The minister’s office had called the local ruling Party Secretary to organize a big event in the constituency to offset the effect of a pompous State Conference the main opposition party had organized recently. That was a good news for the local politicians. The same evening, the MLA, and the other party bigwigs convened a meeting of all active members of the local unit to discuss how best they could organize a colorful function and impress the voters ; a colleague in the state Cabinet had been deputed to oversee the arrangements.
The minister’s office had called the local ruling Party Secretary to organize a big event in the constituency to offset the effect of a pompous State Conference the main opposition party had organized recently. That was a good news for the local politicians. The same evening, the MLA, and the other party bigwigs convened a meeting of all active members of the local unit to discuss how best they could organize a colorful function and impress the voters ; a colleague in the state Cabinet had been deputed to oversee the arrangements.
As per the veiled suggestion of the MLA, it was decided to hold a mass marriage ceremony and to invite the CM to preside over the function and bless the couples and hand over the sacred threads to the grooms so they could tie them around the brides’ necks and solemnize the marriages. Enough funds had been allocated by the Party Treasurer, but the local party thugs decided to use the occasion to line their pockets. They would force the merchants and other traders to part with sizable sums with barbed threats of retaliation and police harassment. None would be prepared to antagonize the ruling party by refusing to pay.
The owner of the largest marriage Hall in the city was coerced to give it free to hold the function, and a prominent hotelier was manipulated to supply lunch at very low rates. Bridal sarees, and dhotis, and readymade shirts for the grooms and their parents were procured from a textile showroom whose owner had been served notice for submitting faulty GST invoices. Flowers, gold chains, mangal sutras and all other paraphernalia required for a massive marriage were obtained by threats, black –mail, arm-twisting, false promises, etc, and what remained to be done was to get the actual couples to get married.
They had not imagined it would be such a difficult job to get couples to undergo free marriages. It seemed almost a herculean task. The target was 100 couples and a sum of Rs.25,000/- was to be spent on each couple for which the Party had handed over a cheque for Rs.30 lakhs to the Secretary. It was rumored that the MLA would swindle three fourths of the amount by getting things done free by fraud and threat.
In selecting the couples for the marriage, the party higher ups had insisted that priority should be given to party functionaries and their families, the active members of the Party and their kith and kin, and then to the sympathizers and finally to the burearucrats and their relatives. As the day for the marriage function was nearing, tension among the organizers was shooting up; the required number was not adding up. They now declared that any couple willing to get married was welcome. They could come from far and near, and from any religion provided they are willing to go through the Hindu rituals. When there was only a week to go, there were only 78 couples and most of them were from the lower income group and below poverty-line families; they were fished out from the slums on the banks of the Cooum.
The MLA was losing his cool. "What the hell are we going to do with only 78 couples? I have promised the CM it would be 100, and we have already printed posters quoting that number." he wailed.
"Do you think anyone would bother to count the couples? " one of the volunteers said." We can somehow manage to hoodwink the people."
"That we always do, but think of the opposition. They will certainly do the head count and shame the government."
"I know a recently married couple who ran away and got married secretly in a temple sometime back. We can ask them to get married again."
"That is a good idea. Find out if there are more couples like them. We will pay them extra."
"Do you suppose the opposition will find out our fraud?"
"I am not worried about the opposition" the senior Minister said. "Only the newspaper reporters will dig out the dirty details. I know a nasty fellow, from the Dina Kural newspaper, who specializes in such exposes. Can anybody control him?"
"I can" a party member looking like a ruffian, stood up. " I will knock him off and send him to the hospital at least for a month. Until our function is over."
"That is a good idea, but remember it has to be done discreetly. If the name of the party surfaces in this matter, it would offset all the publicity we hope to harvest by arranging the marriages. Karuna, can you take charge of this operation?"
" Leave it to me, Thalaiva." Karuna said grandly.
"Still the shortage in the number of couples getting married remains. We run short of 20 couples and what are we going to do about it?" the MLA said.
"I have a solution" Karuna interjected. "We have nearly ten members of our inner circle who got married in the course of a year; we can ask them to get married again."
"Good idea, Karuna" the Minister said. "Only ten?"
"There are others but most of them have got children; parents cannot get remarried with the children as witnesses. It would be too much."
"We can easily get any number of couples if we approach Maari" Karuna said.
"I have not heard of him." the Minister said.
"He is a professional supplier of unmarried couples for mass marriages," Karuna said. " He can supply 20 couples at short notice. He is reliable."
"I have heard of him" the MLA said. "This is the same Maari who supplied couples for the mass marriage function organized by the Opposition last month in Salem?"
"He has no party affiliations. He is reliable but his rates are high."
"How much does he charge for each couple?"
"Up to ten couples, Rs. 25,000/- for each couple but from eleven onwards it is only Rs.15,000/- each."
"There is no time to wait. Let us engage him. Pay him an advance, and sign a contract for 20 couples."
"That’s a big amount, but we can’t grudge it. There is only one stipulation: he should not bring in the couples who got married in the Opposition- arranged mass marriage."
"Then we are ready for the big event. I will inform the CM about it." the MLA said.
"Should we meet this Maari ?"
"Don’t commit that mistake" the Minister hastened to add." Someone will photograph it and upload it on the Whatsup or You Tube. Let myself and the MLA keep away from all this."
"If this function goes off well," the MLA said,"I will remind the CM about his promise to include me in the Cabinet."
"Long live the MLA, long live the Minister!" Karuna, along with the others, shouted, knowing well that he would be made the Minister’s PA which would open the gates for climbing up the political ladder and lining his fat pocket.
As per the veiled suggestion of the MLA, it was decided to hold a mass marriage ceremony and to invite the CM to preside over the function and bless the couples and hand over the sacred threads to the grooms so they could tie them around the brides’ necks and solemnize the marriages. Enough funds had been allocated by the Party Treasurer, but the local party thugs decided to use the occasion to line their pockets. They would force the merchants and other traders to part with sizable sums with barbed threats of retaliation and police harassment. None would be prepared to antagonize the ruling party by refusing to pay.
The owner of the largest marriage Hall in the city was coerced to give it free to hold the function, and a prominent hotelier was manipulated to supply lunch at very low rates. Bridal sarees, and dhotis, and readymade shirts for the grooms and their parents were procured from a textile showroom whose owner had been served notice for submitting faulty GST invoices. Flowers, gold chains, mangal sutras and all other paraphernalia required for a massive marriage were obtained by threats, black –mail, arm-twisting, false promises, etc, and what remained to be done was to get the actual couples to get married.
They had not imagined it would be such a difficult job to get couples to undergo free marriages. It seemed almost a herculean task. The target was 100 couples and a sum of Rs.25,000/- was to be spent on each couple for which the Party had handed over a cheque for Rs.30 lakhs to the Secretary. It was rumored that the MLA would swindle three fourths of the amount by getting things done free by fraud and threat.
In selecting the couples for the marriage, the party higher ups had insisted that priority should be given to party functionaries and their families, the active members of the Party and their kith and kin, and then to the sympathizers and finally to the burearucrats and their relatives. As the day for the marriage function was nearing, tension among the organizers was shooting up; the required number was not adding up. They now declared that any couple willing to get married was welcome. They could come from far and near, and from any religion provided they are willing to go through the Hindu rituals. When there was only a week to go, there were only 78 couples and most of them were from the lower income group and below poverty-line families; they were fished out from the slums on the banks of the Cooum.
The MLA was losing his cool. "What the hell are we going to do with only 78 couples? I have promised the CM it would be 100, and we have already printed posters quoting that number." he wailed.
"Do you think anyone would bother to count the couples? " one of the volunteers said." We can somehow manage to hoodwink the people."
"That we always do, but think of the opposition. They will certainly do the head count and shame the government."
"I know a recently married couple who ran away and got married secretly in a temple sometime back. We can ask them to get married again."
"That is a good idea. Find out if there are more couples like them. We will pay them extra."
"Do you suppose the opposition will find out our fraud?"
"I am not worried about the opposition" the senior Minister said. "Only the newspaper reporters will dig out the dirty details. I know a nasty fellow, from the Dina Kural newspaper, who specializes in such exposes. Can anybody control him?"
"I can" a party member looking like a ruffian, stood up. " I will knock him off and send him to the hospital at least for a month. Until our function is over."
"That is a good idea, but remember it has to be done discreetly. If the name of the party surfaces in this matter, it would offset all the publicity we hope to harvest by arranging the marriages. Karuna, can you take charge of this operation?"
" Leave it to me, Thalaiva." Karuna said grandly.
"Still the shortage in the number of couples getting married remains. We run short of 20 couples and what are we going to do about it?" the MLA said.
"I have a solution" Karuna interjected. "We have nearly ten members of our inner circle who got married in the course of a year; we can ask them to get married again."
"Good idea, Karuna" the Minister said. "Only ten?"
"There are others but most of them have got children; parents cannot get remarried with the children as witnesses. It would be too much."
"We can easily get any number of couples if we approach Maari" Karuna said.
"I have not heard of him." the Minister said.
"He is a professional supplier of unmarried couples for mass marriages," Karuna said. " He can supply 20 couples at short notice. He is reliable."
"I have heard of him" the MLA said. "This is the same Maari who supplied couples for the mass marriage function organized by the Opposition last month in Salem?"
"He has no party affiliations. He is reliable but his rates are high."
"How much does he charge for each couple?"
"Up to ten couples, Rs. 25,000/- for each couple but from eleven onwards it is only Rs.15,000/- each."
"There is no time to wait. Let us engage him. Pay him an advance, and sign a contract for 20 couples."
"That’s a big amount, but we can’t grudge it. There is only one stipulation: he should not bring in the couples who got married in the Opposition- arranged mass marriage."
"Then we are ready for the big event. I will inform the CM about it." the MLA said.
"Should we meet this Maari ?"
"Don’t commit that mistake" the Minister hastened to add." Someone will photograph it and upload it on the Whatsup or You Tube. Let myself and the MLA keep away from all this."
"If this function goes off well," the MLA said,"I will remind the CM about his promise to include me in the Cabinet."
"Long live the MLA, long live the Minister!" Karuna, along with the others, shouted, knowing well that he would be made the Minister’s PA which would open the gates for climbing up the political ladder and lining his fat pocket.