The cat is out of the bag in Indian political symbolanza
Political rhetoric is a weapon of innovative aggression. The bag wars between the Congress and BJP started when Priyanka Gandhi arrived in Parliament with a ‘Palestine’ bag. Her next day’s tote read ‘Bangladesh ke Hindu aur Isaiyon ke saath khade ho’ (Stand with the Hindus and Christians of Bangladesh). Tote is slang for ‘to carry a heavy load’.
Priyanka’s load is heavy indeed, since the Congress champions secularism, which in BJP political shorthand means ‘minority appeasement’, while her party also tries to bag the Hindu vote. The saffron response to Priyanka’s bag was hardly subtle: its MP Aparajita Sarangi presented the Gandhi girl with a tote bag with ‘1984’ printed on it, indicating the Congress role in the Sikh riots, though what it has to do with Bangladesh or Palestine is about as clear as a day in Delhi with an AQI index of 500-plus.
Indian Parliament of late has been obsessing over bags. In her previous term, TMC spitfire Mahua Moitra carried a super pricey Louis Vuitton bag to the Lok Sabha while her colleague was lambasting the Modi sarkar on the rising cost of living. Moitra landed up with three bags the next day, including another Louis Vuitton bag, a Pochette clutch this time. The BJP, clutching at straws, put her in front of an ethics committee over the big bag ballyhoo among other things, and kicked her out of Parliament. She bagged a majority again in the subsequent election.
A tote is a girl’s social index. To own a Birkin or a Chanel shows where she stands with her husband or partner; if she’s single, it shouts financial independence. It is a statement of her stratospheric social status since a Chanel Diamond Forever tote costs more than Rs 2 crore. A Hermes Himalaya Birkin will set her back by about Rs 3.8 crore. Compared to these totezillas, Mahua’s or Priyanka’s bag-gadocio is peanuts. The world’s most expensive purse is the Mouawad 1001 Nights Diamond Purse that costs more than a Saudi princelet’s pleasure yacht, at just about Rs 20 crore.
To put it in perspective, a Sabyasachi Black Royal Bengal minaudiere clutch costs about Rs 80,000. Don’t purse your lips, gentle reader, there is no greater power statement than toting a piece of fancy leather on your arm. Britain’s Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher was a handbag impresario, carrying around giant arm candy of a different sort which Vogue magazine called, her “most important piece of weaponry”.
Thatcher’s Chaumet bag even made it as a verb in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary: ‘to handbag’, means to treat a person, an idea or a thing ‘ruthlessly or insensitively’. The verb is usually used to diss women politicians. Priyanka, get it? It is yet to be seen whether male MPs will man up with man bags next; a ‘murse’ can’t make it worse in the days of Nishikant Dubey vs Mahua Minaudiere Malice Masterclass.
The American clothing and outdoors equipment company L.L.Bean launched the first tote in 1944; basically as an ice bag—to ‘carry ice from car to ice chest’; Maine was the ice capital of the US in the 19th century. It took till the 1960s when the company renamed it the legendary Boat and Tote, its best selling bag till date.
Right now, the relationship between NDA and INDIA is icy, since breaking the ice isn’t standard practice as it used to be in more civilised and unafraid times. Then Opposition and governing party leaders would convivially sit together over tea or a drink depending on prediction, to find a solution to a contentious problem; think Vajpayee, Arun Jaitley, Chandrashekhar, Somnath Chatterjee, et al. Usually it would be in the bag by the day’s end, without either of them buckling.
Ravi Shankar
ravi@newindianexpress.com