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Journalism of Courage
Can all small things be made big with the right dose of advertising? Perhaps not. Especially when the small keeps shrinking. Yet that seems to be the rationale underpinning the Union governments decision to relax the rules that govern the allocation of office space to political parties in Lutyens Delhi,the centre of the nations political universe. The Congress,at the helm of the ruling UPA,appears to be telling small parties that the smaller they become,the further it will shrink the universe to fit them,to keep them close.
The lowering of the threshold from seven seats in both Houses of Parliament to four will ensure that a number of regional parties qualify for an office in Lutyens or remain entitled to the space they already have,even if some them are staring at a further thinning of their
This apparent tailoring of norms to boost the self-esteem of regional parties has occurred in the midst of what,for a while now,has been demonstrated in elections as a general drift away from smaller parties,from their political plots
increasingly perceived to be out-of-sync with the aspirational politics across the country. Unsurprisingly,leaders of smaller parties are insecure,scared of losing not only their political importance but also the importance of their physical space. What may be a tangible token to symbolise the Congresss appreciation or placation,is a tangible need for smaller parties to maintain the stature of what they symbolise. Advertising must be kept up even as the product vanishes.
