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Bigotry and big money drive Indian polls

Praful Bidwai
FT^WO weeks ago, public-spirited Indians compli-1 mented the Election Commission (EG) for banning campaigning by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh election manager Amit Shah, and the Samajwadi Party's Azam Khan, who had spoken provocatively for/against religious groups. This was seen as even-handed and exemplary in pun-ishing/deterring communal propaganda.
Six days later, the EC lifted the prohibition on Shah -because he claimed his call for "revenge" against Muslims wasn't intended to "violate the [election] code of conduct," and vaguely promised he wouldn't use "abusive or derogatory language."
The "revenge" he bloodthirstily demanded was for an imaginary "insult" to Hindus during last year's violence in Muzaffarnagar, reportedly instigated by the BJP --imaginary because the victims were overwhelmingly Muslim.
The message this sent was that hypocritical deviousness pays: Shah controlled damage to the BJP by proclaiming honourable intentions. But far greater damage was done in using communalism for electoral gains.
Shah is the BJP's second most-important leader after Narendra Modi, and his long-standing hatchet-man. He faces trial for three "fake encounter" killings, and was exiled by the Supreme Court from Gujarat to prevent interference with investigation. He's adept at gaming the system, having held 10 or more portfolios simultaneously during 12 years which saw 32 policemen jailed for murder.
Two days after Shah was let off, a BJP candidate from Bihar, Giriraj Singh, hysterically demonised Modi opponents as Pakistani agents. Soon, VHP president Pravin Togadia spewed communal poison in Bhavnagar.
It's a sign of their desperation midway through the elections that BJP leaders are trying to polarise people along Hindu-Muslim lines. The EC would fail in its duty if it allows this.
The EC would be equally wrong in not enforcing its rules which limit an individual Lok Sabha candidate's expenditure to Rs. 70 lakhs. It's wrong to set limits on candidates - when parties are the critical actors in elections.
Parties spend huge amounts on hiring helicopters and airplanes, organising massive rallies, paying cadres, producing campaign merchandise (posters, caps, T-shirts, photos, etc), and buying advertising space.
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, known for its outstanding documentation of unethical electoral practices, three-fourths of campaign funds come from anonymous sources: only donations above Rs. 20,000 are disclosed. India is one of the world's few democracies which allow this.
The Delhi-based Gentre for Media Studies estimates that Rs. 30,000 crores will be spent on the current elections, mostly by parties - a three-fold rise over 2009, and exceeding India's primary education allocation (Rs. 27,000 crores). This is morally repugnant.
The advertising-public relations industry says, and financial papers report, that Indian parties have an election advertising budget totalling Rs. 8-10,000 crores. The BJP, the chosen party of Big Business, has a Rs. 5,000-crore ad budget, probably four times higher than the Congress's.
This sounds astronomical, but isn't. Each of the 15,000 urban full-colour Modi hoardings the BJP is erecting costs anything from Rs. 2-3 lakhs to Rs. 20 lakhs per month depending on location. This means spending Rs. 2,500 crores over three months.
The BJP is buying 2,000 daily TV spots across news, entertainment and sports channels in different languages. A 30-second spot costs about Rs. 80,000. This totals another Rs. 800-1,000 crores. The BJP spent another Rs. 150 crores during theT-20 World Cup.
The BJP has bought top newspaper slots for 40 days. "We have chosen 50 top national and regional newspapers ... and plan to release about four to five ads every day," costing Rs. 500 crores, a BJP media-planner confesses. The budget for magazines is another Rs. 150 crores.
The BJP is using corporate "story-telling techniques," with initial advertisements narrating a big theme followed by shorter edited versions taking the story forward. It also uses "roadblocks" - in which one 75-second BJP ad ran on nine Star Plus shows between 6 and 11 pm on specific days. The BJP has carried out "brand integration" with the RSS on a youth channel.
All this violates the idea of a level playing-field which is at the heart of free and fair elections, where small par-ties/individuals have a roughly equal chance to compete with big parties.
This ceased being the case when "India Inc" took over elections. In 1998, it declared Atal Behari Vajpayee as "the man India awaits" and pumped funds into the BJP. But never before has the field been as slanted as it is now in favour of monstrous money power and cynical politicians high on the steroids of bigotry and ruthless pursuit of power.
The BJP represents a new perversion of democratic politics because of the sheer scale of its campaign funding and its saturation coverage, which squeezes out the competition.
Here's the real test for the EC. It should ask all parties to disclose the sources and detailed breakdown of their campaign expenditure, adding their advertising budgets divided by the number of constituencies they are contesting.
This will probably show the BJP exceeding the Rs. 70-lakh ceiling by 20 multiples, and could enable the EC to force it to curb its spending in the election's remaining phases.
The writer is an eminent Indian columnist.