Journalism of Courage
Once the most common way of using wit and biting political commentary to make a point about rivals — and get people chuckling — political posters somewhat got lost in the melee in the age of social media as memes became the new online tool for parties. Be it memes or physical posters, if well done, they can have a big impact.
With the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the BJP locking horns in recent days over the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons to BRS MLC K Kavitha, posters taking digs at the Narendra Modi-led party sprang up across Hyderabad on Saturday. A poster made references to “raid detergents” and had the images of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, both of whom had corruption allegations levelled against them and moved from the Congress to the BJP. The poster showed the leaders in dirty white T-shirts that get coloured saffron, which is the BJP’s colour, after the detergent is used. Underneath, there was Kavitha’s picture and the caption read, “True colours never change.”
An online poster shared by BRS leader and Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Corporation chairman Y Sathish Reddy showed a washing powder with the BJP’s lotus symbol turning into white the clothes of BJP leaders Sarma, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa, former BJP leader and current Trinamool Congress MP Mukul Roy, and West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. Besides their images, alleged scams in which the leaders are accused are mentioned. Reddy captioned the photo, “Washing powder BJP; immediately clean the stains left by ED-CBI.” The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also shared the same image on its Twitter handle.
According to news agency ANI, a hoarding with morphed images of “Nirma Girl”, a character from an iconic Nirma detergent ad, in the 1990s was put up in Hyderabad. The banner featured the morphed images of the “Nirma Girl” with the faces of BJP leaders. The hoarding was put up on Saturday night as Amit Shah arrived in the city. The Union Home Minister on Sunday attended the CISF Raising Day parade.
This is not the first time such poster wars, online or in real life, have taken place between parties. There are several instances from the last couple of years of clever posters playing on popular slogans, advertisements, and films being at the centre of political discourse.
On February 23, chaos erupted in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House as AAP and BJP councillors engaged in fistfights, throwing punches and pushing one another after Mayor Shelly Oberoi declared one vote invalid in the election to six members of the Standing Committee. A day later, the parties engaged in a Bollywood-themed poster war online.
The BJP accused AAP MLA Atishi of orchestrating the violence and called her a “Khalnayika (villain)”. “AAP’s ‘villain’ who caused violence in the House,” read the BJP poster inspired by the 1993 Jitendra and Jaya Prada-starrer Khalnayika.
Hitting back, the AAP featured a poster with the images of BJP MPs Manoj Tiwari, Gautam Gambhir, and councillor Rekha Gupta and captioned it, “Ballot Chor Machaye Shor (Those who stole ballots are making noise).” It was a take on the 1974 movie Chor Machaye Shor starring Shashi Kapoor and Mumtaz.
In the last week of January, the Mumbai BJP put up massive cutouts and posters of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray along a route Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to take on his visit to the city. The move was part of subtle messaging, a strategy to lay claim to the legacy of the Sena founder and push his son Uddhav Thackeray even more towards the margins by increasing the appeal of the Eknath Shinde-led group among Shiv Sainiks on the ground. The
On January 9, the Tamil Nadu Assembly was rocked by unprecedented scenes as Governor R N Ravi walked out before the national anthem was sung. The governor walked out in protest after Chief Minister M K Stalin asked the Assembly Speaker to take note of the changes Ravi had made to the speech prepared by the government and requested him to take note only of the original speech. A day later, posters came up across Chennai with the slogan, “GetOutRavi”.
The DMK and the BJP in Tamil Nadu engaged in one-upmanship last year before the 44th Chess Olympiad. A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to inaugurate the international event, BJP workers went around the city pasting the PM’s photographs on billboards advertising the tournament. They were upset that the billboards and banners only featured Stalin and the Olympiad’s veshti-adorning mascot Thambi. They sent out teams of workers across the city, armed with the PM’s posters, generous amounts of glue, and cameras to capture the moment.
The same month, the BJP conducted its national executive meeting in Hyderabad and the charged political confrontations with the BRS (then known as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi) saw both sides engage in poster and hoarding battle.
First came the BJP hoardings outside its state headquarters displaying a countdown for Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, or KCR, to quit. The text on the hoarding read, “Salu Dora, Selavu Dora (enough, sir; goodbye, sir)”. This was seen as an effort to energise the cadre in the run-up to the national executive meeting.
Huge hoardings with the PM’s image and the “Bye Bye Modi” hashtag were then seen across the state. Reportedly put up by BRS supporters, they questioned the PM about issues such as unemployment, demonetisation, pandemic, agrarian crisis, economy, and Agnipath. The slogan on the hoarding was, “Salu Modi, Sambako Modi’ (Enough, Modi. Don’t kill people, Modi).”
Soon, photographs of people posing in costumes and masks from the web series Money Heist on the streets near railway stations and banks also emerged online. The posters they were seen carrying read, “We only rob banks. You rob the whole nation. #ByeByeModi.”
