National Affairs

The political leaders have been doing roadshows in increasingly large numbers. It facilitates an interface between political leaders and their party workers. It also gives people an opportunity for “darshan” (to take a glimpse) of their leader. These may appear as unbeatable positives of “roadshows.” We know that some of the developing economies are doing roadshows in rich countries to attract “investors” just as politicians do here in India to “impress” and “attract” voters. The roadshows today are not managed only by a party or its workers, but hired “event managers” who turn the “political event” into a “mela”(fair) and “people” into a “crowd” to provide both- “opportunity for entertainment” to people and “opportunity to political leaders for raising “mass hysteria” among the people marked by mad sloganeering and deification of leaders with an aim to do what is called “Shakti pradarshan” (display of power). The process of roadshows glorify political parties and its leaders without allowing any political interaction with or scrutiny by the people and it turns mostly into creating artificial “ demigods” who the people attending blindly believe as “avatars” (reincarnation of god) as many “Bhaktas” (devotees) claim.

The roadshows have risks posed by angry people and opposition parties as we have seen in “slapping” or “shoe” throwing events, acts which are cowardly and mean. There are chances of stampede and street fights within and without a party’s followers or fans of leaders. Such events make political process dirty and vitiate the political environment as seen in the reactions expressed on social media. In many of the roadshows even young boys and children not even attaining the age qualification of voting are being brought to the roadshows and their impressionable mind is trained into “how to become crowd.” Men, women and children all gather or are gathered to be part of a crowd that unquestioningly eulogies a leader, many of whom even do not know which political party and leader they have to come to support and why?

The roadshows involve massive expenditure, yet there is no effective mechanism to evaluate whether they have flouted the limits of expenditure set by the election commission for election campaigning. Further a big portion of people’s money is also spent on administration, policing and security of political leaders and people during the roadshows. The roadshows are like “ advertisement campaigns” which have to be taken on face value by counting the number of cars in the cavalcade of leaders, amount of flower rained on leader and used for decoration, number of dignitaries and people from local and outer regions attending the roadshows without any possibility of discussion or two way communication on vital issues that bother people.

Two way communication is done only in a limited and calibrated manner. The leader says “Vande “and people are asked to chant “Mataram.” The leader says “chaukidar” while people are coaxed to cry loudly “Chor hai”. That is the communication which clearly is an effort to “create” “unquestioning” “mass hysteria.” Nowhere in the world, there is so much of time, energy and money spent on creating mass hysteria.

The roadshows interrupt business and life. There is no estimate how much economic loss and real inconvenience they create, but they certainly do immense harms. There are many ways leaders could have created an interface with the people and election rallies in an open area as done in past or in conference halls as it is done in the USA are better options as they do not interrupt business and life. But like anecdotal pied piper or “Madariwala” of Kissa Kursi ka fame, the leaders are not bothered as long as people come behind them and they win elections which prove their “righteousness” in the court of people. Here the people’s mandate is enough, no other scrutiny is required. This is why roadshows are gaining increasing popularity. What a method where the length and quantity of people waiting in line to see their leader is the used to judge “deservedness”. There is no need to carry out any educated discussion and debate on issues facts and performance. The howling debaters on electronic media on the other hand also ensured that vital issues should not come up for logical and amiable discussions and only caliber to participate in slugfest will count! Some of the old timers opine that Hindi media has died while English media is playing into the hands of their corporate managers. What else one could expect but for breaking news, sensationalisation and slugfest!

When the country is grappling with agricultural distress, drought, unemployment, poor quality of basic facilities, health and education and new technological and economic challenges emerging in new world order apart from issues related to environment, climatic change and development; the time, energy and money spent on roadshows are an irony and travesty of the present day democratic process in India. The roadshows continue while Students and farmers continue to commit suicides and labourers continue to migrate in distress and die working in dehumanising working conditions such as dying every year while cleaning sewage! People line up in limited number of hospitals with limited number of doctors and beds and inadequate machines and equipment. We comfortably assume that government has limited resources and people should silently cope with as “protests” are destined to be “dubbed” as “anti-national”. Let the roadshows continue;, do not ask questions on public or national issues or source of funding roadshows. Do not ask-“what is the difference between monarchy and “dynasties based on families’ and “dynasties based on political ideologies” or based on “one-man charisma” continuously returning to power three or more times in a row?” Let the “roadshows” decide who is good and strong to meet the aspirations of the nation and people. When people turn into herds and are wildly intolerant about “each other” and unwilling to conduct a “Chaupal” to introspect, analyse, discuss and find solutions together to real problems rather than harping on artificially pervaded hopes and fears, roadshows remain to be the most potent tool of political mobilisation process.

The only troubling thing about roadshows is that while politicians have their total say, people are condemned to watch like mute spectators and the pain increases further to see that gains in the process of roadshow is asymmetric and highly skewed in favour of politicians. Thomas Jefferson rightly said “the government you elect, is the government you deserve.” It is voters’ choice which roadshow they like most and who do they elect. And he added that if your choice is wrong you have no choice but to burn your back for the next four or five years. Just think why not the electronic media and telecom be seen more cost effective and expedient method for political leaders to communicate with people, discuss and debate? Are they afraid to face the people? Facing the crowd is, perhaps, always an easy option!

The Election Commission has identified unchecked money power as one of the biggest concerns and has been rooting for capping party and campaign expenditure to ensure a level playing field for all parties and to check the money power visible during every election. The Election commission had recommended amendments to the Representation of the People Act and Rule 90 of The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 to the essence that a political party should limit its spending on a candidate during election to not more than 50%, or half, of the candidate’s expenditure limit, the Election Commission has reiterated its position in a fresh communication to the law ministry. Currently, there is no cap on the amount a political party can spend in an election or on a candidate. Thus, so far, the EC has been unable to cap a political party’s expenditure in an election. In one such meeting on August 27, 2018, the BJP was conspicuous in opposing any capping. The BJP then said “political campaigns led by parties are agenda-based” and “if this is limited, it would encourage politics based on caste, and individual influence”.

The election campaigns in India are highly skewed as far as Parties’ and candidates’ wealth and campaigning expenditure are concerned. The donors to political parties seem to be interested in supporting the political parties in extremely partisan manner, which casts doubts on their intentions. Corporate funding per se is not bad, if the donors intend to support political parties in a judicious and balanced way. But as depicted above, the corporate funding is highly biased and partisan, and this certainly affects electoral outcomes. Corporate sector cannot be forced to behave in a particular manner, but it must be ensured that they do not scuttle the democratic process of elections in India. And it is sure, self regulated moral and ethical behavior is doubtful and improbable; therefore, some kind of ceiling for corporate funding to a single political party seems to be one of the possible solutions.

In the era of full time politicians, politics has become a career sort of thing with huge power rentals and other privileges; therefore, neither the political parties nor the candidates find huge expenditure in election campaign as unproductive and waste. According to an Economic Times Report (27 August, 2018), the election Commission report showed that in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Elections in 2017, BJP spent Rs. 1 crore, the Congress Part Rs.51 crore and the BSP spent a meager Rs.1.2 crore. The same year in the UP assembly election the BJP spent Rs.218 crore, the BSP spent Rs.40 crore and the Aam Aadmi Party spent Rs.12 crore. The election expenditure could easily and logically be correlated with the electoral outcomes. In this situation the democratic elections of India do not offer level playing field to participating political parties and candidates. The parties and candidates supported by the rich and wealthy have more chances to win. The electoral funding has to be more democratic if at all the Indian democracy’s claim of being the largest (people’s) democracy has to be proven right. One of the dangers of big funds received from the corporate sector by the political parties is that governments may play into their hands and serve their interest while formulating policies. There are allegations that political leaders are being made “brands” to serve the interest of the business tycoons and the wealthy. It needs reforms.

Legal Provisions of election Campaign funding

There are legal provisions setting the limits for expenditure of electoral candidates in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. The law prescribes that the total election expenditure shall not exceed the maximum limit prescribed under Rule 90 of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.  A candidate can spend upto Rs.70 lakh, depending on the state they are contesting the Lok Sabha election. Expenditure limit in the Assembly Elections is Rs. 28 lacs in bigger states.

A candidate can spend between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 70 lakh, depending on the state they are contesting the Lok Sabha election from. For all states, except Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Sikkim, a candidate can spend a maximum of Rs 70 lakh on canvassing. The cap for Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Sikkim is Rs 54 lakh. And, it is Rs 70 lakh for Delhi and Rs 54 lakh for other Union territories. For the assembly elections, the ceiling is between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 28 lakh. This includes the money spent by a political party or a supporter towards the candidate’s campaign. But, expenses incurred either by a party or the leader of a party for propagating the party’s programme are not covered.

Main components of the election expenditure

A limit has been fixed for all expenses such as posters, banners, vehicles, prints and electronic advertisements, public meetings, tents and all such expenses made by the candidates under legal limits of which a record is maintained in the Lok Sabha election. It is mandatory for all candidates to open an account in bank for the expenses, the payment of which will be made through cheque. Expenses which are not permissible under law – such as distribution of money, liquor or any other item and bribe for the purpose of influencing voters etc. is an offense under the Indian Penal Code and is a corrupt conduct under the Public Representation Act .

• Expenditure on vehicles during election campaign:-34%
• Expenditure on Campaigning equipment:- 23%
• Expenditure on Election Rallies:- 13%
• Expenditure on electronic and print media:- 7%
• Expenditure on Banners, hoardings and pamphlets:- 4%
• Expenditure on field visits:- 3%

What is the mechanism to monitor?

Candidates have to keep a separate account and file the election expenses with the poll watchdog under the law. An incorrect account or expenditure beyond the cap can lead to disqualification for up to three years under Section 10A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. All registered political parties have to submit a statement of their election expenditure to the election commission within 90 days of the completion of the Lok Sabha elections. And all candidates are required to submit their expenditure statement to the poll panel within 30 days of the completion of the elections.

According to the latest provisions election expenses will be monitored through Central Expense Observer, Assistant Observer, Nodal Officer, video monitoring, video reviews, accounts team, flying squad team (FST), static surveillance teams (SST) and control room. The district authorities will monitor the expenses of the political parties from the date of declaration of election to the date of declaration of results through a flying squad. This expenditure will not be added to the candidate’s expenditure, however, the report of the observers with records and evidence should be given to the Chief Electoral Officer in the prescribed proforma within 45 days of the declaration of election results. In the cases in which the candidate fails to furnish the day-to-day account of election expense for inspection and if this failure persists despite being given notice, then 48 hours after the notice is served, an FIR will be lodged under Indian Penal Code and the permission for use of vehicles by the candidate for election campaign will be withdrawn. In the cases in which the candidate or his election agent fails to reply within the time limit of 48 hours after receiving the notice, then it will be considered that the hidden amount mentioned in the notice has been accepted and this amount will be added to the election expense of the candidate.

Trends in election Expenditure in India

The total government expenditure for the first three general elections was around Rs. 10 cr each. The government expenditure rose to Rs. 100 crore until the eighth general election in 1984-85. It crossed Rs. 500 crore for the first time during the 11th general election in 1996 and went beyond Rs. 1,000 crore during the 14th general election in 2004. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the cost to the exchequer was Rs. 1,483. This does not include the expenses incurred for security and the amount political parties will spend. The total government expenditure for the last Lok Sabha polls in 2014 at was around Rs. 3,870 crore which was 3 times more than the expenditure incurred for the 15th general election in 2009.  It does not include expenditure of political parties.

Party-wise income and expenditure in India

Elections are an expensive affair with political parties spending crores of rupees towards campaigning. A US-based election expert has said, according to news agency PTI, that the upcoming general elections will be the most expensive in the history of India and perhaps one of the most expensive ever held in any democratic country. According to Milan Vaishnav, senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank “The combined US presidential and congressional elections in 2016 cost $6.5 billion. If the 2014 Lok Sabha elections cost an estimated $5 billion, there is little doubt the 2019 election will easily surpass that – making India’s elections the world’s most expensive.”
Centre for Media Studies reports that for the general elections of 2014, BJP spent more than Rs. 700 crore for campaigning and publicity. BJP was the biggest beneficiary of the electoral bond scheme launched by the government in 2017-18, bagging 94.5% of the bonds worth a little over Rs 210 crore. Electoral bonds worth a total of Rs 222 crore were issued in the maiden tranche of the scheme in March this year.  In keeping with the anonymity offered to donors under the electoral bond scheme, the identity of the donor/s to the BJP is not known. The contribution accounts for 20.4% of the total funds raised by the party during the year. Some political parties have severely criticized the electoral bond scheme saying that it lacks transparency, although the government has defended it saying it at least ensures funding through clean banking channels and hence checks black money and anonymous cash flow. Nonetheless, the CPM filed a petition in the SC against the scheme.  As in the previous year, the BJP breached the Rs 1,000 crore mark, as it raised Rs 1,027 crore in 2017-18 and spent Rs 758 crore. The report says that the party spent more than Rs 567 crore on ‘election/general propaganda’, Rs 22 crore on employee costs and Rs 143 crore on administrative costs.

Association for Democratic Reforms analysed the total income and expenditure incurred, all over India, by the National Parties during FY 2017-18, as declared by the parties in their IT Returns submitted to the ECI. The National Parties include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).According to it the income of the parties are as follows:

• Between FY 2016-17 and 2017-18, the income of BJP decreased  by 0.67% (Rs 6.93 cr) from Rs 1034.27 cr during FY 2016-17 to Rs 1027.34 cr during FY 2017-18.
• Between FY 2016-17 and 2017-18, the income of BSP decreased  by 235.78% (Rs 121.88 cr) from Rs 173.58 cr during FY 2016-17 to Rs 51.694 cr during FY 2017-18 while the income of NCP decreased  by 111.47% (Rs 9.085 cr) from Rs 17.235 cr during FY 2016-17 to Rs 8.15 cr during FY 2017-18.

The study has also depicted the income and expenditure of political parties in the following graph for the FY 2017-18.

The discussion, thus, makes it very clear that Indian elections are not conducted in a level playing field given the very nature and process of funding the political parties and election campaigns. Although the constitution and election commission stand ardently in favour of free and fair elections, there are many factors including campaign financing which impede further democratization of the system. India needs reforms in political party funding as well as funding of electoral campaigns.

Apart from eliminating corruption, boosting growth of GDP and the Industrial sector and improvement in infrastructure, the political parties across the board are trying to cajole the voters on several issues- some are populist issues, some long protracted ideological and political issues and some socio-economic problems looking into the face of future of emerging Indian society and polity. The voters find it difficult to decide how various issues may figure in their priority to determine their voting decisions. It is helpful to know the prominent issues that are being raised during election campaigns before people make up their minds to vote. However, it is best to leave it on the electorate how do they rank these issues in their voting decisions.

Following are the prominent issues raised by various political parties during 2019 election campaign:

Agrarian Crisis

The recent marches to New Delhi  and Mumbai by thousands of farmers reflect that things are not good with the sector and it doesn’t bode well for rural demand in the coming months. Although agriculture contributes less than one-third of the output of the entire economy, it employs more than 50 percent of the work force which constitutes rural consumption demand, in turn which can boost the sales of manufacturing sector. Consumption demand from the rural economy also needs to hold up for the overall growth rate to remain above 7%. The figures of farmer suicides are troubling and the main reason behind it is, continuously increasing cost of cultivation and low farm gate prices for crops. Government has promised doubling the farm income by 2022, but it is stupendous task.

Poverty

From any yardstick, poverty ratio is still very high, which prevents unleashing of vast potential of human capital in India, despite a continuous fall in it due to direct measures taken to eliminate poverty since 1970s (poverty has been more than halved). As per the methodology of the Suresh Tendulkar Committee report, the population below the poverty line in India in 2009-2010 was 354 million (29.6% of the population) and that in 2011-2012 was 269 million (21.9% of the population). The Rangarajan Committee said in 2014 that the population below the poverty line in 2009-2010 was 454 million (38.2% of the population) and that in 2011-2012 was 363 million (29.5% of the population). Deutsche Bank Research estimated that there are nearly 300 million people who are middle class. If former trends continue, India’s share of world GDP will significantly increase from 7.3% in 2016 to 8.5% by 2020. In 2015, around 170 million people, or 12.4%, lived in poverty (defined as $1.90 (Rs 123.5)), a reduction from 29.8% in 2009.

Unemployment

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) report,” The unemployment rate in India rose to 7.2 percent in February 2019, the highest since September 2016, and up from 5.9 percent in February 2018, And, according to CMIE, nearly 11 million people lost jobs in 2018 after the demonetisation of high value notes in late 2016 and the chaotic launch of a new goods and services tax in 2017, hit millions of small businesses.

Health

According to the National Health Profile, 2018, released by union minister for health and family welfare, JP Nadda, on 19 June, 22018 at 1.02 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP)–a figure which remained almost unchanged in nine years since 2009–India’s public health expenditure is amongst the lowest in the world, lower than most low-income countries which spend 1.4 percent of their GDP on healthcare. The equivalent proportion of GDP spent on healthcare in the Maldives is 9.4 percent, in Sri Lanka 1.6 percent, in Bhutan 2.5 percent and in Thailand 2.9 percent. The National Health Profile covers information on demographic, socio-economic, health status and health finance indicators, and on health infrastructure and human resources. The amount India spends on public health per capita every year is Rs 1,112, less than the cost of a single consultation at the country’s top private hospitals. The National Health Policy 2017 talked about increasing public-health spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2025, but India hasn’t yet met the 2010 target of two percent of GDP, IndiaSpend reported in April 2017. India’s low public-health spending is one reason why patients turn to the private sector for healthcare. Indians are the sixth biggest out-of-pocket (OOP) health spenders in the low-middle income group of 50 nations, IndiaSpend reported in May 2017. These costs push around 32-39 million Indians below the poverty line every year, according to various studies.

Without a significant increase in its healthcare budget, India’s health targets seem difficult to achieve: Reducing the infant mortality rate from 41 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015-16 to 28 by 2019 and maternal mortality ratio from 167 deaths per 100,000 births in 2013-14 to 100 by 2018-2020 and eliminating tuberculosis by 2025.

Education

Education is considered to be a fundamental human right. As per Teach for India statistics, “4 percent of our children never start school. 58 percent don’t complete primary schools. And 90 percent don’t complete school”. These numbers are shocking from almost any standpoint. The Indian Government passed the Right to Education Legislation in 2009 at a time when close to 8 million children were out of school. For those who do attend school, the problems are no less. Lack of disabled friendly schools, clean and adequate drinking water, separate toilets for girls and boys and playgrounds, lack of smart classrooms that can provide interactive and high quality learning at a level playing field across the country. Access to quality teachers is not a problem localized to rural areas only. Even in urban areas the poor quality of teachers has given rise to the coaching industry. There is a massive deficit of access to high-quality education both at the primary & high school level. The cost of educating one of the world’s greatest populations has been increasing at a steady pace. The biggest gap is the impact on quality of learning outcomes. Even after the massive effort put in by students, parents and teachers the pass rate and improvement in performance of students are at an all time low. For instance, 38.07 percent of 8th standard students could not count numbers from 1 to 99 in Maharashtra as per a recent survey.

Social justice

Regional parties like the SP, BSP and RJD harp on the issue of reservation to protect it as it is given in the Indian constitution. The BJP has offered a bill to give reservation to economically weaker sections at the fag end of its tenure. Senior Congress leader and former Minister of Social Justice Kumari Selja is critical of the Constitutional Amendment Bill brought by the Centre to ensure reservation for economically weaker forward castes in jobs and in educational institutions. She said while people belonging to the SC, ST and OBC communities do not have reservation in private and self-financing higher education institutions, the new Bill has kept quota for the poor in such institutions.

Uniform Civil code

Uniform civil code is the ongoing point of debate within Indian mandate to replace personal laws based on the scriptures and customs of each major religious community in India with a common set of rules governing every citizen. Article 44 of the Directive Principles expects the state to apply these while formulating policies for the country. Apart from being an important issue regarding secularism in India & fundamental right to practice religion contained in Article 25, it became one of the most controversial topics in contemporary politics during the Shah Bano case in 1985. Although Article 44 of the Indian Constitution guarantees UCC to all citizens,the debate arose when the question of making certain laws applicable to all citizens without abridging the fundamental right of right to practice religious functions. The debate then focused on the Muslim Personal Law, which is partially based on the Sharia law and remains unreformed since 1937, permitting unilateral divorce, polygamy in the country and putting it among the nations legally applying the Sharia law. The Bano case made it a politicised public issue focused on identity politics—by means of attacking specific religious minorities versus protecting its cultural identity.Personal laws are distinguished from public law and cover marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance.

Article 370

BJP chief Amit Shah is saying in election campaign that  BJP will scrap Article 370 of the Constitution which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and introduce National Register for Citizens across the country if voted to power again. “It is our commitment to bring in NRC across the country to chuck out each and every infiltrator.” Hours after BJP, in its election manifesto, promised to scrap Article 35A and Article 370 if it comes to power, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference warned that such a move will pave way for ‘Azadi’ (freedom) of Jammu and Kashmir). Reacting sharply to the BJP’s promise to revoke Article 370, NC president and former union minister Farooq Abdullah said, “Do they (New Delhi) think that they will abrogate Article 370 and we will be quiet? They are wrong. We will fight against it.” In line with the sentiments in the valley for article 35A, J&K PCC chief GA Mir said any tinkering with the special the special status of J&K would further alienate the people and asked BJP not to “even think about touching it”  as the consequences would be “disastrous”. He said in a statement that special status granted to J&K is a settled issue an and “any misadventure with regard to Article 35A would further deepen the alienation among the people, the fire of which will engulf the entire J&K state”.

Terrorism

Milan Vaishnav, the director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted that the the Pulwama crisis offers Modi an opportunity to show strength on the world stage. “With general elections just weeks away, the conflict gives Modi and the [Bharatiya Janata Party] a clear advantage.” According to him “Modi’s calling card is projecting strength, decisive leadership, and nationalism. This crisis allows him to tap into all three.” Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, Asad Majeed Khan, meanwhile, told a group of reporters Feb. 27 in Washington that Modi’s government is “using this incident to draw political mileage at home.” The same charge is being leveled on the ruling government by the opposition parties. The opposition parties, especially the Congress Party opines that India saw big wars in 1965 and 1971 and under the leadership of the Congress Party, it decisively won the wars. Whatever followed after it was skirmishes and not wars! Many people believe that for winning election, the armed forces should not be dragged into politics.

Competitive Patriotism

The two big political parties are trying to prove that they are more patriotic than the other to take advantage in the lok sabha election. This is competitive patriotism. Some right wing leaders doubt the patriotism of the Muslims while the centrist parties are blamed to indulge in pseudo secularism to create a vote bank among the Muslims. The human resource Ministry gave an advisory (September 2018) to the vice Chancellors of all Indian universities to commemorate September 29 as surgical strike day. HRD minister Prakash Javadekar  said,      “This is not politics but patriotism. Students needed to informed about the surgical strikes, and what military and and civil works soldiers do. The ministry issued a programme only on the basis of suggestions received from teachers and and many students.”
On March 01, 2019 two days after India’s air strikes on a terrorist camp in Balakot in Pakistan, district magistrates across Madhya Pradesh received a letter from the state culture department asking them to organise functions to commemorate the sacrifice and valour of the soldiers who died in the Pulwama attack. To many of the officials, it was clear where this was coming from. Having been at the receiving end of sharp attacks by the BJP for questioning the cross-border surgical strike in 2016, the Congress had this time changed its strategy in a bid to deny the BJP any gains from nationalistic muscle-flexing in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election. On March 4, a programme called Bhartiyam’ was organised across MP’s district headquarters. Held under the aegis of the culture department, it was old-style Congress nationalism on display, with freedom fighters being feted, patriotic songs being sung and war veterans being sent invites for the shows. Optics-wise, it was no match for the high-decibel campaign launched by the BJP post-Balakot nor was there much footfall, given the sarkari nature of the programme. But it was evident that the Congress was making a conscious effort to strike a nationalistic chord.

While the wireless telecom market is growing fast in India, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is sliding fast in its service credibility and market share. The country’s overall rural wireless subscriber base increased to 528.48 million at the end of December 2018 compared to 521.59 million at the end of September 2018. The urban wireless subscriber base though declined marginally to 647.52 million from 647.70 million during the reported period. On the back of increase in rural subscribers, the percentage share of rural users increased to 44.94% in the overall wireless subscriber base. But in both the markets BSNL has continuously been a loser in last few years. BSNL has been making losses during the last five years. It has been now been overtaken by private operators areas.  in both the rural and urban areas. BSNL has lost its place of prestige as preeminent player in the telecom market because of lack of modernization , slow decision making, lack of thrust to upgrade infrastructure and human resources while private playerso have spread their reach with better tariffs and marketing skills.

BSNL has lost more than half of its wireless market share in rural areas in the last 10 years to private operators. As per data put out by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), BSNL’s wireless market share in rural areas stood at 6.82% at the end of December 2018 against 15.36% at the end of June 2009.Even Reliance Jio, which launched its services in September 2016, has a higher rural market share than BSNL’s at 19.01%.

Today, Vodafone Idea is the leader in rural areas with a market share of 41.76%, followed by Bharti Airtel at 31.91%. In terms of percentage of rural subscribers in overall user base, BSNL ranks after the three private operators,   right at the bottom. Vodafone Idea has 52.71% rural subscribers in its user base, followed by Bharti Airtel with 49.56% and Reliance Jio at 35.87%. The share of rural subscribers in BSNL’s overall user base stands at 31.51%.

The private operators started venturing into rural areas with teledensity saturating in urban areas, they devised innovative packages for these markets too, and BSNL was not able to defend its turf. One of the most important reasons  for the decline of in rural market share of BSNL in recent times could be lack of 4G spectrum as people in rural areas also want access to high-speed internet. BSNL is finding it difficult to match  private operators which have got the latest infrastructure and technology. Unfortunately, there are not enough revenues to protect or expect for the state-run firm in rural areas. This

The woes of the BSNL do not end here. At its board meeting in March, an expert panel presented 10 proposals and three out of these have been approved by the state-owned telecom service. Due to a financial loss, telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is likely to lay off as many as 54,000 employees from its workforce. Other proposals that were approved by the board include reduction of retirement age from the present 60 years to 58 years, Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for all employees aged 50 and above, and expediting the allocation of 4G spectrum to BSNL.

The VRS scheme and sacking employees is likely to have a huge impact on the employees as well as the ongoing elections therefore, it was decided to wait for the final call of the new government. The BSNL has a robust workforce of around 1,74,312 and removing 54,000 employees will see a 31% reduction in its workforce.

It is not that BSNL is making huge losses only, its productivity has also declined over the years. In February this year the company had incurred a loss of Rs 7,993 crore during the 2017-18 financial year. It is notable that BSNL became staff heavy over the years and therefore its productivity declined. Both PSU telecom companies BSNL and MTNL are both facing the burden of high salaries to their more than proportionate staff. Heavy salaries have become a heavy burden due to their bloated headcounts. BSNL has the largest number of employees among all the telecom operators, but, the company handles only 650 customers per employee, while MTNL handles just 160. These indicate far less productivity than their private sector peers. The companies are now expecting a bailout package from the government and thinking of monetizing assets for their survival.

Nothing is expected now before the elections. But it is a moot question whether government really would take decisive moves to rejuvenate the BSNL or move forward for its privatization. Telecom is an strategic sector and many believe that leaving telecom market completely to private sector has its own strategic risks. Other feel that the quality of service of BSNL cannot improve until and unless government offloads its share in it and right sizes the telecom operator. There is criticism from opposition parties that government is deliberately crippling the BSNL to help the private operators to gain market share. Whatever be the truth, it needs to be kept in mind that BSNL is one of the major employment providers in the core sector and its death would be a blow to an important PSU.

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”  ― Ludwig Wittgenstein

Somebody will be able to overcome any encryption technique you use! -Noam Chomsky

“Language is my whore, my mistress, my wife, my pen-friend, my check-out girl. Language is a complimentary moist lemon-scented cleansing square or handy freshen-up wipette.” ― Stephen Fry

Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.  ― George Orwell

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state. – Noam_chomsky

Everyone knows that when you look at a television ad, you do not expect to get information. You expect to see delusion and imagery.- Noam Chomsky

Politics is much about communication. The political language of a particular time reveals about the character of both leaders as well as citizens. The present political discourse in India, especially on the eve of General Elections 2019 is marked by degeneration in political language at least in three respects. First, political language of the day is marked by a slugfest, pointing fingers on each other either by using abusive language against a party or against a leader. And it is true across the board, irrespective of which party one belongs to. Second remarkable degeneration is about “motives and purpose” of communication. The second aspect of degeneration is important because today’s political language intends to “mislead” rather than “lead” and “blur” the “truth” rather than “revealing” the truth. The third folly of today’s political language is its tendency to look things always in a “binary divide” and evaluate correctness of an idea in “absolutist” fashion, i.e., if one idea is good, it is good in all respects while the other idea has to be bad in all respects. This particular tendency is what gives birth to “one-upmanship” and “authoritarian” mindset.

Controversial Statements of political leaders/sympathizers

The opposition has formed Mahagathbandhan against the BJP, but the ‘Mahagathbandhan is mahamilavat’. –Narendra Modi

The Congress…destroyed the country for dynastic rule (vanshavad); is destroying itself while trying to save the dynasty.” –Narendra Modi

“Remember, they are the ones who threaten “boti-boti” and we are here to ensure safety and honour of ‘beti-beti’ (every daughter).” –Narendra Modi

Gali gali mein shor hai, Hindustan ka chowkidar chor hai (There is noise everywhere, the country’s guard is a thief).”- Rahul Gandhi

“I thought India was producing 450 jobs a day. Turns out Modi’s policies destroyed 1 crore jobs in 2018. That’s 27,000 jobs lost every single day of 2018. India’s PM is a joke.”-Rahul Gandhi

“Agar Congress, SP, BSP ko Ali par vishwaas hai, toh humein bhi Bajrang Bali par vishwaas hai (If the Congress, the SP and the BSP have faith in Ali, then we too have faith in Bajrang Bali)”.- Yogi Adityanath

‘Modi ki Sena,’- Yogi Adityanath

” Jo Ram ka nahin woh humare kisi kaam ka nahin(Those who can’t be loyal to Lord Ram are of no use).” – Yogi Adityanath

The Opposition of treating illegal immigrants as a vote bank and doing ‘Ilu Ilu’ with terrorists, “Rahul baba’s guru Sam Pitorda said do not bomb (Pakistan) but negotiate… Rahul baba if your party wants, do ‘Ilu Ilu’ with terrorists, This time it was the Narendra Modi government and not ‘mauni baba’ Manmohan Singh… within 13 days of the attack.”,….- -Amit Shah

Firecrackers would be burst in celebration in Pakistan if the BJP loses in the Bihar assembly polls. …” – Amit Shah

“BJP would make India a “Hindu Pakistan” if it came to power in 2019”.-Shashi Tharoor

“Votes can’t be won on the basis of beautiful faces. Moreover, she is the wife of Robert Vadra, who is accused of being involved in land scam and corruption cases.”- Vinod Narayan Jha

By extending support to CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar, Kejriwal has shown that his real sympathy lies with urban naxalism and “Tukde-Tukde” gang. – Vijendra Gupta

“Taj Mahal Ek khoobsurat kabristan hai (Taj Mahal ‘a beautiful graveyard).”- Anil Vij

“Mahatma Gandhi’s image did not help Khadi and caused devaluation of the currency”. – Anil Vij

“The act (Kathua rape-murder) must have been committed by Pakistan’s agents to divide people by chanting Jai Shriram”- Nandkumar Singh Chouhan

“Those who do not want to sing Vande Mataram should go to Pakistan.” – Diwakar Raote

“Darwin’s theory (of evolution of humans) is scientifically wrong. It needs to change in school and college curriculum. Since the man is seen on Earth he has always been a man.” -Satyapal Singh

“Kauravas” were born out of stem cell and that Lord Vishnu had possessed heat missile technology.- Jalandhar, G Nageswara Rao, Andhra University Vice Chancellor

According to an Indian Express report, during the July 23 celebration of Kargil Vijay Diwas – which began with a tricolour march – JNU vice chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar requested Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and V.K. Singh to help the university procure a tank to remind students of the “great sacrifices and valour of the Indian army”. Crediting the vice chancellor for proclaiming “victory over JNU,” retired Indian army officer G.D. Bakshi added that there were several other “forts like Jadavpur and Hyderabad university which our army will capture.”

Citizens who are recipients of political communication are very confused today. They are tired of communication raining in on electronics and social media and also on print media, which have their own commercial interests and political affiliations. Propaganda is being rained on peoples’ minds so as to establish “untruth” as “truth”, “unimportant” as “important” and set priorities according to their own “vested interest” rather than “people’s aspirations and needs.”

The first tendency of slugfest in political language is nothing but the desire of the political class to be in political power by hook or crook. Mudslinging is done on the opposition parties and leaders to demean them and destroy their image. This is the result of competitive politics without values. Another remarkable feature of this slugfest is that it aims at “legitimizing” one set of idea, howsoever, flawed and “delegitimizing” another set of idea, howsoever beautiful. Such slugfest is reflection of politics of anger, frustration, revenge and retribution. Slugfest, howsoever expedient in winning election, is reflection of “meanness” of politicians. It eventually increases bitterness in society and polity, which no “sane” politician would like.

The second tendency regarding “motives and purpose” of communication is the product of lack of “honesty and integrity” among the leaders and political parties. Whatever they say has an opposite motive and purpose than what they portray in their communication. The ruling class has only one goal, i.e., how to retain power? The political language in such cases has to be “fox like”, i.e., deceiving the recipient. The high ideal plateaus are created to hide the ground realities that perplex and disturb people. The political leaders do not want to face the “ugly realities on ground” as their own “failure or responsibility” and their communication is always meant for “evading the realities” for which they are accountable. They prefer to fill the minds of the people by unreal, by a “make believe” world. In a way they try to bring people under the impression of “opium” of an idea that takes them to an artificial “pleasant and entertaining” realm, far from the reality.  This amounts to deceiving and befooling the people. George Orwell has rightly pointed out, ““The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

The third tendency of “binary divisions” and “absolutist ideas” emanates from the realization of what works better in electioneering. The long protracted and complex socio-economic issues do not have quick fixes. The political leaders and parties know this better. Therefore, they create “convenient categories” putting “one country against the other, one identity against the other, one race against the another, one religion against the other” and in India one “caste against the  other”. Creation of “patriots” on one side and “anti-nationals” on the other side is the final division. Divisive and emotive issues work better in electioneering than unifying and rational ideasd. The task of campaigning becomes much easier by creating binary divisions of “people” and “ideas” so as to avoid serious discussions and answering legitimate questions on important issues. In the process, the space for dissent, discussion, analysis and synthesis shrinks and finally intolerance and violence becomes order of the day.

The last and most important aspect of modern day political communication is a “common idiom” which is used as a facade to hide the real motives and purpose of communication, which politicians use to cheat people and mesmerize them like a pied piper to vote them to power irrespective of their credentials. There is a remarkable competition to use “sweeteners” to cover their ulterior and vested interests. These idioms confuse people who is good or bad and who means what. The idioms have a remarkable continuity in both ruling party’s and opposition parties’ communication. George Orwell points out to such a tendency when he says, “The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of régime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way.”

Political language mostly fails to serve the purpose of the commoners or citizens. It serves the interest and purpose of the “power” hungry politicians and their fund raising sources or in other words “business houses”. To conclude, it is apt again to quote George Orwell, “political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.”