Village says no to graffiti, banners

No political graffiti, no party banners, not even a party poster or flag. Yet, every election, villagers of M. Nathampalayam hamlet near Avinashi ensure 100 per cent polling.

The 150 families here prefer to call their hamlet “Suthanthira Nallur (independent, good village)”, though on official records it is listed as M. Nathampalayam. Nestled snugly in a pastoral landscape about one km from Avinashi main road, M. Nathampalayam looks like any other rural nook with concrete roads, green fields and about 150 modest houses with a population of 625 people. Come elections, in most villages, the mud and concrete walls turn into an explosion of political colour with graffiti, posters and banners invading them. But for the last 25 years the walls of M. Nathamapalayam have remained stoically non-partisan. On the eve of Independence Day, the walls of the village houses and government buildings are cleaned and given a coat of paint. “For the next one year, till next Independence Day, no one is allowed to touch or write anything on the walls,” says P. Kanagaraj, headmaster of M. Nathampalayam elementary school.

Not that the villagers do not have political affiliations. Most of the villagers are traditional AIADMK supporters and there are some DMK and Congress loyalists too. But they have strictly barred any political party from erecting flags, pasting posters, scrawling graffiti or putting up political banners in their village.