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Messers Obama, Schumer,
Punjab
needs you!
We polled deception wholesale!
S P Singh
On January 31, when
Punjab was peaking up to witness a dirty vituperative election
campaign, two Democratic senators were presenting a bill in the
House which was an example of how a mature democracy acts when
it sees aberrations in a polling process.
Two Democratic senators, Barack Obama of
Illinois and Charles Schumer of New York, introduced a bill that
would make deceiving or intimidating voters a federal crime with
substantial penalties.
As the New York Times mentioned in an
editorial on the morning of the day the two were to present the
bill, dirty tricks do turn up every election season, "in large
part because they are so rarely punished."
The NYT detailed that on Election Day last
fall in Maryland, fliers were handed out in black neighborhoods
with the heading “Democratic Sample Ballot” and photos of black
Democratic leaders — and boxes checked off beside the names of
the Republican candidates for senator and governor. They were a
blatant attempt to fool black voters into thinking the
Republican candidates were endorsed by black Democrats. In
Orange County, Calif., 14,000 Latino voters got letters in
Spanish saying it was a crime for immigrants to vote in a
federal election. It didn’t say that immigrants who are citizens
have the right to vote.
There have been other forms of election
related crimes also, and the bill addresses such issues. For
example, it would also criminalize making false claims to voters
about who has endorsed a candidate, or wrongly telling people —
like immigrants who are registered voters in Orange County —
that they cannot vote.
Strange that such an evolved step at using
the law to plug a loophole was being experimented at the same
time when Punjab politicos were trying to either get a
cult-style demi-religious dera head to endorse the candidature
of one particular political party while the opposition party was
clearly perceived to be behind un-credited advertisements
purported to be issued by the same dera head asking voters that
he hasn't endorsed anyone. This left the gullible voters
confused, and the educated voters disgusted with the exercise
termed as a dance of democracy.
The US polls have often seen deceptive
political tactics like knowingly telling voters the wrong day
for an election. "There have been numerous reports of organized
efforts to use telephones, leaflets or posters to tell voters,
especially in minority areas, not to vote on Election Day
because voting has been postponed," the NYT said. While such
tactics aren't feasible in a state the size of Punjab, the
voters certainly were fooled into reading seemingly regular
newspaper pages which were actually paid for by one or the other
political party.
India currently has an Election Commission
which has earned for itself a reputation for being a tough one
to deal with when election process is on. But it is also widely
perceived that the EC isn't as logical sometimes as it is
tough.
For example, in Nawanshahr district of
Punjab, the Deputy Commissioner was hell bent on implementing
the law in letter and spirit. As a result, liquor flow was
stopped, everyone needed an identity proof to buy more than two
bottles of liquor ("The provision is part of the excise Act,"
the DC said), no was allowed to splash the town with posters,
buntings, flags and pennons of political parties were missing,
and candidates got a taste of what the law means if someone
means business. Now, either the DCs of the rest of the districts
were lax in implementation, or the Nawanshahr man, Krishan
Kumar, was acting bossy.
But then it is easiest to get a revenue
land report (farad) in Nawanshahr, it is easiest to get a
driving licence made, the district is making waves for its queue
system, and the ultra sound boy-or-girl business has ended
there.
That brings us back to the question: Do we
need better laws, or more laws, or are we just helplessly
watching our politicos and the babudom not implementing the
law?
The truth lies somewhere in-between. We
need more laws also: We need our own Barack Obamas and Charles
Schumers who should push for legislation to punish the officers
who do not act as they should have under the law. And we must
not act as the helpless bystanders: We must question why
proprietors, editors and the editor-proprietors were selling
regular-look news pages to political parties, encouraging proxy
advertisements and allowed vituperative content to go to print
even if it was paid for.
Having had the experience of the kind of
electioneering we witnessed this time in Punjab, it would be
better if the NRI contribution to the electioneering were in
forms better than joining in the fun and funding or issuing more
proxy advertisements. The Punjabi diaspora can send delegations
to study the election process flaws, pat the good practices,
raise its voice against issueless campaigning, remind
politicians of real issues of the people and the state and shame
the recalcitrant into line. The maxim is that when you can’t
hang the guilty, at least embarrass him.
One of the much appreciated clauses of the
bill brought forward by the two Democrat Senators is the
requirement by the Justice Department to counteract deceptive
election information that has been put out, and to report to
Congress after each election on what deceptive practices
occurred and what the Justice Department did about them. Such a
legislative measure is certainly visible on the Punjab horizon,
but what the NRI Punjabi brethren can do is to take the task
upon themselves and list and publicise the deceptive practices
employed in Punjab. With wide sections of the media joining in,
there is little hope that the initiative will come from the
mainstream penpushers, though the niche media or the alternative
media scribes are sure raising their voice. However, the
diaspora turning its attention to the rot within will act as a
force multiplier. Punjab today looks upon you for helping it
raise the voice of sanity above the din of deceptive
electioneering.
One of the worst dirty tricks of last
fall’s election in the US was a particular kind of deceptive
“robocall” that was used against Democratic Congressional
candidates. These calls, paid for by the Republicans, sounded as
if they had come from the Democrat; when a recipient hung up,
the call was repeated over and over. The intent was clearly to
annoy the recipients so they would not vote for the Democrat.
Thankfully, the Punjab politicians do not
read the United States newspapers much. Or thousands of voters
would have been woken up to the gruffy voice of Prakash Singh
Badal or the aggressive tone of Captain Amarinder Singh, of
course each paid for by the other. Even Obama-Schumer bill does
not address this robocall menace. So, please don’t underestimate
Mr Politician. Neither in Mansa, nor in Maryland!
Feb 21, 2007
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But some ads
were not deceptive
One of the things that
journalists covering Punjab elections did not bother to read
during the heady days were the advertisements in the form of
look alike of regular news pages with a little fine-printed
tag line saying it was sponsored by the SAD or the Congress.
But a casual reading of these advertisements tells a story
which the political parties may otherwise never state
explicitly.
News pages in the
Punjabi-language Jagbani newspaper, which were paid for by
the Akali Dal led by Parkash Singh Badal, carried despatches
clearly pointing out who is the man who calls the shots in
the party, and how others are puny little men before him.
"In the initial few days when
Sukhbir Badal was given a prominent role, many Akali leaders
used to murmur against it in a muffled voice, but now that
he is at the centre stage of electioneering, not a single
Akali leader, no matter how senior, even squeaks before him.
Senior neta vi hun Sukhbir de sahmane choo nahi karde,"
one of the news items paid for by the Akali Dal in Jagbani
said. The poor scribe who was conjuring such gems was so
deeply engrossed in the service of Sukhbir Singh Badal that
he didn’t realize what he was really doing – attacking the
Akali top brass instead of Congress!
One only wonders whether the
Akali Dal leaders can read the writing on the wall, if not
the cold news print.
That Sukhbir Singh Badal is
merely one of the general secretaries of the Akali Dal, and
there are many who are senior to him and have held better
positions is a fact of politics. Whether this will also fast
turn into Sukhbir Singh Badal actually ending up taking oath
as CM is also being debated in Punjab.
Many think if the Akali Dal
ended up with more than 70 seats, there will be pressure
from within the Badal household to let Sukhbir take over.
Even during Badal's 1997-2002 regime, Sukhbir and his mother
Surinder Kaur Badal remained at the centrestage of politics,
irrespective of the fact that the mother remained behind the
scenes. Remaining behind the scenes and still hold centre
stage is an oxymoron very common in Indian politics.
Incidentally, one of the
advertisements placed by Captain Kanwaljit Singh in the
Hindustan Times’ city section on February 12 says that of
the people of Punjab, who wre asked about their preference
for a Chief Minister, 44 per cent opted for Parkash Singh
Badal while 38 per cent wanted Amarinder Singh. It said that
18 percent hated both. So clearly, as per the advertisements
paid for Capt Kanwaljit Singh, a majority of the Punjab
people do not want his leader to be their Chief Minister.
Then what is Capt Kanwaljit Singh doing about it? Well, he
is telling you the situation, and paying for it too. In
various senses of the phrase. |
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