T-mongers face threat of arrest

The police has decided to keep a close watch on controversial and provocative political workers and arrest them if need be in the wake of the Election Commission ordering stern action against those who try to place restrictions on campaign during by-polls.

The OU students joint action committee and several other outfits had threatened that they will not allow “outsiders” particularly those from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra to campaign in the Telangana region where the by-polls are being held.

In a stern rebuke, the Chief Electoral Officer, Mr I.V. Subba Rao, said that no such restriction would be allowed and asked the police to take stringent action on those who intimidate.

“Campaigning in any part of the country is one of the basic rights given by the Constitution and nobody can meddle with that right,” he said. “We will not allow that. I am giving clear instructions to the police to take firm action if anybody breaches others’ rights.”

The EC has asked political parties to submit details of campaigners. Each recognised party can give 40 names and the EC will examine those who are controversial and keep a tight vigil on them.

“They will be followed and if necessary bind over cases will be filed against them,” said the director general of police, Mr R.R. Girish Kumar. “If the situation requires we will not hesitate to arrest them.”

District SPs will be given additional powers to seize posters, hoardings and cancel licensed weapons.

Stripey wins hearts

‘Save Our Tigers' strikes an emotional chord through Stripey.

The campaign could have been driven by hard facts (there are merely 1411 Royal Bengal Tigers surviving in India as against 40,000 at the turn of the last century), but it may not have evoked such a response. Save Our Tiger campaign urges us to look at the threat to tigers through the eyes of Stripey, the cub. Stripey is hungry, concerned and awaiting his mother, who's fallen prey to poaching.

Save Our Tiger campaign by Aircel, in partnership with World Wildlife Fund, calls for immediate action to protect the national animal. The campaign went on air on January 30, has a dedicated site (www.saveourtigers.com) where the service provider's brand ambassadors actor Suriya, cricketer Mahender Singh Dhoni and footballer Baichung Bhutia insist that we roar with them for the cause. A group dedicated to Stripey on Facebook has more than 1 lakh fans (the numbers swelled each day and as of Saturday, the group had more than 1,12,000 fans) and more than 3000 tweeple following Stripey on twitter. A meet held in Delhi on Valentine's Day urged people to show their love for Stripey.

The idea of having an emotional campaign stemmed from Lion King, says Shivanand Mohanty, creative head, Dentsu Communications, the ad agency that designed the campaign. Remember how our eyes welled up watching Mufasa breathe his last trying to protect Simba? “We were considering many ideas and felt this would work,” says Mohanty. Since shooting in tiger reserves is not permitted, the agency used stock footage for the ad.

For once, celebs remain in the background and therein lay the campaign's success. Says Mohanty, “Celebrities have been used thoughtfully, to create a sense of urgency and drive home the point that each one of us can do something.”

Long-term campaign

Now that the awareness has been created, the agency, along with Aircel and WWF, is working on the next phase. “It's a long-term campaign,” says Rahul Saigal, chief marketing officer, Aircel. “Whether it is children wearing Save Our Tigers badges to school or youngsters discussing the issue, the campaign was designed to encourage public participation. The website informs how people can help monetarily or by visiting parks,” he adds.

In Hyderabad, the WWF chapter has been receiving calls in support of the campaign. “A plan of action will be drawn up. We are considering having a meeting where people can share their thoughts on how they can help save the tigers in AP,” says Farida Tampal of WWF, Hyderabad.

Aircel is not the first cellular service provider to highlight environmental issues as part of its corporate social responsibility. Idea has been doing various CSR activities for some time, the latest being urging people not to waste paper. Abhishek Bachchan, as a tree, endorses the go green campaign. Cell phone major Nokia is inviting users to exchange their old handsets, promising to recycle electronic waste and plant one tree for each old handset. The ‘green' bus stop in Begumpet is part of the Idea campaign.

In the West, companies perceived to be environmental friendly stay in the good books of consumers. Though we haven't had such precedence in India, perhaps this is a step in that direction, even if you were to cynically dismiss these campaigns as CSR activities that merely aim to earn goodwill.

Sri Lanka poll campaign winds up; both contenders confident

As the curtains fell on the official campaign for the January 26 Sri Lankan presidential election, the two chief contenders - President Mahinda Rajapaksa and common opposition candidate retired General Sarath Fonseka - wound up their nearly two-month-long campaign with mammoth rallies in and around Colombo.

A general sense of unease prevails in the island nation ahead of what has been billed one of the most exciting and crucial elections in the post-independent history of Sri Lanka. Mr. Rajapaksa ended his campaign with a huge rally at Piliyandala, near here. Though considered to be a stronghold of the main opposition United National Party, the campaign managers of the President had managed to put up an impressive show of strength and enthusiasm among the people was evident. Mr. Rajapaksa sounded confident amid repeated applause from supporters.

The retired General ended the campaign with a gathering dominated by Muslims. Charging the government with attempting to rig the mandate, the General told his attentive supporters that he would certainly be occupying the most powerful office.

As it could be expected in any electoral do or die battle, charges flew thick and fast. Notwithstanding the apprehensions of violence and malpractices, it would not be easy for any party to indulge in brazen violations for two reasons. First, the poll has generated unprecedented interest among the people and the voter turn-out is expected to be high.

Second, the presence of 40 foreign election observers. At a news conference here on Friday, they said they would monitor the elections in all districts including the northern and eastern provinces where the LTTE was militarily defeated in May 2009 after 34 months of war. They would release a report on January 28.

As per a local NGO monitoring the campaign, so far over 800 election-related incidents of violence including five deaths had been reported since the election was declared late November. Earlier in the day at a news conference General Fonseka accused the President of getting ready to rig the polls. “I began this campaign with no political background and today I am confident that [a] overwhelming majority of the people are with me. We know for a fact that 90 per cent of the votes in the postal vote are in our favour.”

Main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP), ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) leader Somawansa Amarasinghe and chief of Democratic People’s Front (DPF) Mano Ganesan declared that they would take to streets if the Rajapaksa government attempted to rig the election.

In contrast to the aggressive tone, Mr. Rajapaksa invited every one to join him in his vision to build the nation irrespective of party politics. He promised to launch a development phase after January 27 with the people who love the country.

A report by Mr. Rajapaksa’s campaign office quoted him as saying, “He said that everyone should unite to build the country irrespective of party politics. The President invited everyone to join for this purpose from January 27. The President made this observation while addressing a massive public rally at the Sanath Jayasuriya Stadium in Matara. Actress Malini Fonseka, cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya and people’s representatives also addressed the rally.”