Poll or not, the auto is king

IF THE different Gods and Goddesses of the Hindu Pantheon have their own pet vehicles, then the great Indian Middle Class has its own faithful carrier too. Heard of the three wheeled glorification? Still fuzzy? It is simple then, you just do not belong to the Great Indian Middle Class.

Any member of that community would have said with a mixture of exasperation and resignation, but certainly conviction : The Auto. In their quinquennial avatar, the auto's now the carrier of the Great Indian Democracy, in addition to being the carrier of the Great Indian Middle Class. In Tamil Nadu, if not anywhere else, the auto is the bearer of the great Indian Politician. Well, even the not so Great Indian Politician.

Their tops ripped off, in a desi version of the convertible, the autos bear the candidates and their loyal foot soldiers around the constituencies. Never mind all that mutation- party flags, posters and rolled up tops- the indefagitable auto spirit still prevails. The auto spirit, like the Great Indian Auto Rider knows, is to pay scant attention to road rules or pits, drive haphazardly and blare horns. It just gets better if we are part of the campaign: we're got those cone loudspeakers and pharaphernalia to create decibel defying noise.

And for the force that moves the auto, what does electioneering mean? Translates into hard cash of Rs 300 per day, with the petrol tank filled and one meal.

How many such rigs are out on the streets of Chennai? `` We cannot calculate all that. But there will be a minimum of 10 autos in every constituency for each party. The more influence a party has, the more autos'', says another three-wheeler crusader in North Chennai. With the two leaves symbol painted over the hood of the auto, he leaves no doubts about where his loyalties lie.

But there are those who still ferry members of the Great Indian Middle Class, who look at their `mutated fraternity' with scarcely concealed disgust, ``Who wants to get into that racket? You have to get into all kinds of lanes, and atleast seven people will hang on the auto''.

By Ramya Kannan

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Section  : Southern States
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