What’s so much hate in a song? Ramya faces music for talent display

Thiruvananthapuram: What’s in a song? It can arouse passions, good and bad. Ask voters in Alathur constituency. Many of them would appreciate a song and when the Congress candidate, Ms Ramya Haridas, erupts into a song, they love the mix in electioneering. If they are fatigued and bored by yet another round of elections, they can hum along or simply doze off.

In a way, Ms Haridas, the Youth Congress national coordinator and UDF candidate in Alathur, is facing the music for talent display. Detractors wonder whether electioneering can be reduced to a song and dance. They would argue histrionics have no role in elections. She has been Kunnamangalam block panchayat president, after all.

Perhaps her main rival and second-tenure MP, Dr P.K. Biju, known to enjoy a joke, wouldn’t mind being regaled, provided she also discusses politics and issues of development. But such friendlies are alien to our electoral habit, like walking up to the venue of a rival candidate and listening to the delivery.  

Wait till after elections to see whether Ms Haridas’s song and dance would have an impact. It is the GenNext way of electioneering. Fire-spitting speeches there are, but a bit of art also comes in, to win hearts. Newbies, come through youth festival contests, are a brave lot. They can’t hold back a song/dance.

But it is also harsh to brand elders as spoilsport. KC (M) working chairman P.J. Joseph, who missed Kottayam seat, would still prefer to hum his favourite “Poomanam poothulanje ...” on the sidelines of campaigns.

Away from politics is the story of how a poem that raised the stock of former bureaucrat J. Lalithambika during IAS selection. But for her rendition of a verse from Jnanpeeth laureate G. Sankara Kurup, she would have looked poorer for it and K.P.S. Menon, on the interview board, would be displeased with a compatriot.

“Peppering a speech with a verse or ballad ensures better listening as long the narrative doesn’t miss on the cardinal points that the candidate wants to convey. It’s the soulless roadside harangue that drives away non-partisan voters. If a candidate sings a song and does not claim it as her own, it is fine”, comments a Malayalam poet and bureaucrat.

Says former chief secretary S.M. Vijayanand: “I’ve heard her singing. She’s got talent and comes across as diligent as Dr Biju, who has a way with the masses. But to frown on music, which is harmony and a language of communication, is to be intolerant”.

Sans such histrionics, our politicians used to essay inimitable styles. Many candidates in Malabar take recourse to a Q and A mode of oration, posing questions and giving answers themselves, using voice modulation for effect. The late M.V. Raghavan was a past-master and CPI leader Pannyan Ravindran is also impressive in this genre.

Using such home-spun techniques takes away the sonorous course of political debates and helps relieve tensions. If only legislators learnt the art of cracking a joke at others and at their own expense, debates would not be sedate.  

On a lighter vein, missing in these elections are full-throated deliveries of the late Congress leader C.M. Stephen or the sturdy earthy deliveries of the likes of K.M. Mani, now indisposed and not campaigning. The late E.M.S. Namboodiripad punctuated his speech with logical rhetoric, his famous stammer not bothering him at all on stage. The late E.K. Nayanar indulged his own brand of humour, spiced with choicest epithets against rival politicians. K. Karunakaran, the architect of UDF, used to be a favourite punch bag, but the latter often scored through clever ripostes. The late Speaker G. Karthikeyan had a literary vein, whether it was in the Assembly or outside.

Some politicians speak too much or ignore the health of their vocal chords. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was on “silent mode” for some time recently as doctors advised him voice rest. His predecessor, Oommen Chandy, can barely speak these days.

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