When India Votes: The Dynamics of Successful Election Campaigning by Jaishri Jethwaney & Samir Kapur

Author:Jaishri Jethwaney & Samir Kapur [Jethwaney, Jaishri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rupa Publications India
Published: 2019-03-14T18:30:00+00:00

5

IDEAS, IDEOLOGIES AND CAMPAIGN PLANKS DECONSTRUCTING ELECTION CAMPAIGNS 1984–2014

‘Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.’

—JOHN STUART MILL

Seventy years is not a long time in the making of a nation. India, which the world often referred to as a fledgling democracy, has shown that though it may have a long way to go to conquer its myriad problems, such as poverty and social equity, it has a robust democratic ethos and value system, if the last sixteen general elections and many hundred state-level elections of the past seven decades are any indication.

Election times verily reflect the mood of a nation, and it is not uncommon to see it reflected in the slogans coined by various political parties, either to score a point or to deride an opponent. High-decibel campaigns, riding on rhetoric and creating perceptions, are commonplace during election times.

One of the greatest political philosophers of all time, Aristotle, identified three principle modes of rhetoric—deliberative, forensic and demonstrative—in political communication. The deliberative rhetoric is designed to sway people on matters of public policy by deliberating on the relative advantages and disadvantages of the alternative way of things. Its focus is on what will happen in future, given the proposed policies. It is expected to create and modify expectations to come. The forensic rhetoric focuses on what has happened in the past in order to demonstrate guilt and innocence, responsibility, or punishment and reward. Its normal setting is the courtroom, but it can occur anywhere, especially in political communication during elections. The demonstrative rhetoric is a discourse of praise and blame. Its intent is to amplify the good and bad qualities of a person, institution or idea. Political campaigns are generally replete with demonstrative rhetoric, as opponents challenge each other’s qualifications for the public office. For instance, taking a leaf from the 2014 campaign, from the respectful NaMo versus RaGa to the not-so-respectful Fenku versus Pappu, there were well-thought-out sobriquets and jibes against both Modi and Rahul Gandhi by both the parties. The Congress called Modi ‘maut ka saudagar’ (trader of death), and Modi mockingly referred to Rahul Gandhi as ‘shehzada’ (prince).

It is not uncommon at such times to find the media creating narratives around various actors, amplifying the positive qualities of some candidates and the negative qualities of others through editorials, opinionated articles, reportage and news programmes, thus serving the electorate a menu card to choose from.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.