Origins of Political Party Symbols in India | #179
+ the inspiration for the Acche Din Aayenge speech 🤔
Hello friends
2024 will be a year of Elections in the 2 largest democracies in the world. India will be voting for its 18th Lok Sabha and the United States would be voting to continue with its 46th President or appoint a new one.
There are many similarities in the democratic process in the 2 countries but many differences. One of them being symbols. Introduced by Sukumar Sen before the 1952 elections to help the largely uneducated population of India identify their candidates, these symbols have a story of their own.
This week’s newsletter we try to see what is interesting about election symbols in India.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
Arun Shourie once called the BJP government policies Congress plus Cow. We are not sure if he knew that during the first ever election in 1952, the Grand Old Party of India had a pair of bullocks as its election symbol. In 1969, the Congress split into 2 factions - Congress (R) led by Indira Gandhi and the OG Congress party as Congress (O). The Indira Gandhi-led Congress party took a new symbol of a suckling calf. After losing the elections in 1977, Indira and her followers created a party called Congress (I) and as per the suggestion of one Soundarya Kailasam, the hand was adopted as the symbol. It was inspired by the Sree Emoor Bhagavathy temple in Kallekulangara, Palakkad where the deity is the two raised open palms of the hands which inspired her to choose this symbol. After winning the 1980 elections, Indira Gandhi visited the temple in 1982.
After being a member of the Indian National Congress for over 2 decades, Mamta Banerjee quit the party and launched her own outfit - the Trinamool Congress in 1998. The party symbol is called Jora Ghas Phul or two flowers with grass. It was supposedly drawn by the artist known as Mamta Banerjee. When she became the Railway Minister under the stewardship of Manmohan Singh, she offered a free monthly pass to students traveling on trains. Can you guess the subtle message being given out in the ad?
Before each election, the Election Commission of India provides ‘free’ symbols to non-registered parties. Parties, that garner a certain percentage of vote share, can choose their own symbols, but others need to be on the largeese of the Election Commission. These symbols were drawn by a man named M S Sethi, way back in 1992. Among the free symbols include nailcutter, tie and auto-rickshaw among others. Among the free symbols is a cricket bat, which so far no political party has registered for it. But that isn’t so in Pakistan, where Imran Khan’s political party, quite appropriately, is identified by the cricket bat.
From IWTK, with love 💌
‘Ache Din Aayenge’ speech by Narendra Modi was inspired by a speech from Manmohan Singh. What?! Know more here.
Bishan Singh Bedi was among the greatest to play for India. Watch a spectacular over of bowling by Bedi - his first of a series in Australia.
Only In India 🇮🇳
Missing: Brand new bus stand. Reward for finder.
Stay hydrated,
❤️ IWTK