The story is told of an American parent who, in his anxiety to test the natural aptitude of his son, closed him up in a room in the company of an apple, a dollar note and a copy of the Bible. The father reasoned that if the child was seen playing with the apple, he would grow up to be a farmer. And if the youngster cared for the dollar bill, he ought to be a financier. But when the eager father opened the door, he noticed his offspring sitting on the Bible, eating the apple and playing with the dollar bill. The contents of our ballot boxes are equally baffling. Along with the slip of paper that affirms our faith in the democratic process, assorted articles of varying interest and significance are emerging.
Shri T. T. Krishnamachari’s ballot boxes contained a few coins and a couple of Hong Kong dollars. Prime Minister Nehru was the recipient of a weighty memorandum through his ballot bx. Of course, ‘kumkum’ and flowers are quite in order in an Indian ballot box. But he (or is it a she?) must be quite a wit to drop a love letter in a ballot box.
Advice being one of the cheapest commodities available in this country at the moment, nobody, certainly no Congress politician, will be surprised to find pieces of advice to ministers in the ballot box. Pollsters will be hard put to classify the extra contents of the boxes and connect them with any particular social stratum or intellectual level.
The problem of the psychologist is still more onerous. The western political pundit will be excused if he will pontificate that Nehru’s India is a place where people, after drafting an ambitious five-year plan, go to poll and drop love-letters in ballot boxes.
(EDIT, March 13, 1957.)
