A former politician in southern India has launched a ”rent-a-crowd” company to recruit people to cheer at party rallies and said he has been deluged by would-be recruits, a report on Friday said.
”When all political parties and organisations are doing it discreetly, why can’t we do it professionally?” the Hindustan Times newspaper quoted the company’s founder, Devarajan, who goes by one name, as saying.
Indian political parties are known for paying people to show up for rallies, often transporting them in fleets of buses, but usually the recruitment is carried out by the parties.
Devarajan is offering recruits training and guaranteed wages, and says they can be deployed when parties need a ”decent-sized crowd” at a rally, the newspaper reported.
He said his firm, based in Kerala’s capital, Trivandrum, placed an ad in a local newspaper and received ”at least 250 calls in two days” from applicants.
One ”said he would participate in any mode of agitation, including violent ones — if he got a bottle of liquor and chicken curry every day”, he said.
The newspaper said response to the ad reflects Kerala’s high unemployment.
While literacy in Kerala is almost 91%, far higher than India’s 65% average, unemployment is rampant due to a lack of major industries.
About four million of its population of 32-million are out of work, according to official figures, and many travel to the Gulf in quest of jobs. — Sapa-AFP