Saturday 20 October 2012

'Saket Bahuguna-Mala RajyaLakshmi' Tehri By Poll Verdict, Opens Loop-holes in Media Reporting


Written by Anil Singh
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The biggest virtue of a Youth is to see things objectively and logically; so that he/she may make correct observations and derive noteworthy inferences. Ill-fitting statements from a 60 year old can be tolerated; but not from a 20 or 30 year old individual.

The ability to look things objectively and logically is an important virtue in any Youth. This is the primary virtue, every job interview wants to assess. If the job interview is for administrative Post, this virtue becomes more important.

But are we looking at things objectively? Actually, even if a Youth tries to see things that way; the Indian media is not allowing him/her to.

Let I give you an example.

In the latest Tehri Lok Sabha By-Poll, the BJP’s Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, defeated Congress’s Saket Bahuguna, with a margin of 22431 votes. The BJP candidate got a total of 2,45,292 votes while the Congress candidate secured 2,22,861 votes.
The total number of votes cast in the Tehri By Poll was 5,09,810.
Thus in percentage terms, while the BJP's winning candidate got 48 percent of the votes; the defeated candidate, got 43.7 percent votes.
Now let I ask you a question: Can we say it a BJP's emphatic victory OR people's verdict for BJP's policies?
There's no doubt a victory, but is it a verdict where the electorate unceremoniously rejected one party and supported other? If this can be said, then a student topping the class with 80 percent and another with 75 percent can never compete with each other. After all in such a case, the student with 75 percent marks is good for nothing. But, we know that this is not the case. Both Students are Good.

That said, it's alright for BJP supporters to call the victory emphatic and an indication that the electorate rejected the Congress. But, it's not Good for the Media to say so.

Media should see things impartially. Before reporting a news, it should ask itself: If 48 percent voted for BJP, 43 voted for Congress as well. So can we use superlatives in our Report? If Media asks itself such questions, it will not use headlines like, "Tehri bypoll results reflects people's anger against Congress" OR "Emphatic Victory for BJP in Tehri Bypoll". As surprisingly, the Tehri-By poll didn't offer such a Clear verdict.


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