Poll time discussions in Kerala shrinks and digresses

Come elections, the time is set for the politicians to go about roaring in front of the microphones in public spaces. The party workers and the public listen to them; sometimes applaud, and some other times they turn a deaf ear and pretend not to have been seen by the leaders. Sreejith Balakrishnan emphasises the importance of why the media needs to analyse and ensure the credibility of information in this Kerala Assembly Elections special.

Kerala: The political party leaders present the basic problems encountered by the common man to international issues during these speeches before the people. The people start discussing these issues at all spaces where a few gather; tea shops, workplaces, public libraries, bathing ghats, temple and mosque premises and where not. Such heated discussions and debates used to be the practice until the eve of elections.

The Malayali was able to think, analyse the issues and topics presented by the politicians, identify the quintessence and then exercise their votes. Right from candidate declaration until the day of polls when the index fingernail gets the ink mark, each elector will have in mind what the politicians spoke in front of the microphones while seeking votes.

GATT agreement, nuclear pact, cold war, the fall of Soviet Union, Babri Masjid, Glasnost and Perestroika, the rise in prices of palm oil and onions, the dip in prices of rubber, declaration of emergency, global recession, ISRO spy case, global liberalisation, scams, drinking water and sewerage problems, hospitals, schools, roads and many more have been discussed by the Malayalis during poll times earlier.

The Kerala that it is today has been formed and reformed after passing through thousands of such thoughts and discussions. The state is going to poll in another 2 days for the 2021 Assembly elections. However, things are not as earlier now. The issues and topics which deserve serious discussions are not being raised anywhere. Instead, fresh allegations sprout every day with a very short life and die down within hours. As politicians and visual media platforms pander along, whatever issue is brought up in the morning and dies down by evening every other day.

No one really bothers to check the credibility or authenticity of the information being propagated through different media platforms which reach a maximum number of persons every day. The status of the opinion surveys being released by different platforms every day is no different. It seems as if someone has pre-decided what the people should think.

Along with online/ digital media, social media also has been contributing with its share of propaganda and opinion polls. The information being propagated through these platforms have no fact-checking mechanism, no follow-ups and no responses.

In the election history of Kerala which started in 1957, many stalwarts in Indian politics starting with Jawaharlal Nehru have led poll campaigns in the State directly. All of them, regardless of the parties that they represented, talked of political, social, economic, and cultural situations in the State. Malayali could then clearly discriminate, distinguish and identify the issues presented and could vote accordingly.

Basic problems in life, the problems encountered by the agriculture sector, the dipping prices of farm produce, unemployment, social development, problems faced by the women and children and many more were seriously discussed during the run-up to the Assembly polls by the political parties and their leaders.

It was not just Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi who campaigned in Kerala, LK Advani and AB Vajpayee had also campaigned in Kerala for the State polls. All these leaders talked at public meetings where ten thousands of people had gathered. They talked about the development of Kerala and Kerala’s role in the nation’s progress and returned.

However, now in 2021, the poll time discussions in Kerala shrinks and digresses around religion, caste, sects, faith and communalism.

The political leaders have been ready to roar about their extreme stands based on belief and hatred by discriminating people. Our people and the political atmosphere has transformed in such a way that people also sit and listen to these discriminating statements and hours-long speeches. With the advent of social media, the ways for poll campaigns have also changed. The election times have changed so much that anything can be propagated in any manner.

In the new norm, the images, visuals and statements can be morphed, merged, cropped, twisted or edited to use in favour of or against anyone. Common men are not able to even understand the fake propaganda done by creating fake profiles using identities of political party leaders and prominent personalities from the field of literature and socio-cultural circles.

The present-day leaders are able to twist and turn even the history of this land to suit their ideologies. The people who are aware of the lies inbuilt in such statements never seem to object or protest against the propagation of such cooked up stories in the name of ‘facts’.

Earlier, people used to rely on news media to analyse and ensure the credibility of such information. However, today, as the media have started ‘editing’ the history and facts to pander their interests, people ought to believe whatever appears in the papers. The mutual respect that was evident between the political parties earlier has also been lost over the years.

We had to witness incidents in which direct personal attacks, instead of political allegations, have been made against candidates who are to face the elections. Many a time, the families of the politicians are also being dragged by these attackers.

The new age politics is an exploitation of the emotions of politically literate people. It acts as a vampire to draw the votes in favour of a party. Anyone can do anything in this land now. But, this is not how our land was.