Wali Mohammad Sheikh
Of all the forms of Government the democratic one in the world is recognized as the best because it has one of the most important characteristic of its being tolerant and inclusive in its approach towards the resolution of the problems of every nature in the state/country irrespective of its people belonging to any caste, colour, ethnicity, region, minority or majority etc etc.
The democracy is by the people, of the people and for the people. Essentially it is the people who elect some amongst themselves as their representatives to be the members of legislature/Parliament who ultimately form the Government depending upon the majority of the members of a particular party having distinct ideology or a coalition government of different parties having different ideologies but led by the party having majority of the members. The coalition government is by and large run on the basis of common minimum program worked out consensually by different parties.
Be that as it may it is the eligible electors who ae the real masters to elect their representatives as members of the legislature in a state or Parliament as the case may be to represent them for resolution of their day to day problems besides the ones related to the security of the state/country.
The party or parties who how ever do not form the Government in the state or country but elected by the people to the legislature or Parliament are mandated to keep a strict watch on the activities of the sitting Government and prod it to work in the spirit of constitution/laws/statutes and also in accordance with the promises made in manifestoes and to make such laws as are required from time to time for the betterment of the people. Hence both the Government and the opposition have their respective constitutional roles for the mitigation of the problems of the people.
However the electors before exercising their franchise scrutinise the manisfestoes of different parties and also seek to go into details of such manifestoes by way of critically listening to them at the platform arranged for them be it newspaper, tv, radio, social network, election campaigns. They compare the present manifestoes with the earlier ones to evaluate the extent of their fulfillment or non fulfillment of the promise if any made earlier. They also try to understand the nuances of their statements and clarifications while being asked questions by the print and broadcast media anchors. All the editorials,opinions, columns etc etc related to political and social problems raised or critically scrutinised to enable them to arrive at a decision of the party being voted to power. This all has become possible and practicable because of the beauty and strength of the democracy.
However some persons at the helm of affairs in their capacity of spokesperson or even otherwise representing a political party show the monopoly characteristics particularly in a tv discussion broadcast live especially on national channels put forth their viewpoint thereby not allowing their rivals or even nonpartisan persons as experts on the subject from their own viewpoint to speak as a result of which the lakhs and lakhs listeners are deprived of listening to others viewpoint so as to reach a balanced and rational decision as to the correct and almost precise conclusion. The monopoly of discussion it is understood is made because of the monopolist having nothing substantial to the listeners to bring them round to their viewpoint as against the others in the panel or they lack in their knowledge of the subject and therefore try to blur the line of their rival’s knowledge by shouting down them or they have the arrogance of being in power and as such knowing how to misutilise the government machinery in manipulating the rigging of the election in their favour and damn to the electors as such or they being the aggressive in nature have no qualms to base their discussion on the basis of “speak and let other’s speak as well” or they consider themselves as being the only self righteous or they pride in their having pseudo knowledge on a particular subject thus show their being disrespectful not to the panelists alone but to the listeners who watch very avidly such discussions on national tv.
Consequently this behaviour of the monopolist does not in any case endear them to the non partisan listeners but instead reflect adversely upon the prospect of their party. Instead of being democratic they prove as being fascist to the core as they are intolerant towards even listening to the viewpoint of other panelists. I had a very bitter experience recently of watching a live program of such discussion on Times Now channel when NC spokesperson monolpolised the discussion and not allowing the other panelists including PDP spokesperson to speak related to the allegations by the party patron against PDP regarding attack on NC workers.
(The author is Rtd. Administrative Officer J&K Institute of Management and Public Administration (IMPA), Srinagar)
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