The nutty road of politics

Pol, pol, po pol, pol, pol pol pol that catchy song by MS Fernando extolling the many uses of the coconut may soon be the anthem of the politics of envy in Sri Lanka. There was more than a hint of this when UNP politicians, irrespective of the religious divides that exist among them, gathered at the Kali Kovil, Modera, last week to dash coconuts in what is said to be a religious campaign against the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.

The nut dashing politicians who are crying themselves hoarse about the cost of living, had no qualms about the price of coconuts going up even further if this new trend in politico-religious fervour is to catch on among supporters of the UNP and its fellow travelers in blue; with a new demand for coconuts to be dashed at shrines to Kali, which means black, and represents the terrifying aspect of the Mother Goddess in Hinduism. Those who value the coconut only for the purpose of daily meals may soon have to stock up on the nuts and even organize vigilante squads to protect their precious nuts from those hunting them for a dashing curse directed at the Government.

Religion

There is much more scope than the obviously nutty in this determination to use religion and ritual in bid to topple the Government. The Catholic politician from Ja-ela, prominently featured in the nut bashing at the Kali Kovil who has one foot in compound of the Madhu Shrine and the other in the LTTE camp, may even persuade his green colleagues of the need to tie black threads at the Shrine of St. Anthony at Kochchikade to get even more divine power to defeat the Government.

Now that they've thought that will of the people of Sri Lanka can be altered by the amount of coconuts dashed at shrines to Kali, they can easily move further in tradition by appealing to the Hooniyam deity, the typically Sri Lankan King of the Curse, and bury various objects with the curse of this deity on them in the grounds of every government, ministry and department, with the firm hope of bringing down the Rajapaksa Government; as many a person who believes in such archaic and vengeful rituals continue to do in our country to invite bad times to those they envy.

Knowing the complete silence of all these dubious saviours of the people about the role that unscrupulous traders play in the ever rising cost of living, this new rush to dash coconuts may even be a way of helping the black marketers by creating a new shortage of lime and ash pumpkin in the country.

With the curse of the coconut and the hooniyam spreading, those who wish ward off the forces of evil being unleashed by the UNP and its obscurantist lackeys, may soon take to carrying out more of their own rituals of cutting limes or hanging charmed ash pumpkins from the rafters in their homes to get that feeling of being safe from harms way. Now that the first nuts have been dashed with religious fervour in this nutty battle, there are many more traditions that these politicians will find useful in their undying desire for power. Indications are that very soon there will be an increased demand for those Malayali Spell-men for the gurukam they will claim they can do that will bode ill for the Government, and see its early demise.

Not satisfied with the Malayali Guras over here, there will be better expertise imported from India, at considerable cost of foreign exchange. This will in turn cause great excitement among people who live their lives by the power of occult charms, with the new arrivals staking out their own territory for expert consultations, at the expense of the street corner Malayali Gura and his spells that were good enough all these years.People will be talking in more than whispers about the efficacy of various "charmed oils" in the ability to bring ill-luck to others, even to governments, as well as the rival power to offset the evil spells cast by others.

The local kattadiya with his skills in communicating with demons will have added demand as the country is dragged into a morass of antediluvian thinking, where the curse of the deity is given more importance than reason.

With each one of those nuts that are dashed, we will see more dashing of the hopes that people may have in such politicians taking them to a new dawn of progress and reason. But that will not bother those who take to the nutty road of politics.