[Reader-list] Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you

[Kshmendra Kaul]

Not to be missed:
 
SLIDE 1 : In the Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Christian, the Sikh is in the forefront. Why? Was the poster Punjab specific? Is it because Manmohan Singh (Sikh) was pre-announced as Prime Minister? Is it because the Sikh represents some kind of inoffensive neutrality amongst the other three?
 
SLIDE 2 : The tean in the cup appears to be Saffron coloured. Congress is accused of making sugar unaffordable. Is the Saffron (tea) bitter? Does it need sugaring up by the Congress to make it palatable?
 
SLIDE 3 : Party symbol of BSP, the Elephant (top left) has the Swastika SEAL marked on it, which was used to mark the voter's choice on ballot-papers. Isnt all voting Electronic now?
 
SLIDE 5: Depicts a Muslim family. The woman is not clad "Muslim-conservative" but rather "Muslim-fashionable". The man has a 'Zabiba' mark on his forehead which comes from (and signifies) being regular in Namaz. Interesting contrast.  
 
SLIDES 8 & 9: The Anti-Communalism poster of Samajwadi Party has a pic of Mayawati (of BSP) who too professes being Anti-Communal. The pic shows her speaking from a podium draped in the BJP (regarded as being communal) Lotus symbol. A good one. (also in SLIDE 12) 
 
SLIDE 14: Poster of Kapil Sibal (Congress) meant to be Anti-Modi (regarded as a communal HIndu) has prominently evident "Hindu" symbols on his wrist and forehead. Interesting 
 
Kshmendra

--- On Sat, 5/23/09, Tasveer Ghar <tasveerghar at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Tasveer Ghar <tasveerghar at gmail.com>
Subject: [Reader-list] Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you
To: "Sarai reader list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Date: Saturday, May 23, 2009, 7:15 PM


Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you
http://tasveerghar.net/cmsdesk/essay/49/index.html


Dear friends,
Last week, the Lok Sabha elections of 2009 to select India's central
government finally come to an end, and results were out. Some analysts
have pointed out that the Muslims of north India were one of the
important deciding factors for the success or defeat of the different
parties. If one observed the Urdu newspapers in north India, one could
easily see how different parties and candidates tried to attract the
attention of Muslim voters by engaging them on a number of issues from
development and employment to terrorism and communalism.

While Congress and its allies have emerged once again to form the
government, one can see how they and the other parties didn't leave
any stone unturned to present a favourable image of themselves, while
painting their opponents as the worst enemies of the Muslims.
Interestingly, many of these advertisements have bylines not of the
main parties they represent. Rather, these have been issued by
hitherto unknown organizations and NGOs of local Muslims, and in some
cases, religious clergy or even the keepers of local Sufi shrines, who
have a great following among the Muslims. While this is not the first
time that Muslim religious leaders have participated in the campaign
for political parties, but they have certainly come out more openly
this time, often using the iconography of their religious authority.

Tasveer Ghar presents a few examples of such campaign advertisements
from some Urdu newspapers published in Delhi and UP in the last few
weeks:

http://tasveerghar.net/cmsdesk/essay/49/index.html

We would be happy to hear your feedback about the various interesting
image galleries emerging on Tasveer Ghar.

The Tasveer Ghar Team

--

http://www.tasveerghar.net
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