Elections in India are political festivals. However, the Election Commission’s restrictions during campaign season, though needed, seem to have robbed elections of their charm.
In the 1980s in Tamil Nadu, what was dismissed by many as cacophony used to be music to the ears of children. Voices of popular leaders would blare through the streets, film songs loaded with political messages would play, and professional speakers would visit every nook and corner of towns and villages in megaphone-fixed vehicles. They would address the voters with the familiar phrase, “ Periyorkalae, Thaimarkale (Elders and Mothers)”.
We would run after the vehicles, sometimes hanging on their tailgate. All we wanted was a jolly, free ride, and to collect as many as pamphlets printed in colour paper. Some boys loved chewing the pink-coloured papers that would make their lips pink, like lipstick does.
Walls were a priced possession during elections. There used to be stiff competition among partymen to book them in advance. The political affiliation of the owner of the wall decided who got to use it. Besides serious messages, nasty comments and unparliamentary words adorned the walls. At night, rival camps would deface them by throwing handfuls of cow dung. Sometimes the messages would result in retaliations and altercations.
In the evenings, we would march on the streets holding the flags of the parties we were affiliated to. Children would be treated to sukku coffee (dry ginger coffee) and paruppu vada (dhal vada) as a reward for their participation. Tea and coffee were considered as great treats because white sugar was scarce and families used only karuppukatty (palm jaggery) to make coffee. These rewards regularly resulted in defection among children from one party to another. Defectors earned the title ‘ Pachonthi (chameleon)’.
At night, All India Radio would broadcast the speeches of local and national leaders. The DMK would get excited when M. Karunanidhi would start his speeches with the words, “ Singa Tamil Nadaiyum, Singara Thendra Nadaiyum thannakathy konda pooman Arignar Anna . (Anna, the scholar, your Tamil is as majestic as a lion and flows like a breeze).” AIADMK leader M.G. Ramachandran did not campaign in the 1984 election as he had gone to the U.S. for medical treatment. The AIADMK election camps would play all day the MGR film song, “ Andavany un pathangalai naan kanneeril neeratinen (Oh god, I washed your feet with my tears).” The Opposition sought to capitalise on MGR’s absence, but R.M. Veerappan, a member of MGR’s Cabinet, took the wind out of their sails by releasing a poster in which MGR was seen without his trademark cap, reading a newspaper while lying on the hospital bed. The poster proved a game-changer for the AIADMK.
What remained enjoyable during childhood proved irritating when I became a journalist and was assigned to cover the public rallies of political leaders during elections. PMK leader S. Ramadoss and MDMK general secretary Vaiko would start their speeches invariably after midnight and wind up only early in the morning. When he became Chief Election Commissioner, T.N. Seshan ensured that meetings ended by 12 p.m. Subsequently the deadline was further moved forward to 10 p.m. And the two leaders changed their campaign styles subsequently.
