Back in 1978, long before Twitter taught the world how to converse in less than 140 characters, a mischievous but mirthful message had rippled across India by word of mouth.

“Ek sherni, sau langur Chikmagalur, Chikmagalur,” so went the slogan that captured the plight of the hordes of anti-Congress leaders who had descended on the southern bypoll seat from where Indira Gandhi was about to stage her comeback after the Emergency debacle.

Three decades on, in the era of rhyming repartees and walloping wisecracks and in the middle of several rounds of elections, blockbuster slogans should have been bursting forth from fingertips and multiplying across the political landscape.

Asked for one political slogan that had caught his attention recently, advertising professional Piyush Pandey thought for a while and said: “None, I don’t remember any.”

Pandey would not have had much trouble picking a few had he been asked the question in the past century. If “Indira hatao Desh bachao” became an anthem in 1977, blowing away the Emergency-tainted Congress, the BJP rode to power decades later on “Abki bari/Atal Bihari.”

The BSP’s journey from a Dalit-only party to one that actively wooed Brahmins in the last Assembly elections is marked by its slogans. From the antagonistic “Tilak, taraju aur talwar/ Inko maaro joote chaar” — the reference in the first line is to Brahmins, Banias and Rajputs — when it was consolidating its position among Dalits, it went to the inclusive “Haathi nahi Ganesh hai Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hai” that ties the party symbol with deities.

But such powerful symbolism, strong on content and coinage, has ebbed now.

In the 2009 general election, there was little to choose between the Congress and BJP slogans. One party said: “Aam aadmi ke badhte kadam/ Har kadam par Bharat buland.” The other went: “Har haath ko kaam/ Har haath ko paani” and “Strong BJP, Strong India.” Yawn!

But the Congress slogan for the Bihar election took the cake for verbosity: “Hamari larai unse hai jo sirf baaten banate hain/ Ab zaroorat hai kaam ki, Bihar ke oonche naam ki .”

The disappearance of catchy slogans has, ironically, coincided with mainstream political parties handing over their publicity campaigns to advertising agencies.

The BSP hired such an agency for the first time in this election. The result: “Jo kaha/ So kar dikhaya.” Tame when compared to this: “Chadh gundan ki chhati par/ Mohar laga de haathi par”, the 2007 slogan that captured people’s frustration with the free run criminals had under Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Career politicians are quick to blame a perceived disconnect between the western-educated ad professionals and “the grassroots” as well as a decline in creative skills. But the corporate world points a finger back — at degeneration in politics and the media explosion.

Advertising professional Pandey, who wrote the song Mile Sur Mera Tumhara… and is behind the Asian Paints har ghar kuchh kehta hai campaign and the Cadbury’s kuchh khaas hai line, had an explanation: “Writers should know what people want. You have to come from the receiver’s class, not the giver’s class…. You have to know the grassroots.

“There is confusion in the minds of the politicians, too. They are still wondering what the new generation wants, what works in the new media. There is no crisis of talent, if you are clear in your mind about what to expect and what to give, things will be better.”

Sanjay Kaul, who regularly handles the BJP’s media campaign and is associated with the India Shining slogan that flopped in 2004, agreed about the confusion in politicians’ minds. “I don’t agree there is no talent. The ‘Khanduri hai jaroori ’ slogan of Uttarkhand was very good…. In the last Delhi election, we did a slogan, ‘Mahengi pari Congress (Congress proved costly)’, which was good but was forgotten because the BJP lost the election. The problem is not with rhyming or lyricism, political concepts are getting weaker.”

The adman also defended the much-maligned India Shining slogan. “India Shining was not meant to be a partisan slogan and should have been presented as a national anthem. It reflected every Indian’s aspiration but people didn’t accept it as BJP’s slogan,” he said.

Of course, there is no disputing that a slogan is only as good as the party that coins it. In 2007, Amar Singh roped in top professionals who came up with the UP mein hai dum line. Superstar Amitabh Bachhan was the face of the campaign. Yet they drew a blank.

In an electoral discourse dominated by the rampant crime in the state, a slogan that claimed “UP mein hai dum/ Jurm hai yahan kam” was doomed to failure.

The same with Mayawati’s catchy line for 2009 — the first general election after her sweep of UP in 2007 — UP hui hamari hai/ Ab Dilli ki baari hai.” It flopped simply because it did not reflect the truth.

Kaul also stressed this point, adding that what was once a winning slogan can become a liability through overkill and failure to deliver. “When India Gandhi said ‘Garibi hatao’, it became a national slogan. But today people laugh if any politician promises poverty removal. The crisis of credibility in politics is much bigger than the crisis of creative writers,” he said.

The pressures of coalition politics and the stress on “consensus” have also taken their toll. “Despite consultation with top leaders, a writer cannot satisfy everybody and he has to strike a balance. Can you ask a poet to write on consensus?” Kaul asked.

Sometimes, even a cliché can work if it mirrors the political reality and gets its timing right. An example is the unimaginative “Jab tak suraj chand rahega/Indira tera naam rahega” that the Congress used in 1984. But the context — the assassination of Indira Gandhi — fitted in well with the sympathy wave that swept the party to a landslide victory.

In 2004, when the BJP was boasting of India Shining, even a weak Congress managed to connect with the masses by saying, “Congress ka haath/aam aadmi ke sath.”

Senior politicians remain unconvinced about the gains from hiring professional copywriters, who may often lack a mature political consciousness and may not be attuned to the local cultural sensibilities.

A slogan coined on the basis of briefings and notes cannot match one that comes out of experience and struggle, they say. “Knowing villages and living in a village is not the same,” one leader said, to drive the point home.

Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, who has done a lot of writing for his party, said: “Only those can recreate the feel of the grassroots, who have gone through the political process and whose hearts and minds are the product of the same cultural milieu they are writing for (can write an effective slogan). Though it is not necessary that everybody who has gone through this process can create good slogans. It is also not necessary the advertising agencies will have people who understand the essence of Indian culture and linguistic sensitivities.”

But advertising agencies have adapted well to the linguistic complexities in India. Many of the celebrated commercials over the past decade have been in Hindi or in regional languages, successfully selling colas to cereal to consumers in rural India.

Advertising professional Alyque Padamsee saw the media’s hand in the fall of the slogan. “Today creativity in political slogans has been overtaken by headline writers of newspapers and news channels. Every day, voters read or hear about scams and political hypocrisy with such force that political slogans have to appear weak in comparison.”

Perhaps, the wordsmiths are just too tired after mastering the art of thinking in no more than 140 characters.