As 49 constituencies in Bihar went to vote on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to crowds in Bhabua. "You will try to stop me? I am a labourer, I will walk it if I need to," he said. He was referring to the Kaimur district administration’s initial refusal to give permission for his rally, which was eventually permitted by the Election Commission.
Modi spoke at rallies in Bhabua as well as Jehanabad, both of which go to the hustings in the second phase of the polls, on Friday. But the prime minister’s speech, covered by various news channels, streamed into living rooms and shop corners across the state, including the constituencies that went to polls on Monday. Why walk when you can ride the airwaves?
The Election Commission had also turned down a petition made by the Grand Alliance in Bihar. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral rivals had wanted the television broadcast of Modi’s speech to be banned, saying it went against Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which forbids public meetings and the display of election matter, in print or on television, 48 hours before polling starts. The Election Commission reasoned that the curbs only applied to constituencies where polling was going to take place. Since Modi was holding public meetings in other areas, there would be no such restrictions, neither could TV broadcasts be banned.
Changed circumstances
Yet the provisions of the Representation of the People Act were framed in times when the local was truly local, before the age of 24 hour news channels and hourly web updates that can reach all sections of the electorate simultaneously. Speeches made in the remote village or district town now have a resonance they never did before. At the same time, an increasingly long and fragmented electoral process has meant that some areas see campaigning while others are heading to the polling booths. Voters, then are never quite insulated from the heat and dust of the campaign.
“The law is to have a 48-hour gap between campaigning and polling, so that voters can think coolly, calmly before making their choice,” said former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi. “Now multiphase elections and the electronic media explosion have created a problem. Parties take advantage of the rules and campaign outside poll areas, where there is no ban in place.”
Electronic media also presents logistical difficulties that older forms of communication do not. “With print media and pamphlets, you could still consider curtailing the local circulation,” noted Qureshi. “For some years now, the Election Commission has been asking for restrictions on print media in poll areas. But it is difficult to limit the signals of television satellites.” The time has come to consider wider restrictions before polling day, Qureshi feels. “In a six-phase election that lasts for 30 days, you could ban all election broadcasts for 12 days, that’s 48 hours before each phase.”
As news of Monday’s campaign filtered into all parts of the country, the rules of the Representation of the People Act seemed to be caught in a time warp, innocent of the realities of the modern poll campaign. And the current Election Commission, despite inklings of change, either cannot or will not adapt old laws to new circumstances.