Power Play

A card game recreates the vicious world of Indian electoral politics

In Politiko, players use electoral strategy cards to outmanoeuvre rivals and win voters. COURTESY KHOJ INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS’ ASSOCIATION
01 November, 2013

THE INDIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY’S (INA) main rival is the Hindu Peoples’ Party (HPP). Securing the support of the All-India Dravidian Party (AIDP) can help the former gain an edge over the latter. But the INA may only get its support if it arm-twists the AIDP into joining its alliance. Of course, there is the danger that the AIDP will openly accuse it of incompetence, leading to a political impasse.

Though the party names may be new, these strategies and manoeuvres are familiar from the world of Indian politics. In September, visitors to Khoj, the artists’ studio in Khirki Extension, Delhi, found themselves engaged in such machinations amongst themselves as they played a card game called Politiko, developed by a 31-year-old Kuala Lumpur-based visual artist and game-maker named Munkao.

Munkao, who goes by one name, first conceived of the game in April 2012, having observed Malaysian politics for a few years. He began devising the game and testing it among his politically active friends. Funded and distributed by a forum called LoyarBurok through its online retail store, the game was officially released in April this year, just as Malaysia was gearing up for the most closely-contested general election in its history—between the country’s long-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and the Pakatan Rakyat alliance. Munkao describes this period as a “political circus” featuring extreme right-wing groups and a compromised and ineffective police and judiciary. “In the last few years, protests got creative and there were many responses to these absurd developments, such as caricatures, iPhone games, rallies,” Munkao said. “I think Politiko is just part of a bigger narrative.”

This August, Munkao and his artistic collaborator Zedeck Siew, a Malaysian writer, actor and co-founder (with Munkao) of CENTAUR, the Centre for Artful and Useful Recreation, created an Indian version of Politiko at Of Games, an artists’ residency organised by Khoj. Held over five weeks in August and September, the studio invited seven artists—the remaining five were from India—to think about games, storytelling and visual culture. They collaborated with game developers and attended workshops on visual programming to develop their projects. The Malaysian duo began with a role-playing game called Vernissage, and then created the Indian version of Politiko.

Politiko India’s gameplay begins with each player choosing their political party—thinly disguised versions of real-life counterparts. The Indian National Assembly and the Hindu Peoples’ Party are the largest parties, while smaller ones include the Indian Communist Party, the Indian Marxist Party, the Hindu Heroes’ Army, the Socialist Party, the Kashmiri Conference and two Dravidian parties. Players take turns to draw voter and scheme cards from the deck, accepting compatible cards and discarding extra ones. However, each party has restrictions on the numbers and kinds of voters they can win. For example, the Indian Communist Party cannot add conservatives or members of the upper class, while the Hindu Heroes’ Army cannot take on liberals or moderates.

Cards representing voters are divided on the basis of demographics such as location, ideology, and identities based on caste, religion and class. Parties can compete for voters through moves such as implementing farming subsidies, opening up markets, roping in a film star, and distributing free televisions or laptops. They may also deploy their clout with the media, courts or police against their rivals.

Malaysian Politiko reflects the fact that the country’s politics has been dominated by a single ruling party since independence—thus, a single player can win on her own. In contrast, the Indian version reflects the country’s coalition system; only an alliance of players can win, if they collectively have at least 12 mutually compatible voters.

In Malaysia, Politiko received attention from the local and international press, as well as the politicians it was making fun of, and sold out in less than two months. It was even used as a prize in a Twitter contest organised by the prime minister’s office, which resulted in a right-wing blog decrying the initiative as a conspiracy by disgruntled insiders at the PMO to unseat the ruling right-wing party. The blog also accused Politiko of being a subversive game, funded by foreign sources. “One of the founding principles of Politiko is that every player is self-serving, like all political parties are,” Siew said. “It’s easy to backstab and target the same person again and again.”