India Shining!!-2nd Innings???

Anyone taking a glance at one of the major national newspapers will be amused to find the government competing with other companies for advertising. This is just the people in power blowing horns about their so called ‘achievements’ during their term. This trend was last seen with the NDA government’s India Shining campaign during the election year.. which though made us feel proud about ourselves, turned tables for the party in the battle. The party allegedly spent close to 84 crores for the campaign which used both television and print media. The campaign was professionally executed, using Creative directors and Advertising firms. This gives an indication of the changing trends in Indian Political scene. The parties are increasingly targeting the youth especially the urban folk.. with focused campaigning.

Now, we can already see efforts of the ruling government what looks like a warm up months before the elections are due. Already full page advertisements give indication of things to come. To get an idea of the seriousness of the issue, the cost for a full page ad in a major newspaper is around Rs.18-20 lakh. Throw in the television campaigns too, and the money spent will be huge. The Presidential campaign during the recent US elections involved, in total, more than a billion dollars. But the issue of concern is, the extent of aping being limited to the bad/negative things. There is a very long list of things which we have ’selectively’ copied from others, mostly from the West. OK.. let me stick to the point on hand… the Election Commission keeps a tab on the money spent during an election. But it cannot do anything about these campaigns as the Ads in reality are not asking anyone to vote for them.. They are just blowing their trumpets and proclaiming their achievements, embedding them into the minds and letting the viewers and reader do the thinking. The parties in opposition cannot do much, as they have nothing to advertise about in a similar manner. They can only do direct campaigning.. hollering about the misdeeds of the present government and issue promises about what they can and will change. At most, they can dance around in the states they are in currently power. They can advertise about their local achievements and drive home the same point in an indirect manner. Precisely what is happening now. In all this trumpet blowing, the taxpayer’s money is being burnt and no one’s least bit accountable. They openly defend themselves, saying that all they are doing is making the junta aware of the work being carried out by the govt. The result is each department, each ministry coming out with full and half page ads for every inaguration, foundation stone laying.. and effectively reminiscing with ‘Then’ and ‘Now’ type of Ads.

Looks like we need something like the Opensecrets.org.in I hope it will not be long before it materialises.. Looking at the way Citizen activism is becoming effective. Bangaloreans cringe at the thought of rallies, the JD(S) one strangling the city for half a day. The Activism resulted in the High court asking the Police not to give permissions for gatherings of strength >15k people. Hope this is implemented, with the controversial Anti-terrorism campaign’s valedictory function expected to converge 2 lakh students.

With the current CEC seeming like an avatar of the erstwhile legend T.N.S, we were looking forward to the elections being suffocatingly strict.With the Election Commission of India occupied with its own issues, internal blame game and controversies….. We can only hope for the successor’s efficiency.