Some Emerging Trends in Indian Politics by Sanjay Biswas, Asst
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SOME EMERGING TRENDS IN INDIAN POLITICS BY SANJAY BISWAS, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, SUNDARBAN MAHAVIDYALAYA, KAKDWIP, SOUTH 24 PGS Some Emerging Trends in Indian Politics EMERGING TRENDS The Indian political arena has witnessed some new characteristics in the 21st century that are not to be truly democratic. The growing significance of corporate world in the political arena has made the politics as business entity. The media is not truly representing the voice of people rather than image of politicians of their vested interest. The media in India does not merely report; it is a player in Indian politics and elections. Businessmen becomes Politicians and Vice Versa While there may not be a concerted attempt to stifle voices which are independent, the media does take sides and tends to editorialized news reporting. The news are manufactured to suit their choice of leaders or party. Owning a news entity has become a practical necessity for political parties in India.(Times Now, Repuplic TV, India TV, CNN-IBN, Zee News, News18, Aaj Tak etc. pro BJP news channel, NDTV, India Today, Mirror Now, NewsX, ABP news etc. anti BJP or supporting left, congress, AAP etc. These features are neither of dictatorship nor of totalitarianism rather they depict declining capacity of welfare state. The effects of globalization on Indian politics has created an imbalance between interests of social classes and corporative interests which compelled the political regimes to adopt certain measures that can be called 'post democracy'. There has been a sea of changes in nature of party- politics, agenda setting, policy priorities, role of media and aspirations of people. The ideology of the well known political parties are swept away by unethical and unholy alliance. The present article focuses on the features of Indian politics in context of party politics, growing corporate interventions and role of media in the changed scenario of Indian democracy. There is no doubt that media plays a very important role in politics as it influences public opinion and helps define and take up the issues. It can keep the powerful in check by seeking transparency in their actions. Thus, an independent media is an effective check on government’s power and influence over its citizens. The media should be fearless, unbiased and true saver of democracy. Instead, it has become the tool of serving the mighty, powerful politician. The dictator of a regime control and regulate all means of communication so that the opposition parties activities are not reached to the people and dictators achievements are propagated vigorously. In Indian media is doing various reporting on past and current issues which are very important for democracy. Media is said to be fourth pillar of a democracy. But if they report the issues of their choices, then the rule of land become rule by media. The party politics in India is marked by competition of money power. The political parties are sponsored by big business houses. The ideology of any party is compromised. After winning for a particular election party, the elected representative is switching over to other party for gaining ministerial post or for any other material gain. This growing influence of unethical and unholy alliance in Indian politics is matter of concern for for every believer of democratic ideal. Trends of Media in Indian Politics: Media is the most powerful entity on earth. It has an undisputable role in a democracy. A free and independent media is considered the watchdog of the government. A stock of the media behavior, therefore, is crucial largely because of the process of agenda setting and gate keeping attached with media. A disconcerting fact is media being an oligopoly. This is a concern in many liberal democracies as this means only a few individuals have massive powers to influence political opinion and undermine a political establishment. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent and with this tremendous power, they control the minds of the masses. Media plays very important roles in politics as it influences and shape the public opinion and take up the issues of public interest. Hence, it is important that media doesn’t set the agenda of the select big business houses that control it. That only journalistic considerations form the basis of gate keeping. Else the polity of a nation would be threatened by crony capitalism – an unholy nexus of politicians and big business houses. Any such prospect would spell doom for our democratic political structure. It is a very powerful tool by which the mighty and corrupted can be checked. So, an independent media is an effective tool to check on government’s power and influence over its citizens. “We all know that media and politics enjoy a symbiotic relationship. Compare Modi’s combative appearance in the media with that of the Congress’s Rahul Gandhi’s whose fortunes tumbled after just one shaky appearance in a widely seen television interview. This just one interview of Rahul demonstrated effectively that elections are won or lost over media. Another fact and that Rahul now well knows, is that media can also veto candidates. The way electronic media blacked out his public addresses if they coincided with that of Modi’s is an ample example. Obviously market considerations such as TRP did play an important factor here as channels noticed more audience for Modi than Rahul”(Parvatiyar 2018). “TV news coverage of the election was also notable for giving Modi a far higher amount of airtime. The now prime minister received 3.2 times more coverage than Kejriwal and 7.7 times more than Gandhi. This apparent bias towards Modi raises serious questions about the role of the TV media in elections”( Thorsen and Sreedharan 2015). The polarization of the media has become very sharp, especially with what has happened recently— the Rohith Vemula episode in Hyderabad; Kanhaiya Kumar in JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University). Arnab Goswami who was editor-in-chief of Times Now channel and now working in Republic TV) is always very jingoistic, but he’s become even more so. Arnab has always acted as if he was the great guardian of the national interest. And every evening he tells you: ‘The nation wants to know’. It was really a way of, at one level, attracting eyeballs and at another level it’s a cheap way to do television. It’s that much more expensive sending out people to do field reports It’s far cheaper to invite people to your shows and have them scream at one another. So it’s the classic conversion of news into entertainment. Somewhere along the line you have little to choose between a verbal slanging match on Times Now and a saas-bahu serial on Star News where the mother- in-law and the daughter-in-law are psychologically torturing each other. That’s become the choice for the viewer—on TV or on mobile phones” ( Rajagopal 2016). “The corporate sector in India propagated the construct that the UPA government was responsible for the economic slowdown and a decisive leadership was the answer to India’s woes. Some media houses and editors dubbed the 10 years of UPA rule as a ‘wasted decade’, completely ignoring its positive contributions in the last 60 years and stated that voters must give Mr. Modi a chance of 60 months to transform India. Television news channels relied heavily on the live feeds from the two leading parties, and most of it came from the Modi camp and this gave rise to the media hype as viewers were totally unaware that the feed came from the BJP camp” (Hasan 2014). MODI WAVE There is little doubt that the 2014 General Election that saw the making of Modi—and the unmaking of the decade-long, ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime—was a political battleground that spatially played out on television screens and the web. The NDA campaign was a media project par excellence. Its volume and reach were unprecedented in Indian electoral history. The slogan ‘272-plus for NDA’ and ‘Abki Baar, Modi Sarkar’ (‘It’s Modi government this time’) culminating into ‘Achche Din Aane Wale hain, Abki baar Modi Sarkar’ (‘Good days are ahead because Modi is coming’) as the BJP theme anthem inundated most of the media platforms— newspaper, magazines, television, radio, outdoor hoardings and of course the web. The cover story of Frontline magazine, May 16, 2014, titled ‘Wave?’ deconstructs the media hype” (Thorsen and Sreedharan2015). The media can make image for a politician and can also unmake image for Politician. There is a media biasness and partiality in India. The corporate sector deliberately constructed that the UPA government was responsible for the economic slowdown and a decisive strong leadership was the answer to India’s woes. Some media houses and editors dubbed the 10 years of UPA rule as a ‘wasted decade’, people also convinced that congress government is corrupt and completely ignoring its positive contributions in the last 60 years and stated that voters must give Mr. Modi a chance of 60 months to transform India. Now we can see the pious wishes of Modi magic is vanished, people are still waiting for “Ache Din”. Corporate Intervention in Indian Politics During freedom struggle, the corporate sector donated under influence of patriotic feelings, not for their gains. But in the recent times the political elites of India are in compulsion to become friendly with corporate sector especially the Multi National Companies (MNCs). The governments support them by reducing taxes and allowing flexibilities in regulating their affairs with a view to make the country 'ride the globalisation wave'.