Source: Meta
By R Dutta Choudhury
Guwahati, April 23: From cycles to helicopters, the mode of transportation for election campaign has changed a lot over the years and personal animosity among candidates was unthinkable at one point of time.
Senior CPM leader Hemen Das, who at the age of 94, is perhaps one of the oldest active politicians as he is campaigning for the CPM candidate in Barpeta constituency, has seen elections since 1952 and he has seen the changes in the election process over the years.
When The Assam Tribune contacted Das for his views about the changes in the methods of campaigning, he said things have changed drastically. Das, who was elected to the State Assembly four times, said that he had campaigned in the 1952 polls as a school student and there was no concept of mega rallies at that time.
Only the candidate used to hire a jeep, that too for the last seven days of campaigning, while the party workers had to move in cycles. “More stress was given to distribution of house-to-house voter’s slips then,” he said.
Das pointed out that at that time, most places of the State did not have motorable roads and party workers had to depend on cycles and in some places, going on foot was the only option. Though the roads started improving a bit, most candidates did not have money to hire cars.
When Das became a legislator for the first time in 1978, he hired a jeep for seven days, while the party workers moved around on cycles or on foot.
“During that time, we did not have to pay any money to the party workers and they managed expenses themselves,” he added.
The veteran politician, however, said that the time has drastically changed now as the leaders move on either helicopters or with a fleet of vehicles. Even party workers move in vehicles and hold mega rallies.
“The party workers also take out motorcycle rallies spending huge amounts of money and campaigning on bicycles is totally unthinkable these days... Now can you ask party workers to walk for miles to campaign,” he asked.
Personal animosity among candidates was also unthinkable then and candidates rarely attacked each other in political speeches. “There were instances when we used to have meals with opponents after a day’s campaign and paid each other’s bills in restaurants depending on the availability of money. The campaign was totally based on policies of political parties,” he said.
Das pointed out that personal attack on politicians started around 1978 after Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in the country and political parties started attacking her personally in the poll campaigns. Now, the atmosphere is totally vitiated and political leaders launch bitter personal attacks on each other, while the party workers even resort to fighting with each other. He expressed the view that such attacks should stop and the campaign should be strictly on the basis of policies of political parties.
