Circus.

The lexical creates the visual. The constant iteration of phrases like “the biggest exercise of democracy”, “the incredible election”, “the unique election”, “the remarkable election”, “the Untouchables”, continuously re-creates India as a feast for the eyes. A pity the phrases don’t have free tickets to the show attached to them. Sometimes the overzealous or exhausted correspondent repeats himself or several correspondents, across media houses, write from their collective unconscious. What else explains the phrases “the ruling Congress party-led coalition will most likely emerge as the group with most seats, seeing off a challenge from an alliance headed by the Hindu-nationalist [BJP]...” (April 17), “the Congress... will do enough to see off the challenge...” (April 16), “Congress Party... is battling to fight off a challenge...” (April 12) — all in Andrew Buncombe’s reports in The Independent. Or, consider these: 1. “...some election officials in the most remote areas rode elephants to polling stations near the border with Burma. In the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, ballots were brought to voters by a two-day sea trip.” [Buncombe, Independent, April 17].

2. “Some election officials rode elephants to remote polling stations near the Myanmar border. Other ballots were brought by two-day sea trips to the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal.” [Krittivas Mukherjee, Reuters, April 16].

3. “Some election officials had to ride elephants to reach remote polling stations near the northeastern border with Myanmar, while others made two-day sea journeys to the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal.” [Jeremy Page, The Times, April 16]. Good for them they shared notes to be sure of the facts. And underscored the exotic.

... contd.