Debates are manipulating your vote

This is the time when every party tries to manipulate the public opinion towards them. Public are repeatedly fed with one thought so that they simply become slaves to that thought. It is very hard for a person to think on his own as he is continuously fed with the propaganda from different sources around him like television, news papers, and people surrounding him. Through this propaganda public opinion is constructed using debates which happens in our house, college, any other public place, television, any social media like whatsapp, facebook,twitter or in any conferences and meetings. Nothing is exception to this during election time.

The debates in the society during elections construct the opinion for the people to cast their vote in the coming general elections. There are two things. First parties try to construct debates which favour them. Second parties try to construct these debates in their favour. These are most important for voter in deciding one's vote.  Because these debates construct the thinking of the voter.

Before voting will the people think about the decisions taken by the government in the last 5 years which affected them directly? In order for the people not to think on this, the ruling party is shying away from the debate on development. It is not debating on how the govt improved the lives of the people during the last 5 years.

In our surroundings the debates generally are on unemployment, poverty, national security, nationalism, development, corruption and scams, religion, local candidates , etc. Debates on unemployment poverty development take stand against government and are anti incumbent in nature. While debates on nationalism national security and religion generate pro government sentiment so these are pro incumbent debates.
Opposition Indian national congress party has strengthened its debates on poverty, unemployment by proposing schemes such as NYAY , a follow up of successful MGNREGA.

The ruling bharatiya Janata Party that is national democratic Alliance trying to build debate on national security by using various incidents such as pulmava, the air strikes following that and by raising debates on articles 370 and 35A.The issue of Ram Mandir is also made to debated a lot. If people are debating on these issues then it means that they are doing so instead of debating on their political, economical, social and cultural development 

NDA initiated the debate on nationalism, if UPA joins the bandwagon extending the debate then it results in a benefit to the government because the people would have debated on poverty unemployment and others that will generally benefit opposition .

The ruling party is banking on nationalism. You can observe this from the speeches of narendra Modi , most union ministers and other leaders who are supporting bjp. BJP is making national security a bigger issue than poverty, unemployment and development. Party representatives smartly ask you to attend the conferences where your thought process is gradually altered forcing you to forget existential issues  which are important for your development.

All southern and north eastren states are completing their election by third phase. In these parts ram mandir cannot be a bigger issue and ruling party is solely using national security as its main issue. Most of the nothern India goes for election in the last four phases. BJP will try to bring Ram mandir to the forefront in addition national security after 23rd april when the third phase completes. For the party to come in power last four phases are very important for BJP and it will leave no stone unturned. It all depends how the opposition projects itself and takes the debate away from ram mandir and national security and bring unemployment, poverty and development into the forefront.

So know that you are being pulled into a debate and your thoughts are manipulated by your communication. Know what you really want and what is truly important for you before voting.

Simultaneous elections bringing good governance is an illusion

             Central government is mulling over conducting simultaneous elections to Loksabha and State Legislative Assembly. In the wake of strong pitch for simultaneous elections by prime minister and his colleagues, this article discusses the menace of such changes.

Regional party dominance will continue

         We have seen the foraying of regional parties in Loksabha and continuous formation of coalition governments in centre from 1989 onwards expect on this occasion. The state government has garnered an increase in interest and acceptance right after 1975 emergency and various surveys like that of centre for study of developing societies(CSDS) shows us these trends. CSDS shows a rise of interest in state government from 18.9 percent to 25.6 percent from 1971 to 1999. This is even higer now. If simultaneous elections are conducted the regional parties will have a greater dominance over the national parties as people receive benefits from welfare schemes of state government directly in most states like Tamilnadu, AP, Telangana, etc,. Dominance of regional parties in other states is inevitable.Except hindi speaking states almost all other states are dominated by regional parties. This trend cannot be reversed.

Digging it's own grave    

      There is a greater chance of increasing complexity of coalition politics at centre as cross-voting during simultaneous elections is negligible even in urban areas. The stability of central government will be in jeopardy and thus become a threat to governance. From where can this good governance come with unstable governments?  It may save money and resources for conducting elections but leads to uncertainty of existence of central government. Apart from this we will have technical problems like if central government loses majority should the state governments be dissolved and if a state fails to form a government or loses majority then who rules the state legitimately for the residual term.

Central Government pondering of simultaneous election is like cutting the bark of the tree on which it is sitting.

               As the nation is moving towards decentralization simultaneous election is more a threat to relevance of union government rather than federalism. As dominance of regional parties increases, decentralization speeds up and central government may remain as a puppet of state governments. This limits centre to a mere transactor rather than a transformator. Governance will be replaced by transactions with state governments. Bringing good governance will be a myth.

Save central government

       If any change have to be made simultaneous elections must be avoided completely. No election to state assembly must be simultaneous to Loksabha elections and Elections to state assemblies must not occur before or within nine months of Loksabha elections. State assemblies to which elections take place simultaneously with Loksabha must be rescheduled accordingly. If centre tries to dominate states it's nothing but digging it's own grave.