Posted on 05/19/2005 9:36:24 AM PDT by Stoat
Need a cheering crowd? New Delhi - 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 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, 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 got "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 reflected Kerala's high unemployment. While literacy in Kerala is almost 91 percent, far higher than India's 65 percent average, unemployment is rampant due to a lack of major industries. Some 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. |
I think that the Dems pay a whole lot more than this for their rent-a-mob members (except for the Union thugs)....if this is the going rate in India, this sounds like another great outsourcing opportunity for the Left.
I wonder if those Christian "evangelists" who go over there rent people? Could that be why some Hindus accuse evangelists of buying converts?!
Howard Dean...your life just got easier!
The Dems do this at many GOP fundraisers in DC.
Sometimes we(GOP party staffers) would arrange for counter-demonstrators so all the press would see would be two sides shouting at each other from opposite sides of the street.
Now THAT was funny. That tactic reduced their protests to inanities. How nice.
Whoops! I meant to say 'and even more for their Union thugs'
Sorry.....not enough coffee yet today :-)
"Need a cheering crowd? Rent-A-Mob..."
The Iranian regime has been doing this for decades.
Saddam did too. The difference is the people weren't so much paid as they were simply offered the opportunity to avoid torture or execution if they participated in the 'demonstration' against the Great Satan.
"Howard Dean...your life just got easier!"
Can't wait for the thousands--millions?--of cheering
Hindus at the 2008 Democratic Convention.
What a great idea! Take it out of the shadowy back hallways and make it a capitalized company. I can't think of a better way to neutralize the impression made by "supporters" at liberal protests and demonstrations.
ROTFLMAO! If the going rate is a bottle of cheap liquor and a chicken curry per diem, The Clintons will have an opportunity to do a bit more futures trading with their good friends at Tyson foods, a huge chicken supplier.
True, but I would only wish to suggest that it isn't necessary for the Right to do this....the Left angers so many normal, sane people with their antics that many Leftist demonstrations these days are routinely met (and overwhelmed) by Conservative counter-demonstrations, composed entirely of passionate, unpaid people.
It's the Left in this country that needs to pay for their crowds....another indicator that they are losing the culture wars.
LOL!!! Until the part where a screeching, demagogic, Hillary yells: "We have to stop sending jobs overseas" and is met with dead silence.
The 'rats have been doing htis for years. It's also the same scruffy bums that show up at every dim "protest". I swear, not one of the "regulars" has held a job for more than a few weeks.
"Rent-a-Mob", huh? That reminds me of the E3 coverage for the Xbox 360. The hosts of the show were commenting on the number of women at the press conference for the 360 - "Too many to be believable" was the exact quote, I think.
"Hey, rent-a-mob? We need some women for our next video game system." ;)
LOL!!! Until the part where a screeching, demagogic, Hillary yells: "We have to stop sending jobs overseas" and is met with dead silence.
Good shot, sir.
". . .a huge chicken supplier."
If you had said, "a huge supplier of chickens," that would have worked, too.
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