Modi, Shah, BS Yeddyurappa on field duty in Chikkamagaluru

Do you remember how a farmer from Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district put up pictures of Sunny Leone to ward bad luck off his farm? And shortly after that made news, another farmer in Telangana put up posters of his favourite actress Kajal Aggarwal. This was to protect crops as everybody would stare at Kajal’s picture and ignore the crop, he explained. And now BJP leaders seem to be doing the honours.

During the recent Assembly election rallies, especially at the BJP rallies, people were seen going home with the cut-outs of top leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP National President Amit Shah and Former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. This trend was observed all across Karnataka. People would carry these cut-outs back in vehicles or walk back home with them. Not a single cut-out would be left behind at the rally venue. Most political workers and observers felt that these people were fans of these leaders and wanted these cut-outs in their homes. However, now the real purpose of these cut-outs is out in the open.

These cut-outs are now on ‘field duty’ in several paddy fields of Chikkamagaluru and are also making their presence felt in the fields where ginger and potato are grown. There is a tradition of placing a scarecrow dressed in old clothes or man made out of hay in open fields to discourage birds like crows and sparrows from feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops. Now cut-outs of our top politicians are being used as replacements for scarecrows in several parts of Chikkamagaluru.


And it’s not just the cut-outs that are being roped into service. A few farmers had even picked up banners from the election rallies and they are using them to preserve grains. Some banners have also been converted as tarpaulin covers for a few lorries or tempos. Some of them picked up the iron frames that were used to put up the banners. These are now being used as partitions in toilets and to demarcate fields. It may be two months since the elections have ended, but the impact continues to exist.