Mumbai Mirror has initiated a campaign called “ No Chamchagiri onour walls pls” campaign spearheaded by the Ex-Indian Cricketer, Sanjay Manjrekar. It is a campaign against the illegal political hoardings that deface the city and make it look ugly. It is a campaign that will try to remove this menace from our city. And I like this initiative.
Today, on 14 February 2011, an article was published in the Mumbai Mirror where Sanjay Manjrekar had met up with Kripashankar Singh, Mumbai Congress Chief and discussed with Mr.Singh this menace of illegal hoardings. Mr.Singh made a lot of ‘promises’, nothing new for a politician I must say, and the usual hypothetical nonsense that politicians are accustomed to talking to. You can read the article here.
As per the statements made by the City congress chief, I have made some observations. Do go through them:
1. “ Party workers take permission for 50 hoardings and put up 500 hoardings”
Really, Mr. Singh? And you are aware of this? And still you do not take any steps to correct that? What kind of leader are you that you cannot even control your own party workers? And you are made the Mumbai Congress Chief? Can’t you simply instruct them not to do it? If you really think that illegal hoardings, on most of which you are a prominent face, deface the city, then are you not responsible for preventing them from being put up in the first place?
And Legal hoardings? Do we not know how corrupt the BMC is? In India changing illegal to legal is just a matter of maybe a few thousand rupees.
2. “I will immediately issue a letter to the 400-plus offices and elected representatives in the city telling them not to put up illegal hoardings”
Yes, right. Issue a letter to all the 400+ offices and then when the party workers do not listen and still put up illegal hoardings you can simply get away by shoving the letter in our face. Playing very safe, Mr. Singh!
3. (This one is funny!) “I will ride on a bicycle around town to ensure that illegal hoardings put up by our party workers are pulled down.”
Kripa karke ye Kripa humpe mat karna, Mr Kripashankar Singh!!
You ride on a bicycle, it will become a big media event! You will take down one or two hoardings and then all will be forgotten. Your security convoy will block all the traffic and that is one thing we Mumbaikars do not want. Without you helping, we have enough traffic jams.The only good thing that can come out of this is that you will remove one or two hoardings.
By the way, Do I smell votes here?
4. Now check out some typical politician statements 🙂
He says he supports the campaign but does not think that such hoardings should be done away with completely!
Wah, Singhsaab! Kya shot mara hai! Diplomatic statement ho to is statement jaisa!!
On one hand you will say that you will help us. But to make sure you play safe on the party worker side you say that such hoardings should not be completely done away with!!
5. “If party workers need to wish their leaders on their birthdays or on other occasions, they must get permission from the BMC and put up hoardings at a few designated spots.These spots should be chosen carefully so that they do not damage public property or make the city look ugly. Moreover, once their purpose is served they should be taken down immediately.”
Yes. Spoken like a true politican, Sir! Traditional statements like “ We must do..” “We should do…” “ They should be taken down…”
By whom, If i may ask, by whom? It is the duty of your party workers to take down these hoardings as they put them up in the first place. Will they do it? I hardly think so.
And not to speak of the huge amount of flex banner waste generated by this futile exercise. Where does that waste go? Is it eco-friendly? No. Is it recyclable? I don’t think so. Thank you for contributing to Global Warming. Your contribution is appreciated. 🙂
Years ago, when the MNS was launched, Raj Thackeray proudly proclaimed that the hoardings put up by his party workers will be taken down within a day of the party launch.
Minimum 3 to 4 days were taken to remove the hoardings, even those close to Thackeray’s house. And look at the scene now. We can see him (and the rest of you politicians too!) smiling back at us from these hoardings and saying,
“Popat banaya, bada maza aaya!”
Writing after a long time,
Pranjal Wagh 🙂
This work by Pranjal A. Wagh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License
6 comments
well written yaar , a look from all the pointers indicated above clearly suggests it was merely a publicity stunt undertaken to show that they still think of us . Another Jibe at city’s so called Resilience.
Well written.. Honest common man thoughts… I wish the sarcasm was less honuorable.. u can use better or worse words for our politician brethren… they deserve our choicest collection of words for their work or “samaj seva”
U SIMPLY ROCK……….
KRIPA kar ke please keep BLOGGING…
See politicians want to help the small scale industries to grow, the Zopdiwala should have nice water proof shelter, the Tempo users should have something better to cover your goods. This is not good, you always blame the politicians.
Good observation, keep vigilance ! ! !
@Vinayak Kaka
😀
thanks!