|
|
|
|
Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
OCTOBER 22, 1999 VOL. 25 NO. 42
The Hot-Air Campaign
Weird and wired
ALSO IN ASIAWEEK
| |
|
The other parties had their own gimmicks. Not to be outdone in the larger-than-life department, the BJP erected a 33-meter cutout of its leader in Bombay. Markets were loaded with sarees, disposable coffee mugs and fountain pens, all emblazoned with symbols of the political parties. One newspaper taunted Italian-born Sonia Gandhi by running a "recipe" ad in Italian. The message: you can't read her language; she cannot speak Hindi.
Many candidates turned to cyberspace. By one calculation 369 new political sites opened during the election. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu mounted a well-wired campaign. Wherever he was on the campaign trail, he carried his computer to scan demographic details of the constituency he was visiting. When he hopped out to address impromptu street-corner meetings, his amplified voice boomed out - but few noticed the lapel mike pinned to his shirt.
Of course, sometimes the imagery backfired. The giant hand balloon symbolizing Congress refused to stay aloft in the town of Amethi, where Sonia Gandhi filed nomination papers to run for Parliament. Then it crumpled to the ground. Though she won the district, her party crumpled everywhere else.
 |
Quick Scroll: More stories and related stories
Asiaweek Newsmap: Get the week's leading news stories, by region, from Newsmap
