We are hitting peak summers, and elections are generating their share of heat too. Having watched election coverage over the years, it is impossible to not experience déjà vu. With all the growth in technology, election rallies continue to be a prominent election feature since the 1950s. I first remember watching election rallies in the late 80s, and visuals from the current elections look remarkably similar, just better in video quality.
Elections are one place where the poor and the rural population, otherwise ignored by media for most part, comes into the mainstream, simply because each vote carries equal value, and the numbers are heavily stacked up outside the big cities and the affluent classes. And this hasn’t changed over decades now.
But one thing that has changed is the use of the word “manifesto”. Over so many elections, one got a feeling that the term was moving out of election lexicon, and there didn’t seem to be even basic awareness about it among the general voters. But the Congress manifesto being targeted by BJP has stirred up things, and it is hard to find any political speech or interview where the M-word is not uttered.
We are less than halfway into these long elections, and still four-and-a-half weeks away from June 4, which is the results day. June will be the more interesting month compared to May, as results lead to headlines, irrespective of how emphatic or fractured the mandate is.
Interestingly, the T20 World Cup kicks off in the same week, and India play their first game on June 5, followed by a marquee clash with Pakistan on June 9. Even the T20 World Cup is month-long now, extending from June 2 to June 29. The venue may be West Indies and USA, but BCCI’s might ensures all India games are 8PM IST. After all, there’s an IPL slot to fill!
India looks for its first World Cup win in this format since the nobody-saw-it-coming win in the inaugural edition in 2007. But irrespective of whether that happens or not, we are in for a double bill of politics and cricket in June.
Meanwhile, Malayalam cinema is making waves, and setting all kind of crazy records, which deserve a separate piece of its own someday. After a euphoric 2023, the theatrical business has been tepid so far this year, but for the astonishing performance of Malayalam cinema, which is set to cross its 2023 annual number in just 4.5 months in 2024!
And since I frequently rant in this column about the lack of innovation in Hindi GEC content, I should take a moment to acknowledge a trend that surprised me, and very pleasantly so. My colleagues Keerat Grewal and Aakriti Bhatia have put together this report on how Hindi GEC women are not housewives anymore. It’s a crazy trend, and even if you have no interest in GECs, I highly recommend reading it, just as a showcase of how data can be so powerful in revealing trends, and in such a simple manner too.