When the first general elections were announced in 1951, the biggest challenge for before the election commission was to prepare the voters’ list since a majority of voters were illiterate. Many of them thought that if they exercised their franchise they would receive something special in return. Like, this constituency in Rajasthan where a candidate had a camel as his election symbol. The voters believed that if they voted for him, they would get a camel. Whereas in Bihar, one woman voter was adamant that she wanted to meet Jawaharlal Nehru in person before she gave him her vote. A voter’s demand in Madras [Chennai] was that he would vote only for Sukumar Sen, the then Chief Election Commissioner. Also, in several constituencies women voters refused to give their original name. Instead they preferred to include their names as ‘Ramu’s wife’, ‘Lakshman’s mother’ or ‘Krishna’s sister’ in the voters’ list!
The anecdotes are from Vottu Tharaam Ottakam Tharanam, a take on the general elections by George Pulickan, best known for his political satire on Malayalam television. With the nation in the grip of election fever, he has come up with a collection of interesting vignettes of Indian politics and politicians, in just over 100 pages and 50 chapters. There are chapters on first elections, landmark wins and loses, highs and lows of Indian politics and trivia about politicians and political parties, among other topics.
‘Vottu Tharaam Ottakam Tharanam’ | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
“Politics has always piqued my curiosity. I wanted to bring out this book because whatever information we have about the elections lies scattered in books, journals and newspapers. I decided to bring it all together. It was time-consuming because I had to cross-check everything with multiple sources. I even had to go through autobiographies and biographies of many politicians and political commentators to get the correct facts and figures,” says George. He has kept it light-hearted and short because he feels nobody would read lengthy accounts and he wanted the book to be an easy read.
Working on the tome was a learning experience, he avers. “We know that Madhavikutty had contested the elections in 1984 from Thiruvananthapuram as an independent candidate. But there wasn’t enough information about her election symbol, the number of votes she got and her slogans. So I had to collect it from various books and articles,” he says. Her symbol was hut and the slogan was ‘Oro sthreekkum Oro veedu’ (One house for one woman). She was adamant about not spending much on the campaign and carried ₹500 with her to meet any emergency. Writers such as OV Vijayan, M Mukundan and Paul Zachariah came forward to support her. “She came 12th in a total of 14 candidates, polling 1,786 votes,” he says.
On the records
Collecting information about Annie Mascarene, the first woman MP from South India to be elected to the Lok Sabha, too was an eye-opener, he adds. “She had an eventful political life that took me by surprise. Alongside, I chanced upon the fact that in the first bypolls conducted in Kerala to the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assembly, there were two siblings in the fray – Akkamma Cherian and her younger sister Rosamma Punnoose,” he says.
George also points out that politicians of today can take a lesson out of how their predecessors conducted themselves. When a pregnant Akkamma Cherian was contesting the election, a leader from the opposing party made insensitive comments about her. However her opponent, George Thomas Kottukapally, vehemently criticised that leader for personally attacking her.
According to him Indian politics is an interesting subject to study. “When I had started my weekly show Politriks on Indiavision, it was difficult to find a topic for one episode. Now I have a daily show [Chithram Vichithram on Asianet News] and there is no dearth of topics. In fact, there is so much happening every day that you can make more than one episode in a day,” he says.
George has also written Thotta Charithram Kettittilla, a work on famous slogans by political parties, and Buttons Illatha Shirtum Ninnu Poya Watchum, which has interesting episodes from Kerala Legislative Assembly. Vottu Tharaam Ottakam Tharanam has been published by DC Books.