With the number of political parties it ain't surprising to find each one crying out to be heard through am advertisement. Always interesting to see them. ive understood the politics of this country more by looking at these banners than by reading editorials in newspapers. A few months back my favourite was this one in Juhu Lane (i think belonging to the Samajwadi Party) which had ONLY the local candidate's photo on it. Surprising, considering these banners tend to honour everyone from the founder of the party to the mother of the guy who painted the lotus on the right hand bottom corner of the banner. Now this candidate, in spite of being a Muslim, could have been finding it tough to get votes in a Muslim dominated area. So he gets himself photographed in a Bedoiun gown and an Arabic headgear. Years of documentaries on the middle east have made me realise that each tribe gets a different head gear (like a Scottish kilt). And this guy had a Saudi head gear. So either he pleads allegiance to King Abdullah (which is a crime i guess) or he's trying to pass himself off as a 'true' Muslim to get votes (which is crazy, im sure). Strangely, no one seemed to notice this subliminal messaging... he lost by a huuuuuggggggggeeee margin and the ad disappeared. Quickly.
Unfortunately, the Shiv Sena wasn't quick enough. When Narayan Rane dumped the Sena, an ad outside my house portraying him as Bal Thackeray's right-hand man didn't get dumped soon enough. So we had a Congress ad right next to it portraying Rane as the 'man who puts his hand in the lion's mouth and lives to tell the story'. Nice!
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