Indian Opposition Rally: A Vibrant Display of Cultural Identity and Resistance

At the INDIA bloc rally, the Opposition used soft power in their political messaging to influence, connect and mobilise people through culture, shared values and emotional appeal. From Himachali folk music and traditional dances to patriotic Bollywood songs, protesters at Ramlila Maidan turned the demonstration into a vibrant display of cultural identity, highlighting how art has long served as a powerful language of resistance. Members of diverse tribal communities from across the country gathered at nearby CP to present traditional folk dances. Not just traditional dances and indigenous musical instruments, people dressed-up as freedom fighters. People dressed up as lookalikes of Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, and Netaji were a common sight, the most prominent being BR Ambedkar. Some participants wore masks depicting PM Narendra Modi, adorned with garlands of chillies. A group of sadhus too joined the protest with chants. There were large graffitis made on the roads with slogans against the alleged “vote chori” as the rally moved from Minto Road, Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, towards the Ramlila Ground. Creative expressions found new forms. A 21-year-old demonstrator dressed as a cockroach to symbolically highlight the alleged deletion of citizens’ names from electoral rolls, portraying voters as being casually brushed aside. A group of people dressed as an angulimal baba from the legends of Gautam Buddha saying that “he had stopped at 999, but the CEC doesn’t seem to stop even after chopping 13 crore votes.” A Congress state unit displayed a one-mile-long cloth banner bearing the names of voters allegedly deleted from the electoral rolls, with at least 20 party workers carrying it in a straight line as they marched towards the venue. The leader of the opposition had said multiple times that the rally is “shiv ki baraat”, highlighting the fact that “it’s time for tandav”. The imagery from the demonstration brought those cultural narratives into a larger public conversation.