Online, people call it “The Streisand Effect“—an attempt to hide something which has the inverse effect of publicising what you are trying to hide some more. The Election Commission’s quixotic order that those gargantuan statues put up by Mayawati‘s government in Uttar Pradesh be covered up, since the elephant is the symbol of the Bahujan Samaj Party is a bit like that.

Little wonder, cartoonists are having a field day. And Delhi’s political hack-pack which has more or less allowed itself to be convinced by Congress media handlers that the Congress will be kingmaker if not the king himself in Mayaland, are wondering if the EC’s move could boomerang and play to Mayawati’s benefit?

Cartoons: courtesy R. Prasad/ Mail Today and Keshav/ The Hindu

External reading: What if Mayawati was contesting in Kerala?