UP a canvas for poster war

NEW DELHI, MAY 5: The gloves are off in the fight between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. The stakes are high: the Muslim vote in U...

NEW DELHI, MAY 5: The gloves are off in the fight between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. The stakes are high: the Muslim vote in Uttar Pradesh. And the tactics are low: each camp is preparing posters showing the other cosying up to the BJP.

So while Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Salman Khurshid claimed that he would “expose” the SP with a poster of Amar Singh and Lal Krishna Advani having tea together, SP leaders are ready with the photo of Khurshid hugging Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Forget the context, apparently anything goes in the run-upto Polls ’99. The Amar Singh-Advani scene is taken from a CII meeting while the Khurshid-Vajpayee bearhug is after India’s diplomatic victory at the human rights convention in Geneva a few years ago.

These are now part of a poster war between the two parties in Uttar Pradesh where each knows it could be a fight to the finish.

The Samajwadi Party said today that it would print five posters of Khurshid with Vajpayee for every poster of Amar Singh.Why? “To prove that Congress is more communal than the BJP.”

The only beneficiary in this mud-slinging match is the BJP, watching intently from the viewer’s gallery for any division of Muslim votes strengthens its position. “By attacking the Congress, SP is actually helping the BJP,” says Khurshid.

SP leaders have decided to publish another poster depicting former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and A B Vajpayee (two major actors in the Babri Mosque demolition drama) watching television with Khurshid. “The trio watches the Babri being demolished,” will be the caption, SP leaders say.

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Khurshid disowns responsibility for publishing the poster. “Somebody else published it and it is in our possession as well,” he told The Indian Express. “But instead of coming out with an explanation (about actual venue of the picture), the fact that they went hunting for my picture at Geneva (published on cover of an English magazine), shows their own guilt”.

The poster is not important. What isimportant is the politics of dinner and tea taking place between SP and BJP leaders, claims Khurshid. “Why are there no pictures of SP leaders having tea with Congress leaders? Why is BJP congratulating the SP? Who is responsible for scuttling the formation of an alternative Government led by Sonia Gandhi?” he asks.

SP leaders say that if the Congress can “distort” a picture taken at a CII meet (also attended by several Congress leaders including Jairam Ramesh, Murli Deora, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan) out of context, why can’t it reproduce Khurshid’s picture in a different context.

Amar Singh, however, says he doesn’t want to be dragged in: “I cannot join issue with Congress at such low level. Let people see how low the Congress can stoop to woo Muslims,” he said.