A rather nasty cultural habit has become all the rage in politics.
Earlier it was the trusty chappal, aimed with precision at the offending politician. From former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to Rahul Gandhi, a range of leaders came under a hail of righteous chappals. But slippers are so last season. These days, nothing says “I’m not a fan of you” like a shower of ink. AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Yogendra Yadav are the latest political victims of this fad, apart from besieged Sahara CEO Subrata Roy.
The religious reformer, Martin Luther, is said to have hurled ink at no less than the devil, who was so imprudent as to disturb him when he was hard at work. In India too, ink has been used to mark the guilty, to humiliate the transgressor. Not surprisingly, this ritualistic use of ink has also been a favourite trick of the cultural vigilante. In 2011, ABVP activists in Pune smeared ink on an MTV VJ for using “foul language” and encouraging young people to kiss. Ink has been spilt by both sides: in 2010, a group of people blackened the face of the anti-Valentine’s Day crusader, Pramod Muttalik.
Of course, there are those who display an impatience with ink. Union External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid felt it might be time to “replace ink with blood” when Kejriwal went on a protest to Farrukhabad. Recently, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar got into trouble for allegedly joking that supporters should wipe off the ink and vote twice. Hurled, wiped off, smeared, ink is a versatile accessory in Indian politics. But to use it to actually write seems to have become a serious faux pas.
