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Journalism of Courage
With monotonous regularity, the Election Commission has been delivering ill-advised and illiberal orders that form no part of its job, make a busybody of it, and in any case make little sense. In its latest such act, this one a misguided attempt at electoral egalitarianism, the Commission has declared TV advertising by political parties for the elections a no-no. Its reasoning is that political parties with smaller resources would stand to lose from TV advertising for lack of money. This is just the kind of non-reasoning which has increasingly come to characterise the actions of a hyperactive EC run amok. Considering that Doordarshan will afford free air-time to all the political parties, where is the question of the parties8217; lack of access to the electronic media for canvassing? If some of them wish also to spend money for extra publicity, not a single valid reason stands in the way of their being allowed to do so. It can only be hoped that the EC is not beginning to fancy that its duty to ensure quot;free andfairquot; elections is a duty to level out every inequality between every party.
The inequality imposed by unequal resources is a handicap for the poorer parties in every respect, not just in the matter of TV advertising. The answer to the EC8217;s anxiety to even the odds is not to ban TV advertising by the parties but to make it mandatory for all parties to fight the election with equal resources. This is as outlandish as it sounds, but it is no more outlandish than the EC8217;s hamhanded egalitarian zeal. As if the EC8217;s fuzzy logic was not full enough of holes, the Chief Election Commissioner makes things worse by declaring that the reason for discriminating against advertising in the electronic medium while allowing it in print is that the print medium is a traditional medium while TV is a relative newcomer. It is, but so what? Taking this astounding logic to its conclusion, the EC should next direct the political parties to take their websites off the Net, for nothing is newer on the media and technologyscene.
