|
ELECTION COMMISSION BANS
POLITICAL ADS ON TV; FORMER I&B MINISTER TO BATTLE SONIA GANDHI
Sporadic fighting continued between the Indian
army and intruders in Kashmir last week with more than a dozen
- including innocent civilians - on both sides dying. But
the focus was away from the Kashmir conflict with various
political parties jostling to forge alliances and hand out
election tickets to their candidates. The Janata Dal (U) finally
agreed to work with the BJP in the National Democratic Alliance.
The big news during the week was the banning
of political ads by the Election Commission (EC) on television
channels and radio and the BJP's efforts to checkmate Congress
(I) president Sonia Gandhi. First, the EC's ban which may
not make much sense to people outside India. It decided to
forbid - like during the last elections - advertising on TV
because only a handful of major political parties could do
so; the smaller ones would hence be left holding the can.
This would introduce severe distortions in the electoral arena
and "in a poor country like India, democracy would be totally
disturbed by money power."
Political parties had no choice but to accept
the decision though the BJP protest when the EC refused to
allow it to air a documentary on the Indo-Pakistan conflict.
The EC added that political parties had been given time on
Doordarshan for their election campaigns. (see last week's
The Indian Cab&Sat Reporter) The commission also banned any
announcements of opinion poll results after 3 September and
exit polls results from 5 September. The EC finally ordered
the Prasar Bharati to maintain a neutral stance during the
next few weeks without showing any favourtism to any of the
parties. It allowed the recently launched DD News to continue
despite cribs from opposition parties.
Keeping everyone in suspense, the Italian-born
Sonia Gandhi announced that she would be standing for election
from Bellary in Karnataka (south India). The BJP responded
by putting up former information & broadcasting minister Sushma
Swaraj as her rival during the elections. The Congress (I)
retaliated by putting up Gandhi's candidature from the traditional
stronghold of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
|
