Poisonous partnerships
The real fourth-estate?
In the recent set of political development, where the association of electronic media comes to high light in describing each and every sense of political development, the whole set of new reporting seems to be cluttering and fighting with sources, the ghost links to truth and for this entire myths of journalism is part occupied with yellow journalism. The entire news channels seem to be banking of harping about popularity and revenue generations. There must be somewhere at some point of time when some new ventures must be there which will observe people’s aspiration and give news just like Google gives search results. Life is not all about making huge profits, getting high ranks from among many and touching new heights with the help of politicians. There are shining instances when some reporters are indulging in meddling with affairs of the formation of cabinets and also portfolio distributions.
In UK, there are instances of corruption in big media houses, and also prosecution. Some time in a modern democracy like India where there is a prominent role of electronic Media scheduled to open in economies in early party on nineties. In the early years of the new millennium more and more news channels flowered their way into electronic media. Most of them are leading by single journalists who are a particular private news channel broadcaster. Then the same networks open their channels in Hindi and English. Then, began the series of discussions and visions about particular subjects and they try to modify it through various observations better known to them. At the first instances all these extempore and discussions among various leaders on a particular subjects seems interesting but slowly the aggressive intent while during discussion gives rise to a chaotic situation where, it is difficult to hear what a particular guest is going to express his views.
Rowdy elements:
One thinker once said that remove all newspapers as well as electronic Media and the world will be smarter and there would not be any such conflicts or any such war like situation. It may sound nice to hear but it is almost impossible to implement in democracy and the party which will going to implement these aspects with an iron hand but with a strong motive would soon be branded as fascists and for this many political parties are worrying about implementing such strong measures against news channels. They are more united than what they achieve to do as when any such motive or hints comes out from the government of the power. They remain united and voiced against this with equal and strong words. There is one channel, which is supporting one particular party, and when the opposition is try to raise this, the same reporter will take that he is criticizing the news channel and try to express the opinion with strong words just like he is rebuking to some rowdy elements.
What is going on to these so called popular news channels and they should see themselves to know what is best for them, as time and again government of the day is giving them more and more chances to implement the code of conduct so that everything will be right, any organization which is running under India state have some duties to perform and for this a proper code conduct is there and it is for them to accept it and implement it out right. If one news channel is supporting a particular party from government or from opposition, then that channel should clearly state that they are supporting a particular political party and what is wrong with it? In democracy people take one side of a particular political party as they vote for them and news channels are run by people and they have inclination to a particular political party, then those channels should publicly state that they are supporting such and such political party, so their discussion would go which way could be known from it clearly.
Poisoning of political environment:
In the locality which I am staying, people with an inclination to exact political parties are very well known as politicians stand from these communities for election they are very much acquainted with the colors of voters and for this why not news channels should do this. As from the control of discussion one can find the true path in which the discussion is heading on and for this it is essential to have a humble admission from all of news channels to which they are inclined and it is not bad to do, as people will have clear cut ideas to which news channel they are watching and also which political philosophy they are following. In the past, there were numerous political leaders and thinkers who have sacrificed everything for the service of the nation. Leaders like the father of the nation simply denied entering into politics as well as he stressed the need to end the political party which he had been there to bring freedom to this country. Leaders like Kamraj who have sacrificed everything for the betterment of people and who are credited to have the implementation of major subsidized rice distribution among the masses.
In the US people feel proud to announce their partisan affiliation and they do not think anything bad with it and political parties are not hostile to such ideas. The Republicans will not act in rage against a Democrat supporter and this is the sign of a true democracy where people will support a political party as one people can vote once in a particular election and if he votes for two candidates then his vote will be null and void. In India, there are regions where people live, fear to declare the candidate to whom they have voted for. With the advent of plenty of money and hard core muscle power, in many areas most remotely located from the prying eyes of electronic news channels, which are quick to pounce upon any such incidents, voters are terrorized and forced way to vote by lieutenants of leaders from their respective locations.
Electoral age of political parties:
This all comes to the point where people are offered money to a trend of a bribe to vote for leaders and now there are abundant means civic leaders can look upon the electoral process to know the scrupulous person votes for which political party. In this way the sense of secret voting is slowly exposed, this is helpful for political parties but not for voters. After the introduction of electronic voting machines it is now very easy to know the opinions of voters exactly. This is a worrying trend of development where the rigorous voting pattern comes to light and this gives way to after election rage of a political party if they come to know that they have not received support from a particular village.
In one such incident, after a local body election and announcement of result the party in power comes to know that people from a particular street have not voted for them, most of people in that street are from lower income groups and it is a hearsay that they received money from the political leader to vote for them. In the middle of the night, supporters of leaders come with sticks and bamboos and with microphone they asked them to come out of their houses, which are mostly slums and then they are asked to stand in separate discipline except children below ten. Then, they began to beat adults irrespective of their sex, and after one hour of beating they dispersed from that locality. Owing to their votes are out in the open and there is no secrecy of voting rights. They had to suffer. Within a few days, all these slums were removed from there and one giant shopping mall now tands there with money and might.
The same political party is in power in the state and after knowing the intentions of this locality they came to know that these voters are waste for them as they are not voting for them, so it is better to give them the jolt by breaking their slums and dwelling. All these have been done as they came to know about voting patterns which are now surprisingly not secret, and I would like any good person to submit a petition to the honorable Supreme Court of India, so that secrecy of the ballot should be attended.
Absence of ombudsmen:
This is one type of rigging of voting patterns of knowing the exact details of voting patterns and in the next election the party in power would be strong enough to mitigate the sufferings to the same set of voters who support different parties. When a political party comes to power, it does not become the leader of their supporter but leader of the entire masses. Politics should synonym to service where each and every person who are indulging in it should see that every possible outcome of it should help people to understand better and also all the schemes should give lasting benefit to people in general. So far I have envisaged two examples, where some electronic news channels are presenting news in one angles so that it will give impact and support to a particular political party and many a times it comes to believe that as if these news channels are reporting as spokes person of political parties. This is one class of passive rigging of votes before the election begins.
In most of political science books, it is written that Media are the fourth estate, and for a vibrant and strong democracy, a strong meaningful and impartial media industry is the need of hour. With strong and impartial fourth estate, the democracy does not need any such one-upmanship from other sources. The second part of passive rigging comes from electronic voting machines in which voters perspectives are known clearly. This is the passive rigging after elections. In the above mentioned example, voters suffer humiliation after exercising their franchise rights. It is high time all these obstructions for a perfect democracy should be looked into in cramped quarters and the above mentioned safeguards need to be followed with equal passion and attachments.
Which form of democracy is better?
Are we moving towards the presidential form of democracy? Ours democracy is predominantly the parliamentary form of democracy. During early days of creating constitution in constitutional assembly, the law makers have discussed all forms of successful democracies, and for this they have learn and influenced from UK, US and other vibrant democracy and they have collected the good and welfare measures from their constitution and added all to ours to cope with our existing political system just after the partition. In a textbook sense we cannot call out system of democracy as deliberative form of democracy, it is a hybrid form of all form of democracy and still there are amendments to the constitution by parliamentarians in order to make this a textbook custodian of democracy.
In the recent trend of events where most of news channels are only saying about two persons Modi (NaMo) and Rahul (RaGa). Most of the times the headlines captured their intimation to the masses, and this gives the sense to the public about, their policies. Additional parties except these two parties are nowhere in the frame, as most of the times these two leaders are running from state to state and from regions to regions to attract alliances and other forms of association before the election begins.
Modi and Rahul new faces of Indian politics:
Both leaders have versatile personality, one is from grassrsoot level and reached to the top spot from selling tea inside trains and he has seen the path of development and perhaps he should be considered as the father of development politics in modern India, and the other leader’s party is in power and he hails from most respectable political party of India, he has something different way of tackling masses, and both leaders are equal good in all forms of political thinking. With the advent of mobile Internet in India, Internet audiences are increasing day by day. Owing to the advent of indigenous mobile handset companies, the cost of mobiles and smart phones is decreasing day by day. With smart internet packages offerings from mobile companies, people are more and more accessing Internet through cheap smart phones.
There are huge markets, where one can find second hand smart phones with lower prices than its original manufacturing prices. Now, most of mobile operating systems have operating systems as well as their own app store, from where people can download popular apps and install on their system. In this manner slowly and secretly, an entire set of social networking network is slowly building among masses, through the Facebook. Twitter and Google Plus hangouts. Social scientists have envisaged that there will be time; the leader who is advanced in shared media will get the votes and support of fringe voters. Fringe voters are the voters who never vote or they decide to vote. Then they decide it at the press of a button inside the voting booths. These are voters who are being watched closely by both the principal political parties and they try to lure them through various means.
Social media give direct interactions:
Through electronic and print media, one can influence the mind of voters but not for long as the educated mass can judge the best of impact. This can have long term negative effect and the word of mouth that can have thousand miles implications. There are no hard and fast rules about where politicians can judge the opinions of voters as they cannot directly connect with them at any such point. With social networking tools like Face book, Twitter, Google Plus and others there is one to one connectivity among leaders, as they can directly interact with citizens through Twitter as if SMS conversation, with Face book they can go social and also upload their speeches and other agendas which they want people to listen to and with Google Plus hang outs they can directly interact with their voters and grab their distresses and opinions. In US, campaigning gains momentum with the advent of high speed internet and social networking, where leaders prefer to contact directly with their voters. In the past Lord Ram, used to visit in disguise among the common citizens to know their distresses. In the similar manner, Akbar also used to travel in disguise, and used to assimilate within common masses inside market areas to know their problems.
In such travel in disguise he came to know about infamous “Jiziya” and “Tirtha Yatri” taxes which are implemented by his predecessors against Hindu pilgrims in order to receive taxes. He came to know that it was an additional distress to the Hindu community and then the next morning he revoke those order.
Fight for fringe voters:
The fringe voters are mostly from young masses who are inside all these social networking sites, and for this it is essential for the leaders to stay inside these networking sites and connect to them to have discussion among themselves as we know with each discussion the best will come out and that will be the agenda of the leader and that will be followed by masses as they feel they are part inside of decision making processes.
Whenever ruler is attached with mass sentiments, he will surely find the way out of the worst situation, as garnering public support is a huge benefit for him. It will garner huge benefit morally and psychologically as with due course of time he will learn politics is nothing but to satisfy ambition of wide masses, and it is very easy to achieve as in each questions there are attached answers and the ruler has to distinguish between mass and the mob. Sometimes, the so called pressure groups are trying hard to impress the rules and implement their decisions in this process of advice or caution.
Ruler is king and for this he is second to the Almighty and he should consider himself as the most precious diamond in making unqualified subjects to the limit of illumination. Subjects and citizens should not feel themselves as the cage in the pigeon and they want to devote their belief to the ruler and it is the ruler who has to understand the intrinsic relationships of citizens and guide them to a perfect road to victory.
Good and bad rulers:
Rulers must feel necessitate action to see if his motives are sending light signals to real citizens. In order to understand how religion and politics can assimilate in one solution like water in milk and how religion can draw the signs of every possible unity among the masses. Dark ages are the times of history from first AD to ninth or tenth AD, and during these time, historical traces all around the world is surprisingly blurred and nothing more concrete evidence of social life and other attributes are not visible at any pillars or manuscripts.
All these are points worthy to be mentioned as there should be one prime reason why such important part of history is missing from the history books. Nevertheless, during the dark ages the history of Odisha then knew as Utkal in ancient times is surprisingly available. Odisha was a land of Buddhists during times of peak Buddhists, and for this many researchers are diagnosing facts about the real birth place Lord Buddha as they are finding sufficient information of Lord Buddha’s birthplace in the land of ancient Odisha.
Lord is the king:
Now, why all these ancients information is here, there is a completely line that is joining how a good ruler can rule perfectly when he attacked religion with politics. During that time, King of Puri was regarded as the ultimate God and second to Lord Jagannath, and for this he held extreme respect from all sphere of citizens and subjects including royal kings of Nepal and far east. The noble king of Puri, shreds all his powers and gives it to Lord Jagannath, an unexpected step considering that he had to live like a common citizen without any lawful authority.
He became the chief servitor of Lord Jagannath, and this was a colossal move thinking that now at that so called dark ages of history, Puri becomes one of the most sacred land and no rulers from around India want to access it through aggression. In this manner, the entire Puri kingdom becomes safe from attackers. Though at time, there are aggressions from land lords which happens to be from so called high class castes and they tend to revolt and from time to time stop the functioning of Lord Jagannath rituals and all these seems to create problems for ordinary people as well as king.
Welfare of the masses:
Then, he made a grand decision of bringing priestly class from other regions of India, and they migrated to Puri and stayed there, and the local priests are removed from temple, and the priest which were brought from Banaras and other holy cities of India began to perform daily rituals of Lord, and in this way the boasts of local rich Brahmins began to fade and till this day, worshipping and other functioning of Lord, and locals Brahmans stay as Land lords but unable to perform religious rituals there.
All these decisions were not random ones, the Puri King during the times of so called dark ages, took the opinions of subjects, by reaching out to them with the disguise of milk vendor and then with the help of people he used to talk with them at the village meeting and received inputs from them and after proper analysis of it he realized that it is time to bring forward administrative reforms in his locality and then he brought forward the most desirable and ambitious change of ruling.
He was inspired from Ramayana during that time, when Lord Ram went to jungle to stay alone with his brother and wife, his another younger brother does not capture the throne in his absence, yet, he reached to him in the jungle and brought forward his wooden shoes to put it in the throne and only became his representative during his long absence. He avoided the poisonous partnerships and ruled yet as subservient to his eldest brother absence and inspired by his image present in the form of his wooden shoes.
The first servitor:
Similarly, from this inspiration the then magnificent king of Puri shreds all his administrative power and submitted to Lord Jagannath and he became his ruling agent as subservient principal servitor of his. Even after independence where importance of king reduced to none, due to abolition of privy purses, but still this date king of Puri who is also principal servitor of Lord Jagannath, garners huge respects from all around masses for his royal grace and the decision of his ancestors to shred all the administrative powers.
They have shared all their regal powers centuries back and for this they are not worried about their privy purses. Administration is not about showing your might and ego while you are at the top of echelon but it is also true that every ruler does fall into grass for some day and this can be most shameful if he is not aware of his responsibilities, and ultimately the king of his administration would fall from grace to shame. In the annals of history there has been huge proportion of instances where one can find plenty of living proportional examples where a good ruler have approached the particular form of administration where each and every part of life is seemingly attached in one set of unity to form a coherent force among the masses.
In these situation kings or administrators assume the role of a leader but seemingly assimilating himself into countless patterns of administration where some steps can be of direct participation of people in deciding the rules for themselves. In modern situation it is almost near to impossible to imply direct form of democracy at any point of political thoughts, but still there are some indicators which can be found in and around some cantons of Switzerland, where people voiced their opinions in decision making, a way to attract a positive and direct impact of policies when implementing at a broader arena.
The rule of Akbar:
In the past numerous successful and welfare, rulers reach people to know people’s after thoughts about possible policy formation. As for the ground feedback is always necessary for a lasting and practical solution to people with worries. Rulers who are arrogant and always think that they are always right will have to suffer for their wrong doings and even in the past there are many instances where we can look beyond and realize that arrogant and suppressive rulers, can rule for sometime but they are bound to fall prey to their ambitions and with them the entire fall of their king dome doom. Aurangzeb is a bigot and implemented his suppressive religious ambitions in the entire kingdom and with him came the dusk of the Mughal Empire which has been carefully planted through welfare rulings of rulers like Akbar.
Akbar knew the basic tenets of rule and administration though he is illiterate, on the other hand Aurangzeb was a well known scholar but he utilized his knowledge in destructive way of suppressive majority community through some harsh rulings and decisions which ultimately created many revolts against him and ultimately he had fallen prey to his own doings. These can be named as poisonous partnerships of different era of history but the resultant is always the same, as ruler, he has always have to look beyond from his own perception and thought as he has to think beyond boundary and at length with people’s perception in order to built a nice rule and kingdom for all it citizens.
Divide and rule!
This principle is identical in all forms of government starting from king to communism to democracy. The latest bone of contention in the Indian political sphere is the creation of separate statehood of Telangana. In these way two states is to be created from Andhra Pradesh such as Seemandhra and Telangana, whereas the former is advocating for an united Andhra Pradesh, but the center has reached to this decision in the election year, raising many eye brows from eminent political thinkers.
Before making such hasty decision, all stakeholder’s needs to be assembled and fully consulted well before making any such decisions. All these are in a broad sense not simple decisions as when one state is to be divided into two, there are numerous consequences beginning from agitations, strikes, financial as well as diplomatic happenings which cannot be ignored.
A political party should not look at every solution in the probability of electoral gain. People of this vibrant democracy are very clever and they are watching every move of theirs in close quarters and for this it is not only essential but also important for brains which are making the decisions should realize that they should not take any such hasty decisions on this otherwise there would be grave electoral consequences, but still government of the day must look at popular support and what common people want about their state. In the past, other governments have made reorganization of state, but this has been done properly and prolonged consultation with stakeholders and citizens. As a consequence of this, reorganization of state becomes smoother.
Seemandhra and Telangana problem:
In the case of Andhra, it seems to be serious understanding of ground situation from the government of the day, and in this way, the entire decision has become bone of contentions among stake holders, and the fire that are raging among people of that region should be controlled at the earliest otherwise we could be back to same chaotic situation. In these circumstances, a strong personality like former home minister of India, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel is the need of the hour to solve this imminent problem arising out of decisions of bifurcation of the state on the ground of specialists.
In other instance of poisonous partnerships is the example of sudden agitation of politicians from western side of Odisha, the eastern state of India, as they are demanding a permanent bench of High court in Sambalpur, which happens to be the biggest town in western part of Odisha.
Right to reject:
It is an instant example how concerned political parties have united in order to prevent people of those regions from exercising their franchise. In a way all these decisions are against the basic tenets of the Constitution and indirectly forcefully stopping citizens from exercising their votes. In these circumstances honorable Supreme Court of India, gave a landmark judgment in which voters have the right to reject button in electronic voting machines. It is in a way has asked political parties to give a right and virtuous choice of candidate to people; otherwise the unqualified candidate will be rejected.
Conclusion:
Democracy is the purest form of welfare government, as from the brief history of Indian democracy we have witnessed how democracy was murdered for a few years through the pronunciation of emergency, and after that people rejected the government of the day. The power of a strong and vibrant democracy is to have a stronger people participation in decision making process. People should be aware of their responsibility and the force of their voting rights. They should not waste all these to mere monetary benefits and other forms of fears from time to time exerted by forceful politicians. Influential politicians with muscling from local police should not overcome basic voting rights of citizens. They should always think of welfare of the masses so that in the long run they do not have to worry about their reelections. The poisonous partnerships is the same as the villain in a Bollywood movie, as in the phase of life where he is alive, used to live like it in a heaven through various poisonous partnerships, but in the end no one knows about him, he has to live a life of deserter where even old friend forgets him and reject him at every instances.
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