Hand tricks are better accepted as magic, and they easily mesmerise us by its suddenness. So much so that one cannot stop thinking about the incredible performance long after it’s over. The latest news reports state how one BJP leader Ajay Diwakar showed a trick at an election rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur district, which left the gathering entirely stunned. The politician, in a bid to attempt something new, tried his hand at a unique variety of exercised magical acts at the political rally. This was quite a novel idea, no doubt!
It seems that our politicians are now bored of their formal poll pledges which they would usually use as a wooing tactic at the time of elections. The common people often prefer to hear their promises. However, showcasing a magic trick also served the same delicate purpose of garnering people’s instant support. Thinking positively in that fruitful direction, one Bhartiya Janata Party political leader showed his ingenious expertise in turning the flags of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress party and the Samajwadi into a BJP flag. He folded all these political parties’ varied flags together before transforming all the three flags into one single saffron flag.
It seems as if the politicians are stepping into the shoes of the tricksters from a bygone era. They must have racked their brains a lot to make ordinary people feel different during the campaigning this time. Here, the unusual trick of turning flags belonging to other political parties into one somehow prompted us to recollect the Greek poet Homer’s epic poem, in which Odysseus, a legendary Greek King, ordered his men to clog their ears with beeswax and tie him to the ship’s high pole (mast) in order to fully resist his preference to listen to songs by the island’s enchantress.
According to Homer, there were two sirens on the island in the western sea: a mythical Greek island Aeaea and the rocks of Scylla, a monster. As long as the assembly polls’ electioneering continues in the various constituencies, the strategy of magic will continue to amaze people. But at the end of the election process, they would come to know it was merely magic, after all. The BJP leader, of course, embraced a sturdy approach to divert the attention of the humble people from the real problems they face in their lives. This method created a distinct impact on people’s minds as they forgot what their real problems were!