Saturday, December 14, 2013

Tolerance and intolerance - What laws should we question?

"I will speak of Thomas Aquinas instead. I will tell you my dim memories of what he said about the hierarchy of laws on this planet, which was flat at the time. The highest law, he said, was divine law, God's law. Beneath that was natural law, which I suppose would include thunderstorms, and our right to shield our children from poisonous ideas, and so on.

"And the lowest law was human law. 

"Let me clarify this scheme by comparing its parts to play to playing cards. Enemies of the Bill of Rights do the same sort of thing all the time, so why shouldn't we? Divine law, then, is an ace. Natural law is a king. The Bill of Rights is a lousy queen. 

"The Thomist hierarchy of laws is so far from being ridiculous that I have never met anybody who did not believe in it right down to the marrow of his or her bones. Everybody knows that there are laws with more grandeur than those which are printed in our statute books. The big trouble is that there is so little agreement as to how those grander laws are worded. Theologians can give us hints of the  wording, but it takes a dictator to set them down just right - to dot the i's and cross the t's. A man who had been a mere corporal in the army did that for Germany and then for all of Europe, you may remember, not long ago. There was nothing he did not know about divine and natural law. He had fistfuls of aces and kings to play."

That is what the American author Kurt Vonnegut wrote in the 1980s, when his book, Slaughterhouse-Five, was burnt by a school for containing a few expletives.

And when we have the law spell expletives against those who express themselves differently, most of us quickly bite into our stuffed parathas or Subways and munch away, lest our thoughts become words. Perhaps, we would all do well to express ourselves now, when lawmakers exercise the right of the statute over the sovereign right of the individual. We must announce our stand, lest those expletives become ours to take.

We choose our food, our education, what we read, or write, and with the great medical advancements of this age, even our gender. But when those with sight lead us daringly into the future blindfolded, we must question, else be willing to give up our sight as well as our right.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

AAP ne kya kiya

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has done something to the Indian political scene that may not change the battleturf, but will definitely change the battle. And since enough has been written on the political ramifications of this small and new party, let me debate the brand related manifestations of AAP. The party's message has been simple, clear and reflected in every aspect of their brand, and it is this singularity that helps people identify with the party so strongly.

Firstly, the adoption of the name Aam Aadmi Party was itself the first masterstroke. They initially wanted 'India Against Corruption' as the name of the party, the movement it spawned from, but in retrospect, the Hindi name has a better ring than IAC and I am sure they dont regret it. Further, all political parties, which seemed to have stake claim on the 'common man' messaging suddenly were bereft of talk points without referring to the 'Aam Aadmi'. Indians have heard this term for decades and it is as ubiquitous to the ruling party as is 'Banana hai'. And in naming their party such, it ensured that it took away the biggest plank of the ruling party and usurped it without even a copyright case against them. In advertising terms, this is much like Pepsi's 'Nothing Official About It' advertising campaign when Coke won the campaign rights for the Wills World Cup, naturally without the same cost.

Now, the attire. In this case, the ubiquitous Gandhi cap. This thin sidecap, usually of white colour, of no real, intrinsic  political significance, has been used in several Indian states for centuries. In fact, Nehru used a wider version that also served the purpose of  covering a balding pate, and a large number of the Indian independence activists showed their solidarity to the movement by wearing it. It evoked a meaning of self-reliance as well, since most were woven out of khadi. In fact, Indian National Army and its leader, Subhash Chandra Bose wore a khaki one, representing the military intent of the wearer. Many other parties had unique colour codes for their caps, RSS-black, Samajwadi - Red etc.


Things for the cap changed during the Anna campaign. Someone thought of printing the caps with a solidarity message 'I am Anna'. And as hundreds of thousands wore it, it became the a statement of a fight against the corrupt, even a message of the might of the right. (Even I wore one during one protest evening and felt a surge of unexpected well-being when I wore it.) AAP, the placenta of Anna's movement, used the idea and used it well. Many white caps were printed with Aam Aadmi Party name on became the brand of anti-corruption on the heads of many individuals. It is also so universal, that anyone trying to use the same tactic gets confused for an AAP supporter. I've seen a cap worn by a PETA activist that says 'I am a vegetarian' , but viewed from a distance, it all reads the same - Aam Aadmi Party.

An unfortunate side-effect of this was, however, AAP inadvertently also killed a lot of sale for KVIC (Khadi and Village Industries Commission), because now it truly dint matter what you wore with the cap, just this cap, printed or otherwise, was enough to send the needed political message. Suddenly the thousands of khadi robed politicos, wore their Guccis and LVHs openly (mostly along with the cap, mind you). If you finger-dribble the remote to fleetingly political debate on TV, the only thing you will retain is the AAP's cap branding.


The other big success step is of course the Jhaadu, the broom, the electoral symbol chosen by the AAP party. Universally available, easily identifiable with the message of 'sweep away corruption' and cheap enough for everyone to carry, it is perhaps a shade  better than the Cycle and the Open Hand, . One which though may connect with the common man, many other connotations (the open hand is a very strong visual symbol for 'Stop' across the globe).

Whether, the AAP wins in Delhi or not, one thing is certain in Indian politics, the cap has become the political hoarding and the election symbol, the equivalent of product packaging.