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 8,500 feet above sea level. The election fever had pretty much caught on up there as well.

The blaring loudspeaker announcements starting early in the morning were testaments to the fact, testing our patience levels. But what caught my attention the most were the election symbols of the local political parties and their candidates, bordering on the utterly hilarious to the ridiculous. When I first heard of 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 rain-soaked morning, I knew I had to look up the details. My ignorance versus the creative christening spree in the Indian political corridors.

A virtual quest unearthed some very interesting facts that had me in splits over the sheer absurdity of the names. For the uninitiated, the 2017 round of State elections have a motley bunch of innovative election symbols allotted to various lesser-known parties. ‘Ladies 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’! Are you kidding me?

The more I pored 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 the imagination of the parties they represent?

I soon found out that indeed there is a method in this madness. According to the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, symbols are of two types — either reserved or free. A reserved symbol is a symbol 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 national and State parties.

Whereas the reserved symbols for the national and State parties have some life pulsating in them, with ‘Elephant’, ‘Lion’, ‘ Tiger', ‘Cock’, ‘Lotus’, ‘Mango’ and ‘Flowers and Grass’ and suchlike, 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 such as ‘Noodles Bowl’, ‘Phone Charger’, ‘Electric Pole’ and ‘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 of Indian politics, crude and basic, and leaving hardly anything to the imagination! The common man can easily relate to these symbols, we are told. However, delving deep into this hieroglyphic almanac, I found the pictorial depictions that took me back to my barnaparichay (word book) 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 use of force or violence that might mar India’s image as a peace-loving nation. However, our neighbour didn’t care for such subtle acts of tolerance, proudly flaunting their affinity for ammunition of all kinds.

The rest of the world seems more adventurous, looking beyond the mundane household to explore nature and its diverse flora and fauna. A red rose symbolises the Labour party and green earth represents the Green party in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the Democratic party and the Republican party flaunt their donkey and elephant proudly. Various types of birds in Slovakian politics signify freedom or the aspiration for it.

Coming back to India, whether the ‘Razor’ manages to adequately sharpen the political prowess of the Jai Hind Samaj Party, or the ‘Immersion Rod’ of the Kisan Shakti Jantantrik Party heats up the political scene in Uttar Pradesh; the ‘Dumb Bells’ 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 the common person 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 times. Consider ‘Smartphone’, ‘Selfie Sticks’, ‘Pouting Lips’, ‘Muffler’, ‘Khadi’, ‘Yoga’, ‘Mitron’, ‘Black Buck’. And how about some abstract symbols too for a change? LOL, ROFL, LMAO, anything that the millennials can relate to. What say peeps?

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