Think beyond Caste and Creed Politics
After
66 years of Independence India
I
can recall one of my experiences during an election duty in 2002. Being a
government servant, I was deputed on election duty in a village 18 km away from
a district centre. It took 2 hours on a truck to reach the village from
Secretariat office of the district. In evening, while we were having tea on a
tea stall, one of us just asked from persons present on the tea stall that
whose chances are better here to win? Before anybody answered, a boy of aged
merely 12 years replied “Sir, iss gaaon me rivaaj hai, hum bhott aur Beti dusra
jaat me nahi dete hain” (Sir, There is a ritual in this village, we don’t give
our vote and daughter to other caste). Asking reasons he simply replied “Dono hi
haalat me dusra jaat wala humara shoshan karega” (In both condition, the other
caste will exploit us). I was amazed to see the political (Im)maturity of a boy
who, we may deemed as a representative of future of India
The
question is, why the Caste, region and religion takes over on all the issues
during elections? Yes politicians have their prime motive to win elections and
they use this weapon very efficiently. But whether any other weapon is
available in the market to defeat this mean politics? Media has a huge role to
play in this process. Media has reached to even poorest house of the country
through TV, Radio and Newspaper. Even social media has wide reach among people.
But again, whether media is using its power in the direction, it should use?
For example, all the news channels
are covering these elections on their own way. They have a number of analyst panels
and round the clock, they telecast programmes from studios and constituencies.
We watch all the panelists, analyzing the equation of Winn ability of parties
and their candidates. But, winn ability on which basis? At the end of the day,
we are loaded with discussions and conclusion on caste equations. They all
discuss about percentage of ‘Agde and Pichhde’ in the particular constituency
or region. Candidate’s caste and party’s strategy to give him ticket. Last
election, which caste voted for whom and how candidates are luring them to get
votes. How speeches (whether loving or inflammatory) are going to affect a
particular caste and what other has stated to counter that. We see a number of
statistics and pie charts to easily make us understand the equation based on
caste or religion.
Do we have any analytical
debate among panelists available in media that during past tenure of a MP or
MLA, how many schools or hospitals opened in the area, what facility has been
improved or what is the effect on per capita income and employment of the
constituency? Perhaps not. Not at least on such micro level.
It is for media to rethink
on its role. They can educate and create awareness on real issues besides Caste and Creed politics. A fine tuning of their scope of coverage on election may
force people to think upon their strategy to vote based on cast or development
issues. Media should come with programmes on comparing constituencies where
people voted for development beyond caste and religion. The panelist may table
facts from across the world, where people have voted for development and living
much better life than us. When every body will talk development, the politics
will change and a new era of development and betterment may start.
Pranava
Piyush
Mumbai
06-May-2014
Very true. The basic problem is the lack of education. Since the Nehru era, the focus was on higher education. The country was obsessed with research, technology and other big things. With the introduction of Sarva Siksha Abiyan, the focus now on primary education. So people will rise above the darkness of ignorance of cast creed and religion and focus on developments. Things are bound to change in coming times, though as always, I am an optimist.
ReplyDeleteNice blog.
Very true.. but I feel expecting media particularly televison media, to do this kind of awareness based on factual analysis and focus on developmental issue seems to be unrealistic. Because, they are part of the problem. Most of the media is controlled by certain political parties. I wonder if anybody knows who are the real owners of prime time news channels. If you do some research there are some shocking truths about the dubious funding and ownership of these channels. Some of them are controlled by foreign media moguls. One media channel is continuously making losses for the past 9 years but still able to run the show ! Any another company would have wound up long back. How this channel is still surviving is anybody's guess. Some of the channels are involved in , hold your breath, money laundering! So how can we expect them to be impartial. In fact many of the exposes on corruption & scams have happened in spite of media's attempt to cover up. The credit for this should go to some honest politicians, individuals like Submaniam Swamy, Ram Jethmalani etc. who fought against the system to expose the scams like 2G, CWG, back money etc. by using legal means and within the currently available legal framework without resorting to dharna dramas and fanciful Lokpal bills. And social media played a great role in publishing this information which the main stream channels and news papers were not ready and afraid to publish. In fact, main stream channels and newspapers were forced to take up this issue when these exposes became hot topics in social media. Social media has really given freedom and platform to common man for voicing their opinion and also to get awareness about the real issues of corruption and power hijacking by vested interests. To know the real face media, pls. check out www.mediacrooks.com website.
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