DailyPost 1616
SANER CAMPAIGNING, SANER ELECTIONS, SANER INDIA
There is nothing local in this country now. Everything is national. Even a minor incident or accident is put up for national consumption. We have already lost the difference of both geography and importance. Electronic media in its 24/7 avatar descended onto whatever they could lay their hands on. They developed a capability to make anything the news. They are bereft of pathbreaking and life breaking topics, missing out the real trajectory of human existence and global trends, one can be technology itself, in which the world is completely immersed. Politics comes in handy and elections become a fun time, with advertising money cash register ringing for shelling out what they are best at.
They add to the clamour and cacophony already being created by the political parties. The two together create the hype and Election India moves on. The social media is now adding its might to the whole exercise. Few press reporters and TV journalists might still be fine, but not the Social Media Armies of political parties given their size, venom and depth. Social media platforms were created to give individual a voice – personal, professional and political, where it has reached is anybody guess. When it was meant to be one to many, free and direct, communication platform, the electronic media and print media picks up heavily from them.
Does the biggest input needs to come from the social media? The others have become a re-churning mechanism and huge ad money flows into it, inclusive of that of the governments of all hues and colour. The TV and print media should make their effort to get the news the country needs on their own and it should be relevant too. Consultants in politics have added a messy element to this already mesmerising narrative. There are the experts who can tilt the tide in any party’s favour. It’s a Cambridge Analytica story of a different kind. Such people have made a mockery of the process bringing it the level of FMCG sales pitch. Such tech whiz kids should be asked to contribute to nation building as well, in a variety of areas.
Spending months and months together because of the vituperative media and political campaigning, crores of Indians in a way are forcibly involved in state / local elections, which will never impact them in any manner. The strength of Digital Technology is so huge that all electioneering can happen only through that medium. If life can run on it, why not elections. COVID -19 has shown its strength in every way, the vaccination drive being the latest. Time to do away the brick and mortar of electioneering. India can find a robust and effective tech alternative. Saner campaigning, media blitzkrieg sanity, elevating the electorate to issue based content and strategising well being through elections will lead to a saner India. Need to put our head on our shoulders and deliver what we all need. Nothing new, nothing unknown.
TIME DOES NOT EXPAND, ITS TIME TO PUT IT TO GOOD USE.