The Story Behind Congress Hand Symbol _ Guruprasad's Portal

7/22/2019 The Story Behind Congress Hand Symbol _ Guruprasad's Portal

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(http://guruprasad.net/wp-

content/uploads/2014/03/indira_sanjay_emergency.jpg)

In order to contest for the next elections, Indira had to choose a new

party symbol. Since her earlier partys earlier symbol of cow with calf

had become a mockery throughout the country where not only the

opposition but also the common man compared Cow to Indira and

Calf to Sanjay, she had decided to discard that symbol and come up

with a new one. But at the same time, the Election Commission (EC)

had frozen the symbol and asked Indira to select a new symbol as

soon as possible.

There is an interesting anecdote about the symbol selection. When

Indira was in Andhra Pradesh with P.V.Narasimha Rao, Buta Singh had

visited the office of EC to discuss about the new symbol and EC

provided him with choices of an elephant, a bicycle & an open

palm. Buta, confused with the choices, decided to let Indira take that

decision and informed her of the choices over phone. EC had insisted

Buta to select the symbol by the next morning, failing which, the party

would have to contest without a symbol. This became a matter of

concern to the top party workers who along with Indira brainstormed

for hours over the given choices and finally upon the insistence of RK

Rajarathnam who suggested that the open palm due to its simplicity

would be easily recognizable by the people, Indira decided to select it.

The following is a short video snippet in which Rajarathnam recollects

the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsRiATTnT9U

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsRiATTnT9U)

(http://guruprasad.net/wp-

content/uploads/2014/03/AIFB_Congress_symbols1.jpg)The nextmorning, when Buta Singh called Indira to find out her decision, it
http://guruprasad.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/AIFB_Congress_symbols1.jpghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsRiATTnT9Uhttp://guruprasad.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/indira_sanjay_emergency.jpg


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turned out into a comedy of errors. Due to his thick accent and

pronounciation, when he said Haath theek rahega? (will hand be

fine?), Indira mistook it for haathi (will elephant be fine?) to which

she said no and said Haath to which again Buta said Yes. Thats what

I am also saying. Haathi. Finally, Indira gave up and handed over the

phone to P.V.Narasimha Rao. PVN, master of more than 15 Indian and

foreign languages immediately realized that Buta was actually saying

Haath and asked Panjaa? (palm) to which Buta affirmed. That was

how the hand became the party symbol for Congress party. The open

palm symbol was earlier used by All India Forward Bloc (AIFB Ruikar)

for the 1951 elections but was slightly different with fingers parting.

That symbol did not last long as AIFB had disbanded the party within

an year after 1952 elections. It remained unused for the next 3

decades till it was offered to Indira in 1980 (in the form of a new

design with fingers close to each other). That symbol was an instant

hit (Indira came back to power in 1980) and has been in existence

ever since.

It is interesting to note that the symbols which Indira rejected i.e

Elephant & Bicycle, were later chosen by parties who went on to gainsignificant foothold in Uttar Pradesh. The BSP chose elephant and the

SP chose Bicycle.

References:

http://guruprasad.net/posts/24-akbar-road-by-rasheed-kidwai/

(http://guruprasad.net/posts/24-akbar-road-by-rasheed-kidwai/)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/When-Indira-Gandhi-

mistook-haathi-for-haath/articleshow/9242836.cms

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/When-Indira-Gandhi-mistook-haathi-for-haath/articleshow/9242836.cms)

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INDIA (HTTP://GURUPRASAD.NET/POSTS/CATEGORY/INDIA/),

INSIGHTFUL

(HTTP://GURUPRASAD.NET/POSTS/CATEGORY/INDIA/INSIGHTFUL/)

TAGGED CONGRESS (HTTP://GURUPRASAD.NET/POSTS/TAG/CONGRESS/) ,

INDIA (HTTP://GURUPRASAD.NET/POSTS/TAG/INDIA-2/), INSIGHTFUL

(HTTP://GURUPRASAD.NET/POSTS/TAG/INSIGHTFUL/)

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How Indians see India(http://guruprasad.net/posts/how-indians-see-india/)

Add a comm ent7 comments

Rajalakshmi Paramasivam Chennai, Tamil Nadu

In 2014, all three symbols have faded.

Reply Like Follow Post March 22 at 11:51pm

Kendra Pal Singh Chauhan Khurja U.P

Very nice article.

Reply Like Follow Post March 22 at11:54pm

Mark Mullai Works at Retired

Now the palm is a great symbol for corruption. That's what congressstand for!!!!!!

Reply Like Follow Post March 23 at 3:05am

Follow

1

Sudha Lokanathan Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai (Madras)

Avery interesting material for readingReply Like Follow Post March 24 at12:42pm

Melmangalam Ramanathan Subramanian University of Madras

SYMBOL IS GOOD. BUT THE PALM ITCHES AND REQUIRESGREASING NOW AND ALWAYS !

Reply Like Follow Post March 25 at 5:41am

Muralidharan Seetharam SharmaAnnamalai University

I heard another story which seemed to be written by then chiefminis ter of AP in his book. Indira Gandhi went to get bless ings ofKanchi paramacharya and he blessed her by lifting the right hand. Incongress everybody wants sonia gandhi's acknowledgment :(

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Suryavanchikesh MahalingamA.M.Jain College,Chennai

I too heard like this only

Reply Like April 3 at 3:42pm
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The Story Behind Congress Hand Symbol _ Guruprasad's Portal