Poll campaigns and public ire

By

Randeep Wadehra

Last fortnight, two mainstream news items overshadowed, albeit temporarily, such major regional events as the Punjab State Assembly elections scenario and the Viraasat-e-Khalsa complex’s inauguration. First was the assault on Sharad Pawar on 24^th November. Apart from the usual video clips there were comments that seemed to be not unambiguously condemnatory of the incident. However, mercifully, the news channels did not pay up the incident unduly and give undue boost to a lunatic’s quest for cheap, instant “fame” for which physical assaults on important people is now apparently becoming a preferred mode, remember Jarnail Singh? As Jatinder Pannu pointed out in DDJ’s morning show Khaas Khabar Ek Nazar on 25 November, let us not forget that we are a democracy and there are very effective, constitutional methods for registering our ire against government’s policies and actions. The second news item was about the impasse in the parliament –something that has now become a regular feature of its functioning. Although both corruption and inflation are important issues our opposition parties forget that legislation and governance cannot be ignored. So many important bills on such important matters as land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation, judicial accountability; Lokpal, etc are still awaiting discussion and clearance. However, the Khaas Khabar… episode will remain etched on one’s mindscape for Pannu’s comparison of the black money controversy with camel’s lower lip. “As camels’ lips droop but never fall so would the black money conundrum hang on the parliamentary horizon without ever precipitating… it comes in handy for disrupting the parliament’s work.”

However, coverage of regional events was not exactly blacked out. Zee Punjabi and PTC News telecast programmes on the Viraasat-e-Khalsa. The former concentrated on presenting an encapsulated history of Sikhs, especially the gurudwaras of historical importance, while the latter telecast live the entire inaugural proceedings with commentary on the significance of the complex.As is the practice with the SAD organized events, telecast by PTC News, as much was said about the event’s actual significance as about the greatness of the Chief Minister of Punjab who was presiding over the proceedings. Again, on 29 November, it telecast the observation of Ghallughara Day under the SGPC/SAD aegis, wherein less was said of the Day’s significance and more of Badal’s achievements. Poll politics reigned supreme.

The approaching Punjab Assembly elections have energized the political scenario. Apart from the usual mergers and break-ups of political factions and the aya-ram-gaya-ram syndrome the Dalit factor found resonance in some talk shows. Dalits form 27% of Punjab’s population. This translates into a formidable political factor in the highly stratified Punjabi polity. Khabarsaar took stock of the recent upsurge in the activities of the Ramdasia sect that can have long term influence on the power equations in Punjab. Subsequently, on 23 November, the same talk show discussed whether campaigns for the forthcoming polls should be issue based or allegations based. As a panelist pointed out, there is not much to choose between the Congress and the SAD-BJP as far as their precepts and practices are concerned. Both the political rivals have substantial numbers of the corrupt and the criminal in their ranks. Both try to obfuscate the real issues that affect the common Punjabi and try to rely on emotive issues to score brownie points with their respective vote banks. In fact the Congress and Akali panelists did not desist from resorting to fiery rhetoric even during the debate. However, both were quite dismissive about the Manpreet Badal factor although they seemed to acknowledge that the anti-corruption campaign by Anna Hazare has induced the common man to become more demanding vis-à-vis probity in politics. Nonetheless, each panelist asserted that his party was cleaner than of the other’s. How would this detergent-ad style debate affect the voters’ choice? Let us wait and watch.

Published in The Tribune on 11 December, 2011