Signature Campaign

Surprisingly, I couldn’t find much of the history for this mode of propaganda. Hence I am including my opinion based on the observation of the recent facts and application of this campaign.

Signature campaigns according to me are one of the most powerful weapons of displaying the support as well as garnering support. Focussing on the various instances in which it is being used we can conclude that it can typically be used in scenarios where it is necessary to show protest in spite of a pertinent and inevitable crackdown.

The Sri Lankan instance

One distinct instance of such a campaign was in Sri Lanka. The opposition party had started a signature campaign of 1 million signatures to secure the release of defeated opposition candidate and former military chief General Sarath Fonseka. He had played an active role in the Srilankan conclusive war against the LTTE and had fought the election against the erstwhile president Mahinda Rajapakse with propaganda of seeking equal rights and post war rehabilitation of the Tamils. But he had also blamed the Rajapakse Government for their insensitivity towards the prisoners of war and had accused him of massacring the captured soldiers.

After sarath Fonseka lost the election, he accused the ruling party of rigging the elections and started protesting. At that crucial juncture Rajapakse played a masterstroke by arresting Fonseka accusing of planning a coup and also declared the re-elections.

This sealed the fate of Fonseka and there was no way he was going to be let out and at the same time, the opposition could have a demonstration since the re-elections were declared and their requests adhered to.

Now, the Opposition party came out with the signature campaign, which played two distinct roles.

Firstly, it would rake the confidence Rajapakse Government had impressed upon the people of Sri Lanka by the virtue of declaring the re elections, i.e., the belief of the people that ‘everyone feels that Rajapakse is right’ was in question.

Secondly, opposition was spared from the blame that they oppose every Government move for the purpose of opposing and that the issue was really genuine. There is an element of genuineness which is associated with the Signature Campaigns. This element was necessary to change the mindset of the people. Any other form of violent protests or demonstration would not have given the required genuineness to these campaigns.

The Instance of Iran

Second instance is that of Iran, where there have been persistent effort by the activists calling for an end to the legalized discrimination against women that currently exists in the Iranian Law.

It has been seen that the authorities have repeatedly broken up such events, and closed down publications and websites that have publicized and supported its goals.

In such a sequence of events, the activists took out a one million signature campaign from the Iranian nationals calling for an end to such discrimination.

When we make critical in-depth analysis of this signature campaign we observe that this was a new and innovative in its own sense that the movement had not taken shape around one or two progressive and central figures. Rather it had been a broad movement where the activists visited the women from home to home, engaging in face to face discussions and explained to each of them about the women’s rights.

This strategy amplified by the internet campaigns resulted in high visibility and garnered support from women of all backgrounds including the low income as well as socio economically advantaged groups. This campaign was even decorated with the Simone de Beauvoir’s award.

Conclusion

The above are just a few instances of the Signature Campaigns and this tool or rather a weapon is being used today from the lowest of the issues like the instance of garnering support for the Chief Minister candidature of Jaganmohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh to nationwide movements like the famous Jagoore Campaign during the elections.

Lastly, there have been numerous instances of such campaigns being blunt. Well, the effectiveness and efficacy of all these campaigns do depend on the way they are handled and publicized, the proportion of the target population involved and of course the extent to which they can be leveraged. The signature campaign by design doesn’t mean to a game changer, but when it concerns its core attribute of garnering support and exhibiting support with an element of genuineness, it’s a burly bison waiting to be unleashed.