HYDERABAD: Graffiti art reflecting the mood of disillusioned voters has taken Anjaiah Nagar by surprise. Those who will cast their vote at the government primary school in the locality will be greeted by a wall art showing a queue of people—young and old, bored and excited—waiting to drop their vote into a toilet pot!
A few kilometers away, right opposite the busy junction of Hitech City with the iconic Cyber Towers, is an open white commode staring at commuters. The sparkling commode on the black wall comes with a tag of ‘NOTA’ hanging by its flush.
Swathi and Vijay, artists who go by their first names, are behind this rather timely and quirky art. They say their message is clear: Politics stinks. “Everyone has been saying ‘go vote’. Generations before us did and so will we, but what will we achieve out of this? Politics will be the same,” says Vijay.
“No political party is fielding good leaders. It is always the same old contestants who one wouldn’t want as leaders. The system also doesn’t ensure that worthy people contest,” says Vinod. Further, Swati explains why NOTA was drawn over the flush’s lever.
“The idea is that if we don’t want to vote for contestants because they all raise a ‘stink’, we can pick NOTA to flush out bad contestants. However, it looks like no action will be taken if many hit NOTA,” she adds. “If we think a candidate is bad but subscribe to the party’s ideology, then the candidate switches sides for power. What is even left of elections?” asks Vijay.
However pessimistic their opinions, there are many resonating with the sentiments of the artist couple, reflect the dropping voting percentages in urban pockets over the years. Serilingampally constituency where these graffitis appear had 53 per cent voter turnout in 2009. This fell to a dismal 47.5 per cent voter turnout in 2014.