DeMo as example of colour-coded politics

Even as the Congress-led Opposition plans to observe the anniversary of D-Day, or demonetisation day, on November 8 as a ‘black day’, the BJP is billing the same date as ‘anti-black money day’ which, purportedly, put paid to the so-called ‘parallel economy’, and made saffron the new anti-black. This conflict of views is yet another example of a cry being raised over the hue of what could be called colour-coded politics.

However, in this case, there could be a tint of ambiguity. While black has negative connotations—as in ‘black mark’, ‘blackmail’, ‘blackmarket’, and even in the vernacular ‘kalapani’ of punitive exile—it also has positive associations. A commercial enterprise which is ‘in the black’, or credit side of the ledger, is to be preferred to one which is ‘in the red’, an undesirable association which might well cause comrades of the communist persuasion to turn positively rufescent in righteous wrath.

On the other side of the balance sheet, however, the left can claim to be not left behind by asserting that a ‘red-letter day’ is a celebratory occasion. Perhaps the most pragmatic take on the political palette was that of Deng Xiaoping who declared that the colour of the cat didn’t matter, so long as it caught mice. Paint your bandwagon how you may, then, as now, politics remains a colourful cat-and-mouse game.