are sometimes copies themselves.
** I’m not sure if there are majority parties in India anymore, nor even majority ‘coalition’ of parties.
4 comments:
I guess they (parties) dont realize that they are the reason why people dont turn up to vote.
Hi Bungi! The reason they still resort to these *garish* methods is because of the audience they're trying to woo! You and I form a very small percentage of the country (30% middle class, about 10% 'rich'). And the best (worst?) part is that the rest of the 60% is influenced by the music (and the few rupees and biryani packets and maybe some free liquor that goes with it).
Sometimes I think politicians do all they can to keep us from the issues and the questions.
JR - They definitely aren't the reason people turn up to vote. It is cheap booze and food and all that jazz.
Oxymoron - You are darn right. I read in the news the other day that these people have resorted to giving toddy to their 'follower' involved in the campaign work as it is cheap and the 'followers' love it! What more can i say?
Sandy - That's so true. It's like opening a can of worms for them. They'd rather not deal with it, and pretend it doesn't exist. Sigh.
Post a Comment