Unbearable boredom ends with Delhi poll

Unbearable boredom ends with Delhi poll

Thank god that the Delhi state elections are over. Not just for the end of cacophony of ranting, canting politicians but also the end of messages the people of the national capital were bombarded with 24X7.

Savor some of the gems from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari, “Purvanchalis will destroy and crush Arvind Kejriwal in one snap of the finger on February 8 in Delhi election. They are the ones who created him. Further, “Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are the one who encouraged violence in Shaheen Bagh. Slogans like ‘shoot PM and Amit Shah, dig graves of Hindus’ were raised in Shaheen Bagh. They were asking for ‘Jinnah wali Azadi.’ Let’s decide on it on February 8. Let Delhi decide.”

Tiwari also slammed Kejriwal for allegedly mocking his song ‘Rinkiya ke Papa.’ The Delhi BJP chief said, “AAP is making memes of the song. But they should understand that Rinkiya in the song refers to daughters. By mocking the song, AAP and Kejriwal are demeaning the role of daughters and women in society.”

Notice how comments on a song become assaults on women.

Tiwari went on to dub Kejriwal as a fake devotee of Hanuman. Rarely, if ever, was sanctimoniousness in politics as nauseating.

It’s not that the Aam Aadmi Party is full of angels, fighting against the diabolical BJP. The Kejriwal-headed party has been, at least in the not-so-distant past, as vituperative and censorious against its opponents as any of its rivals are. Its freebies-oriented policies, too, inspire little confidence; it certainly doesn’t look like a viable alternative to the BJP at the national level.

AAP, however, shares a key characteristic with the saffron party—the penchant for messaging. This made the lives of people in Delhi miserable. Both parties occupied a lot of space in the media.

What I personally found unbearable was their presence on radio. There was scarcely a station that was not continually playing their advertisements. When the ads of these parties were not being broadcast, those by the Election Commission were—all urging the people to cast their vote, enlightening them how this festival of democracy would strengthen the nation, and so on.

Radio jockeys and celebrities too joined in the fun—at our expense. They started doing their bit to ensure that people thronged to the festival of democracy. To make matters worse were the regular radio ads from various government agencies—saving energy, making the country clean, and so on.

The result was a barrage of claptrap, inanities, non-stop sermons. Unbearable boredom to be precise. Thankfully, it is all over.