The Election Commission of India has declared the election dates for Bihar. With this announcement, speculations about who would win or who would lose will be rife. Every tea-stall, canteen, office and home of Bihar as well as India will be echoing with the same tune of elections, Modi-Magic, Sushasan, Grand Alliance, etc. While all the politicians would be vying to prove that their respective party is winning, there would be another similar contest between all the News Channels of flaunting Opinion Polls, biased or unbiased, correct or incorrect.
The Lok Sabha elections of 2014 proved how much impact the electronic media has on the outcome of an election. The Opinion Polls are said to be a very fine tool to analyse the support base of a political party, the chances of it winning or losing the election. With opinion polls involved so deeply with politics, the question arises whether such opinion polls are free from political interference, ulterior motives, biases or not? The question is whether such opinion polls are used by politicians to create a wave of support or a wave of opposition respectively. The question is on the credibility of these opinion polls.
Visuals can be deceptive and Ajay Devgan quite clearly proved that with his fine acting in “Drishyam”. We humans are visual characters and our ability to infer a particular image or programme differs from person to person. Unless and until we are made aware of reality or facts, we would surely opine in the favour of an image reaching our retina. It is therefore the responsibility of News Channels and Newspapers to clearly ascertain the facts behind an opinion poll, like the sample size of people surveyed, the way the responses were recorded and framed into percentage, etc. The media should abide by their oath of transparency and telecast opinion polls only after their credibility has been assured.
Media is surely expected to be responsible and unbiased, but what about us? Aren’t we expected to be responsible citizens, how many times have we been implored by means of innumerable campaigns to vote for the right candidate and for a progressive government? How many times are we told to cast our vote and not just to vote our caste? It is often said that governments are reflection of the masses that embodies the traits and characters of the masses. If we ourselves are biased and choose a candidate only because he practices the same religion as we do or shares the same caste as ours, then we don’t have an iota of authority to call these very candidates to be communal or corrupt when they sit on the chair.
India is a country where politicians play all tactics to secure their chair, that ranges from distributing money and liquor to staging a riot, from making unbreakable vows of ending corruption to providing job, home, TV, bike, Mercedes, etc. It is therefore imperative for us to not to be influenced by Opinion Polls, religion, caste and hollow promises. Ours is the only country in the world where one would find a Vote Bank. This isn’t the sort of bank where one goes to take or deposit money but a bank made of gullible and innocent people where a politician goes only after every five years to take votes and give nothing. Let us then not be just a vote bank but responsible Indian citizens. Let us therefore go out there to make a difference, a change. Even if it is a slight one, a day will come when these slight differences and changes will turn into a monumental one.
Jai Hind!
