Even though it is an autonomous constitutional authority, its role is mostly limited to administering the election processes to all types of elections that take place in India. Politicians fully aware that the situation allows them to play the fool throughout the non-election years, then conveniently change into their best behaviour as soon as elections are announced. Surprisingly the Chief Election Commission is not evolving fast enough to have more powers to plug the loopholes in the system, because that would put an end to the unethical exploitation of the system outside the code of conduct window.
For example a recent trend that is slowly developing in Goa is of installing temporary posters at vantage points consisting of politician’s cutouts that are not only becoming imposing in size but also at an increasing frequency. If not nipped in the bud on time, it has the potential to not only make Goa look optically ugly and unorganised, but also runs the risk of making Goans seem stupid citizens, in search of larger than life individuals to take care of them.
Politicians are not to be blamed here; they will try every trick in the book that is allowed to them, to look saleable and build an image for themselves as part of their marketing strategy. In a bid to become the ‘poster boys’ of Goa, these cutouts are going to become larger in size by the day and will reach a crescendo during elections time. Ok the word ‘boys’ might be wrong to use, but nothing is stopping politicians flushed with funds to install posters everywhere and anywhere. Imagine the impact it has on the formative minds of school going children, slowly harboring the thought of becoming one of the figures shown on the posters. After all, the poster does not mention the deeds these guys do.
Should we allow this type of political gimmickry that shows Goans as primitive thinking people, yet to develop politically? For argument sake even if we allow these posters in Goa, are we not shutting the door on new political candidates that might not be able to afford such huge pictures? Europe for example regulates campaign advertising and even bans in some places paid advertising, for the simple reason that wealthy lobbies will corner all the slots and allot them to candidates whom they can then arm twist to follow their agenda. Unfortunately posters in Goa that are being installed do not even classify as campaign advertising, because they are being smartly done outside the election code of conduct window.
Let’s keep aside the political election poster argument out for a moment. Take for example the Colva traffic circle in Margao. As part of the beatification process the concerned authority ropes in a corporate sponsor to beautify the circle. The corporate does an excellent job, spends time, effort and money in maintaining the greenery of the circle, only to find out one morning that some posters are being installed, which not spoils the beauty of the place, but big enough to make its corporate logo look miniscule. In this case, shouldn’t the corporate sponsor back off from the beautification programme if some event or a private milestone of politicians is going to ruin their effort and visibility on a high frequency basis? The problem is that the concerned authorities that are supposed to enforce rules are puppets in control of politicians that have smartly encroached into the working of municipalities and panchayats.
Speaking of rules, it might not be a bad idea the Government of Goa starts thinking of making Goa a poster free zone. While allowing limited commercial hoardings, even their size could be controlled so as to not distract drivers on roads. How about, allowing hoardings of the size not bigger than the traffic signs that exist on the roads. Limit on size need not kill the revenue as it could still be the same, but a move like this will surely benefit the Goans and tourists alike, because then they get to focus more on the beauty of Goa.
By the way, the so called marketing geniuses that are convincing Goan politicians that big posters will clean their image, are just making a quick buck at their cost, and eventually politicians will realise that bigger the poster the bigger is going to be the reminder of their deeds. Also posters hardly make any impact on the Generation Next that carries a mobile phone, glued to their phones they are not going to make any effort to raise their heads and look at the huge cutouts, let alone appreciate them. For those who think this is a trivial matter, here is an exercise they should undertake. Go physically close to the huge cutout of a politician and try to look into the eyes of the politician’s cutout. You will realise the politician is looking down upon you, while you are forced to look up to him. This is precisely their goal, to make you feel that you cannot achieve anything without their help or intervention. The Election Commission needs to figure out a way to put an end to this poster making competition, if they aim to have a mature democracy. Meantime the poster competition will end only if Goans are prepared to shed the slave mentality that exists in their mind, if that is not possible than all bets are off and no Election Commission can help us.
(Plastino D’Costa is a
business consultant)
