The gloves are really off this poll season and the ‘fourth estate’ the ‘pillar of democracy’ presumed to be non-partisan is, it appears, is going all out — a section of it at least– for the Modi regime.
Dainik Bhaskar of the Bhaskar group (that incidentally also owns the Urdu daily Inquilab) has put out this advertisement on the streets of Lucknow. The newspaper's own website claims it has a circulation of 3,812,599 a huge number. Would this not be seen as an easy way of breaching poll norms apart from displaying partisanship?
Will the Election Commission and even the Press Council take note? Even as ‘Opinion Polls; begin to air a certain BJP victory in the state, and the EC continues with its apparently ineffective diktats, this display of one party partisanship is a new challenge for India’s ‘democracy.’
A picture of this hoarding was taken at Lohia Path, Lucknow. It shows Mayawati and Akhilesh as the ‘villains’. And leaves not too much for the voters imagination.
The 2014 elections (16th Lok Sabha polls)saw hugely partisan behaviour from large sections of the Indian corporate controlled media that became campaigners for Modi. So far the administration has taken no action. The hoarding tries to show the BJP ‘as the only option’ for Uttar Pradesh.
Email: sabrangind@gmail.com