The Hindu : Beware of negative ads

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 02, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Beware of negative ads

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, APRIL 1. On Wednesday (March 31), The Washington Post published a story on how the Bush campaign had used negative advertisements against the Democratic Party nominee, John Kerry, to deflate the Massachusetts Senator's rising popularity. The story's tagline said it all: "The plus side of going negative."

According to the story, the Bush supporters could have spent $20 million in just two weeks, but the Democrats were confident of returning fire for fire.

Negative advertisement of the kind we have witnessed in our own country by way of the so-called "surrogate ads" is the staple diet of American politics. The private life of a candidate — be he/she an aspirant for the House of Representative or the White House — deemed to be a legitimate target for scrutiny. The mudslinging habit — invariably expensive and wilfully boorish — is justified as the voter's right to know about the candidate's character.

Are we ready for the American kind of institutionalised mudslinging? This is the political question underlying the legal issue before the Supreme Court in the matter of dispute about the scope of Rule 7(3) of the Cable Television Networks Rules. It is, of course, a different matter that the Central Government's special leave petition invokes the principle of providing a level playing field for all political parties and ensuring that "money power does not distort the electoral process."

The BJP's so-called "younger leaders" are reported to be in favour of campaigning through "surrogate ads." These leaders have passionately argued that it is entirely legitimate for the BJP to bring out all the details of Sonia Gandhi's past personal history. The argument goes: The country needs to know everything about someone who aspires to be the prime minister. The general belief among the presiding deities at the party's Ashoka Road establishment is that the country's voters would lap up any dirt that can be thrown in the direction of the Congress president.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister is reported to be against any kind of personalised attacks on political opponents. Mr. Vajpayee himself is on record as saying that he is in favour of a "dignified campaign." The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, too is reported to have frowned upon the party's Uttar Pradesh president, Vinay Katiyar's "distasteful" comments on Ms. Gandhi.

However, the party's young and aggressive managers often find tactical ways of bypassing the Prime Minister's noble intentions. The heat and passion of the election campaign are cited as justification for extreme partisanship. So far, Mr. Vajpayee has not succeeded in making his young colleagues see political merit in restraint and dignity.

The Congress camp is not exactly unhappy about the BJP's willingness to hit below the belt. The Congress calculation is that Ms. Gandhi has already been sufficiently calumniated by the Sangh Parivar and there is very little else the party's rivals can say or reveal to shock the voters. But they feel that they would be within their right to return tit for the BJP's tat. In the Congress thinking, so far Mr. Vajpayee has escaped personal scrutiny and it was about time to see how much of his prime ministerial teflon can be peeled away.

The issue, however, is larger than the presumed vulnerability of this or that leader. The issue is also not one of a political party's right to put a spin on its sales pitch. Nor is it primarily a question of some parties getting an undue advantage over others. The issue is of decency in public life. The larger issue is the impact of negative surrogate ads on the manners of the political class.

It has been the Indian political class' major achievement — perhaps its only achievement — that in pursuing political disputes and contests, a rival is not treated as an enemy. For example, unlike the practice in our neighbourhood, we allow our Prime Ministers to retire gracefully and to remain honoured and respected members of an elite club of "statesmen." The surrogate ads, if permitted, are bound to create such bitterness that the winner of the 2004 election may preside over a dangerously fractured polity.

The "surrogate ads" are produced by passionate partisans who see a life and death struggle in each electoral contest. It is the role of institutions such as the Election Commission and the judiciary to see to it that the democratic practices and rights are not so abused as to de-legitimise the larger project called democracy.

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