From ‘cylinder’ to ‘ice-cream’, from ‘noodles bowl’ to ‘phone charger’ we have it all!
Last weekend I was at Kanatal, a little known, breathtakingly beautiful hill station tucked away in Uttarakhand at 9000 sq. feet above sea level. The election fever had pretty much caught on, up there as well.
The blaring mike announcements starting from the wee hours of the morning were a testament to the fact, testing our patience threadbare. But what caught my fancy most were the symbols of the local political parties, bordering on utterly hilarious to ridiculous. When I first heard ‘kursi’ (chair), I laughed it off as an auditory malfunction; even ‘cylinder’ couldn’t shake that resolute belief, but by the time the not-too-tantalising call of an ‘ice-cream’ attacked my numb ear-drums on a chilly rain-soaked morning, I knew I had to look up. Google that is. My ignorance, versus the creative christening spree in the Indian political corridors.
My virtual quest unearthed some very interesting facts that literally had me cracking up in splits at the sheer absurdity of ‘name calling’. For the uninitiated, the 2017 Elections have a motley bunch of innovative election symbols allotted to various lesser known parties. ‘Lady Finger’, ‘Cake’, ‘Capsicum’, ‘Noodles Bowl’, ‘Bangles’, ‘Phone Charger’, ‘Pan’, ‘Vacuum Cleaner’, ‘Television’, Room Heater’, ‘Baby Walker’, ‘Petrol Pump’, ‘Crane’, ‘Tyre’, ‘Shoe’, ‘Battery Torch’, ‘Soap Dish’, ‘Scissors’, ‘Electric Pole’, like seriously?! Are you kidding me?
The more I poured over the ludicrous party names, the more I guffawed and the more desperate I became. To get into the depths of this bizarre domestication of politics. The rationale, if any, and the history behind it. What’s the scene outside India? Are they as obsessed with their household as we sanskaari Indians are? What’s the source of these names, are they really documented somewhere or are they figments of imagination of the parties they represent?
I soon found out that indeed there is a method in this madness. According to Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, symbols are of two types- either reserved or free. A reserved symbol is a symbol which is meant for a recognised political party for exclusive allotment to contesting candidates set up by that party. A free symbol, on the other hand, is a symbol other than that reserved for well-known national and state parties.
Whereas the reserved symbols for National and State parties has some life pulsating in them, with ‘Elephant’, ‘Lion’, ‘ Tiger’, ‘Cock’ (like the bird, if you insist), ‘Lotus’, Mango, ‘Flowers and Grass’, the registered unrecognised parties could feel free to choose from the wide platter of ‘free symbols’ laid down by the Election Commission. And even outside it, as symbols like ‘noodles bowl’, ‘phone charger’, ‘electric pole’, ‘petrol pump’ are nowhere part of the list.
Unabashedly inanimate and utterly prosaic, all 85 of them in this coveted list remains true to the core essence of Indian politics, crude and basic and hardly anything left for imagination! The common man can easily relate to these symbols, we are told. However, deep diving into this hieroglyphic almanac, I found these pictorial depictions that took me back to my Barnaparichay days!
It is interesting to note that the symbol ‘Road roller’ was removed by the Commission in 2013 from the list of free symbols, bulldozing any connotation of violence that might mar its image of a peace loving nation. However, our neighbour didn’t care for such subtle acts of tolerance, proudly flaunting their affinity for ammunitions of all kinds.
The rest of the world seems more adventurous, looking beyond the mundane household to explore the Nature and its diverse flora and fauna. A red rose symbolizes the Labour party and a green earth represents the Green party in England, the Democratic and Republican Party flaunts their donkeys and elephants proudly and various types of birds in Slovakian politics signify freedom or the aspiration for it.
Coming back to India, whether the ‘Razor’ manage to adequately sharpen the political prowess of the Jai Hind Samaj Party or the ‘Immersion Rod’ of Kisan Shakti Jantantrik Party heats up the political scene in Uttar Pradesh; the ‘Dumbbells’ add enough clout to the Rashtriya Vikalp Party, the ‘Binoculars’ provide foresight to the Rashtriya Shahri Vikas Party or the ‘Toffees’ sweeten the political journey for the Bharat Nyay Dal, only time will tell.
But we, the common man of India would like to humbly request the venerable election commission to ponder on some new age symbols in order to catch up with the current times- ‘Smartphone’, ‘Selfie sticks’, ‘Pouty lips’, ‘Muffler’, ‘Khadi’, ‘Yoga’, ‘Mitron’, ‘Black Buck’, ‘Middle finger’…err not exactly in any order though. And how about some abstract symbols too for a change? LOL, ROFL, LMAO, anything that the millennials can relate to. What say peeps?
