Know CK Janu? Why am I not surprised?

'The pitch was made, the client loved it. The agency got to the business of getting the advertising platform right. It looked at tea and its immediate associations — revolution, people, young people sitting at corner tea shops and tea houses, discussions, change in-thinking and so on. It took these ideas and ran with the line ‘bus uthaata nahi, jagaata hai’...

Soon enough the ‘Mr politician, what are your qualifications?’ commercial was made. Tata Tea definitely needed something of that stature...'

One thing's certain about this campaign that gets me irritated no end. Its perfect for the Indian Jaago Re youth. Though the irony is tea and revolution isn't something they'd ever understand. Because if they did they would be smarter than to ask for 'qualifications' before they decide who to vote for.

Don't get it? Why am I not surprised? Ever heard of CK Janu? She is the kind of stuff, 'Tea & Revolution' is made of. Just so the dimwits know who she is, let me quote from Wikipedia.

C. K. Janu is the leader of the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a social movement that has been pushing for land to be redistributed to landless adivasis and that grew out of the Dalit-Adivasi Action Council.

Janu's background is Adiya, one of the adivasi groups in Kerala who used to be indentured laborers (adiya actually means slave) and whose people are still mostly landless agricultural laborers. Janu had no formal education but learned to read and write through a literacy campaign that was conducted in Wayanad, the area in the north of Kerala, near the border with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where Janu comes from. Her biography is quite typical of Adiya people: she used to be landless (until she organized a long drawn-out struggle to occupy land with her community and finally got a piece of land) and used to work as an agricultural laborer. Actually, as she never gained much money with her political career--or even lost money on having to pay for her political activities--she still often does this kind of work to get by.

Going by the Jaago Re campaign, I don't think the youth are going to vote for the likes of CK Janu. After all, she has her qualifications steeped in the literacy campaign run in Kerala. That may not be enough for the Jaago Re youth. But then the Adivasis don't care. To them, CK Janu is a leader.

Tell you what. That's what counts.


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