India Elections Win All, Loose All; little options for Political Parties

By: Amit Bhushan Date: 18th Mar 2014

One of faucets of the Indian Electoral scenario is that it is a Win All, Loose All elections as far as media is concerned i.e. the way it treats or covers electoral politics. This is reflected by little introspection or scrutiny of the ideology of the smaller/regional parties or their leaders for their role at the national level. This allows these parties to wriggle out of situations and twist political space based on their convenience and their leaders run the political process in the party basis the strength of the structure which may or may not be sustained due to Gundaraj of the cadres (including money earned through it) in a state or two. This phenomenon is clearly witnessed for parties who are likely to be number three & below in terms of strength in numbers elected with Left parties being an exception from an ideological viewpoint. Another exception could be political party and people whose politics revolves around the actions of the central parties (while other action of the regional party being ignored unless highlighted by center or central political people themselves). The media has almost thoroughly failed to rigorously raise questions regards ideology and performance of these parties including actions which can be branded as arbitrary especially ones in support of or against local institutions and businesses in the areas governed by such parties. The result is that the better ideology amongst local parties are not adequately highlighted e.g. take the case of a single MLA party based out of AP or some supporters of a newbie party carving out on their own in remote corners of the country (with people of some credibility/professionally proven backgrounds) - for arguments sake (and their may be several examples). One may rate the ideology of the party as better, but because of its not joining the league of corruption by shaking hands with Real Estate dons, Liquor barons or its action in highlighting corruption elsewhere, the strength of local cadre may be lower as it cannot afford to organize morale booster sessions for cadre or media sessions which may not be affordable. Media coverage of its ideology and actions could have boosted its chances (since this brings in cadre and possible donations from public); however media remains focused in and around

Capital and Central parties only. So such parties and political ideology needs to make compromises including with their ideology for political survival. The media must realize that its scrutiny and criticism may be actually better for it, in the long run and its fending of such criticisms may actually be self defeatist. It should therefore take a hard look at its role since it would allow it to be friendlier towards its consumers; although not all criticism may be valid to be taken up. Since elections are fought on the principle of one man one vote, it may be applied to media coverage of political news as well i.e. giving coverage basis number of people impacted or concerned by the coverage of such news while such calculations may remain under control of news room editors initially till better models are developed. The present coverage seems to be basis concern for the upper strata consumers being affected including coverage basis their viewpoints since it is this strata that the advertisers bother about and therefore it helps in fetching advertising revenue by capturing such audience only. The political impact of such newsroom strategy is almost totally ignored. Though this may not be conscious practice but it is a fact that the newsrooms are not consciously trying to avoid such aberrations that may creep it or may have already crept in inadvertently. A changed orientation in media has the potential to change some of the outcome in the elections to some extent even at this stage when campaigning has almost begun and India stares at the beginning of the endgame of the Elections 2014.This is because in spite of the social media phenomenon, it is the commercial media which is still in the living rooms of the people blazing news and views relied on by people. The rally going crowd is still a few but rallies have only limited impact unless the content of the claims at the rallies are being backed by analysis of numbers being presented/discussed by the media. The parties know this and so it is fashionable to rake the numbers of other parties rather that present ones own case (i.e. focus on negative reiteration rather than positive). Wherever positive claims are made, it is more of generalist nature where the other parties may not have much to talk about and care is taken that statistical comparatives are better in government records. There is little discussion about how for a specific promise but only what about a promise so that there is not much to challenge. There can be many more and media is not concerned about the same since all they need is TRPs which come from rhetoric rather than real news or views. In spite of the advent of investigative media including of the variety of off beat types represented more by .com media names, we have little analysis about how Gundaraj is sustained financially in the political hotbed of Doaba, leaving aside how this is done in other

parts of the country. Given the scale of our economy, we know that this can only be sustained through a mix of money laundering, however not one politically significant breakthrough has been made by even any wing of the government giving impression that every thing is hunky dory and therefore media alone may not be responsible. Some other Political parties may have failed too. However, media continues to deliver news of political change and other niceties with vigor