Is crying the new political strategy? Haryana election witnessing tears and sympathy

Weeping is in vogue this election season and the leaders in patriarchal Haryana have taken to it like a duck to water.

With their vision blurred with tears, a choked stammer and a heavy heart, Bharatiya Janta Party’s “ticket-rejects”, surrounded by their supporters, are shedding tears over being “cheated” while the Congress general secretary, Deepak Babaria, too, seems to have jumped on to this “emotive” bandwagon after “failing” to live up to the workers’ expectations.

Sitting Minister of State for social justice Bishamber Singh Balmiki from Bawani Kheri (Bhiwani), former Minister Kavita Jain from Sonepat, former BJP MLA Naresh Kaushik from Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar), former MLA Sashi Ranjan Parmar seeking ticket from Tosham and Bhiwani, senior BJP leader Deepak Dagar from Prithla (Faridabad), upset with the denial of a party ticket this assembly election, have broken down at their worker programmes.

Former chairman of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board, Aditya Chautala, who bid adieu to the BJP after he was denied a ticket and joined the Indian National Lok Dal, cried his heart out at a programme in Chautala village on Sunday.

Babaria, in a viral video, he is seen explaining the process of ticket-distribution to the Congress workers. Stating that the workers would be disappointed, he is seeking their forgiveness as he wipes away his tears.

While Promila Batra, a retired professor of Psychiatry from MDU, Rohtak, says that the politicians cry to “exploit the public emotion” while adding that it earns them empathy. “When a particular action works for one individual, the others adopt it for similar reasons,” she explains while another psychologist from Chandigarh maintains that weeping is a “grief reaction” or another way to pressurise the party top brass or mobilise sympathy.

AIDWA vice-president Jagmati Sangwan who has closely worked on women’s issues says that the leaders are feeling helpless and shedding tears after being denied party tickets.

“For the first time, the leaders are feeling what Haryana’s women have been made to feel—that they can’t do a thing despite feeling wronged,” she says.

Meanwhile, Prof Ashutosh Kumar of the Political Science department, looks at this development as a new-trend in which the political language is shifting. “The leaders weeping in public does not translate into the feminisation of politics but definitely marks a shift from the rough and ready politics of yesteryears. Those weeping in public are trying to create public sympathy for themselves while using it to save their skin as well if the party candidates lose the election in their areas,” he said.

While so far this trend is limited to the BJP where a number of ticket aspirants have been denied tickets, political observers believe this "model" will be replicated in the Congress as well once its list of candidates is out.