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‘Hoarding and flex-board politics’ a scourge on T’Nadu
The death of a 22-year-old woman in a freak accident in Chennai on Thursday, has brought to light the ugly face of the “hoarding and flex-board politics” being played out in Tamil Nadu (TN) by the Dravidian politicians.
R. Subasri, who was returning home after her office hours, died instantly, when a larger-than-life size banner erected by a local AIADMK politician, fell on her, which resulted in the woman being thrown off her two-wheeler and falling on the road. A speeding water tanker following her vehicle, ran over her, causing instant death.
Accidents like this are not uncommon in TN, the banner and hoarding capital city of India. Though the courts in the State have come down heavily on political parties, which encroach road space and erect hoardings and banners to placate the ever increasing ego of politicians, ranging from municipal councilors to State level leaders, it has not made any impact on the political class.
Friday saw the Madras High Court coming down on the State administration and ordering the government to pay Rs 5,000,000 as interim compensation to the family of the deceased Subasri. The judges asked the government to recover the amount from the officials who failed to prevent the AIADMK functionary from installing unauthorised hoarding along the median of the road.
M. Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee, the judges who ordered the government to pay an interim compensation to the family of Subasri, had some heart rendering questions to ask. “Is this the value that the life of a citizen has in this country? Why are bureaucrats so insensitive?”.
The judges also said that there was zero respect for lives in this country. “It is sheer bureaucratic apathy. Sorry to say that we have lost faith in the government,” said the judges in an order reflecting the anguish and helplessness of civil society.
Though the Madras High Court had passed many verdicts in the past, lambasting the irresponsible manner in which political parties erect hoardings and flex boards encroaching the roads, the politicians paid scant regard to such orders. “The cult of banners and hoardings have become a major threat to the security and safety of the local population,” said Govindarajan Satyamurthy, veteran scribe and columnist. Though most of the political leaders featured in the hoardings are mere paper tigers and creation of the media, their followers work overtime to create State-wide popularity for these self styled leaders. Velupillai Prabhakaran, the slained LTTE leader and forest brigand Veerapaan also share space with the political leaders in these banner politics, as there are hundreds of banners and hoardings portraying them as “human rights activists” and “civil rights leaders”.
Though the leaders of the DMK and the AIADMK issued press releases late Friday night, asking the cadre not to install hoardings and banners, it is not known how the devotees of Stalin and Edappadi Palaniswamy are going to behave.