‘It seems contesting elections is nothing but a picnic for them,’ says Trilochan Shah, tea vendor at Central Kolkata who makes a brisk sale at political rallies.

‘To think West Bengal was always listed among the politically advanced states in the country, in terms of the level of public awareness, the quality and honesty of its leaders regardless of political affiliations! The fell swoop of poriborton brought about by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has changed all that. The moronic public statements of some of the neophytes currently on view, along with the increasingly vapid mass media coverage, has effectively degraded the level of political discourse in the State,’ rues a Political Science teacher.

If the TMC has been the dubious trend-setter in the vulgarisation of the political process, other parties have not remained blameless. The BJP, somewhat unexpectedly for its image as a 'rightist' conservative entity, has followed suit. Mercifully, the Left Front and the Congress have played according to rules, nominating younger, trusted candidates, leaving glitz and glam alone.

What is the standard 'political' statement made by the glamour brigade members, some of whom may well take their oath as MPs at the highest level of the legislative process in India, backed as they are by strong, efficient party machinery?

To take one example, one aspirant smilingly told a public rally recently, ‘I confess I know next to nothing about politics, I have no interest — it is Didi (read Mamata Banerjee) who telephoned me a week ago and told me I would be the TMC candidate... I could not believe it... I asked her, are you serious, I have no experience ... She cut me short, saying that the party will manage everything and so … well, here I am, all I can say is please vote for me, with Didi’s help I can solve all your problems — do not vote for other parties, they have ruined the state... our Didi as you know, can do no wrong...’

Some 'candidates' are more honest, than others. An aging actress admitted that being totally inexperienced, she has had problems adjusting to the rough realities of political campaigning. Exposure to the merciless sun for hours at a public rally left her dehydrated, she later had high temperature. Could her party ‘spare’ her a little? No problem, said the supreme leader, she would be ‘taken care of.’

Another aspirant declares, ‘I neither know, nor care about political arguments and counter arguments among parties and so on... my only duty is to follow our Didi and do whatever she asks of me ... I will always help the local people, but you must help me win and NOT A SINGLE VOTE SHOULD GO TO THE BJP, CONRESS OR THE CPI-M, THEIR CADRES MUST NOT BE SEEN ON POLL DAYS’ amidst thunderous applause, at a meeting.

At a TMC party workers’ meeting however, dissidents ask how exactly can he, a newcomer, help local voters, as his constituency is around 275 kilometres south, in Kolkata? The man inappropriately cites the example of Dr Manmohan Singh, who was nominated in the Rajya Sabha from Assam, while the world knew that he never stayed there, something that the redoubtable T N Seshan made an issue of. Interestingly, neither the aspirant nor the dissidents could quite recall what benefits had accrued to the Northeast as a result of Dr Singh’s Assam connection.

Given this backdrop, no wonder ruling TMC candidates, who hope to become the ‘third largest party in the LS in May 2014 and the largest party in India six months later,’ do not refer to any major issues of the day. They attack the Congress for its ‘corruption’, the BJP for its ‘communalism’ and the CPI(M) for its ‘failures’. Not a word about the future of west Bengal, its massive unemployment, its monumental official debt, its crippling industrial decline, lack of investments, agricultural stagnation, the sharp, unrelenting price rise... There is silence also on the increase in rape cases, rising lawlessness, murders, extortionism and decline in education and health facilities.

‘Conspiracy against Bengal’ is the biggest catchall phrase all TMC speakers use, following their supreme leader. It seems that the centre, the Congress, the BJP and the CPI(M) are all conspiring to bring down the TMC Government in west Bengal with the help of ‘foreign powers.’

‘In an interview to the Washington Post, Ms Banerjee had once accused the CIA, the KGB, the ISI and certain forces in Hungary of trying to topple her. Analysts had a nightmare trying to sort out the scenario outlined by her!’ says an observer.

The BJP’s response has been to bring in a prominent magician, a music director and a singer to checkmate the TMC’s glamour offensive. Such neophytes on both sides have had to be pulled up mildly by the Election Commission for making inappropriate comments in their speeches, but a generous public has chosen largely to overlook their minor lapses. ‘Interestingly, the more experienced and celebrated people have got away using far worse language and vulgarity than the newcomers, but the EC has somehow left them alone while making a great play over smaller fry,’ notes an observer.

The press coverage is equally insipid with little pretence at maintaining even minimal fairness or objectivity. Newspapers claiming to be ‘neutral’ choose to cover the activities and programmes of only one party, ignoring others totally. Some major publications no longer highlight issues such communalism in some districts, law and order in others, industrial or economic backwardness in some pockets, insurgency elsewhere.

Their ‘focus’, if it can be called that, is on what the ‘stars’, current or fading, are wearing, or eating, how they face up to the heat, what they prescribe by way of precautions in campaigning in high summer. The far-from-original comments of the leaders about the people attending their rallies, ‘They may be poor but they are very sincere and humble, one of them offered me a green coconut for free, making me feel very small...’, are carried prominently.

In what can be described as the reportage on ‘the Great Election Bazaar of 2014’ rather than the elections proper, the main ‘actors’, i.e., the candidates themselves, too are boning up on the new de-politicised idiom fast. A prominent MP gave soundbytes while taking a break at a swimming pool on a hot day, after several shots were shown of him taking a light meal. No, attending mediapersons did not ask him anything political. It would have been pointless anyway. (IPA Service)