Political mud pies

Shortly after the Andhra Pradesh High Court stayed Rule 73 of the Cable Television Network Regulation Act, 1994, thus lifting the ban on political ads in the electronic media, viewers were subject to two rather tasteless films on television which purport to knock the bottom off the Congress and BJP election campaigns respectively. One, put out by the Kamakshi Education Society, attacked the Congress president on her foreign origins. The other, issued by the Sanjhi Virasat Trust, cast aspersions on the prime minister for being a 8220;police informer8221; during the days of the British Raj.

These, and the prospect of more films of a similar kind flooding the electronic media, have raised several concerns. Does such crude propaganda actually deepen political debate 8212; as their promoters often argue 8212; or do they really detract from a more informed engagement with the issues that are sought to be so highlighted? Is not the recourse to surrogate advertising a particularly sneaky way of going about highlighting the strengths of a particular party? Will such interventions not lower the tone of electoral debate? How will such ads be regulated, given the numerous cable and TV networks that exist at the national and local levels? How, for instance, can we ensure that criminals do not exploit such films? This is not to argue that political advertising should be banned on television. Such a position would be retrogressive and untenable given the great influence the visual media wields today. The problem, however, is that this is vast and unlegislated territory. Since Rule 73 had been in operation thus far, nobody, but nobody, has thought of how things would work should it no longer apply. While the ministry of information and broadcasting had wanted the Election Commission to step in the breach and regulate these ads under the Model Code of Conduct, the EC quite rightly pointed out in response that the Code does not provide for such intervention.

In other words, the government may be left with no option but to petition the Supreme Court to overturn the Andhra Pradesh High Court8217;s decision. Which could only be a temporary solution. Sooner or later, the nation will have to confront the issue of political advertising on TV and evolve ways to administer it. In the meanwhile an interesting question raises its head: does negative advertising of the kind promoted by the Kamakshi Education Society and the Sanjhi Virasat Trust bring home the bacon? Is negative advertising more efficacious than issued-based or image-based projections or does it eventually backfire? Despite the extensive deployment of negative campaigning in the more media-driven societies of the West, the jury is still out on this. But one thing is certain, slander and innuendo on the campaign trail make for bad campaigning and worse politics