EC come and EC go

Thanks to the poll panel, there is hardly any colour left in elections. But we should have seen it coming.

We admit it, we are duplicitous hypocrites. We have argued long and loud that our politics lacks substance, that it is more a matter of show. But now, thanks to a vigilant Election Commission, we are missing the usual over-the-top hype and hoopla that goes with elections. At the first sign of any festivities, the EC is upon the venue like Torque-mada, quelling all joyous instincts. And nowhere do we see this more than in Punjab.

Just the other day, Sukhbir Singh Badal, son of Parkash Singh Badal, husband of MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, cousin of, oh, never mind, was being interviewed by a TV anchor. Against the backdrop of mustard fields, Sukhbir was asked about Punjab's economy as it goes into elections. Did he whip out a dholak and do an energetic bhangra to signify that all was well in the state? No, he unfurled a long document and read out a bewildering array of statistics and percentages with the precision of a Ben Bernanke much to the astonishment of the anchor. So if you thought that you will be hearing the strains of Daler Mehndi extolling the virtues of the Punjab economy, think again. In UP, we had hoped that Maya-wati would at least do the rounds in a new set of pink clothes and a diamond or two more for colour. But, even the elephants are now under wraps. In the good old days, self-styled courtiers would compose songs in praise of the leaders, but such creativity has dried up under the eagle eye of the EC, it would seem.