ITANAGAR, Arunachal Pradesh — Actors perform a play at a crowded marketplace. “Here come the elections,” they sing to an audience of morning shoppers, who chuckle and film the spectacle. “Here come the good times.”
“Give me a drink, take my vote,” they sing. Or a car. Or cash.
The audience laughs and nods. In the remote northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, trading cash and gifts for votes is an open secret. These actors are part of a local independent theater troupe trying to convince citizens to vote on the basis of a candidate’s promises and performance — not bribes.
“We do this street play all over — markets, villages, temples, shopping centers. Our message is: don’t sell your vote for money,” explains actor Ravi Tayem. “This is holding back our development, because once we sell our votes, the winning candidate is going to try to recoup what they’ve spent in power. They won’t spend it on us.”
India’s elections are in full swing. The mammoth national voting exercise is spread over six weeks, with nearly a billion eligible citizens tasked with choosing over 540 parliamentarians. Voting began in April and results will be announced June 4. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister for the past decade and leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, is widely expected to win a third term.
This story was originally published in npr.org. Read the full story here.
