He dabbles in every partys colours

West Bengal may be talking of change but to Bapi,the CPM and the Trinamool Congress mean the same thing: work. He can have Marxs hammer and sickle for company in the morning.

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West Bengal may be talking of change but to Bapi,the CPM and the Trinamool Congress mean the same thing: work. He can have Marxs hammer and sickle for company in the morning,work with the Congresss hand in the afternoon and close his day touching up the Trinamools twin flowers.

We are artists first and we do not choose at work, says Bapi,one of the hundred-odd political artists in Dompara,as the area in Ramesh Dutta Lane is popularly known. If the Trinamool gives us an order in the morning,then it is quite possible the CPM will place an order for a banner in the evening.

So,does he also phrase the potshots that parties take at each other and which appear as poll graffiti on walls? No, he says,those are dictated by the person who places the order on behalf of the party. They give us the literature in advance and we write accordingly.

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Asked if there is any risk involved in writing something for one party that can upset the other,he indicates there is . This kind of poll graffiti is often done at night, he says. There have been occasions when an opposing party has hurled bombs at graffiti artists. Nowadays we restrict ourselves to doing such work only within the neighbourhood.

His mornings usually involve carving bamboo canes that can later be put together into the shapes of the symbols of various parties. He employs four or five other boys from the neighbourhood who cut and paste paper on those canes after pinning them in place. We meet in the courtyard of a house and quickly decide on our work. Constant visits by leaders of various parties to oversee his work means a late lunch.

The afternoons are reserved for the paint job after a brief break in the shade of the primary health centre. Generally I use water colours when painting on thermocol. For other mediums I use enamel paint that lasts longer and is waterproof. But enamel paint is costlier and often I dont recover the investment I make on it.

Returns against investment are always an area of concern. The poll contracts often come through middlemen who keep a certain portion of the party budget to themselves. If I had a choice I would not have worked during the poll season as you cannot haggle with these people.

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Apart from costs,his business faces pressure also from the increasing use of inexpensive digital imaging.

Dusk settles over the courtyard he sits in but he has not yet made it clear what his own political faith is. This is a life of uncertainty. Political parties come and go but no one has helped salvage the respect we once commanded as artists. Change or no change,we will always have a role to play.