Hyderabad: Interaction between voters (through elected representatives) and political parties, typically through the media, is the life-blood of a democracy. It is through the media that parties convey their thinking on matters of significance and public debates conducted. When systems are designed to keep political information screened from the media, it is time to ask questions.
This is why it is of relevance to find out why the BJP stopped holding press briefings (held daily for decades) as soon as it came to power after the recent Lok Sabha election, and has a parliamentary majority of its own (although non-BJP parties that constitute the NDA are in government). It is pertinent to remember at all times that not letting information flow is an inescapable feature of totalitarian systems.
Since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, the press is handed out governmental information through designated officials. This is one-way free flow. However, on some key matters only the official media (AIR and DD) is permitted access.
This became evident during the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Bhutan, his first foreign trip, when non-government media were kept out although our relations with Bhutan have always been very important and were given a fillip by Mr Modi. It will be a sorry feature of our democracy if a trend such as this is institutionalised.
If the first signs of tight regulation of governmental information are visible in so short a time (it’s been barely five weeks since the BJP swept to power), political information appears to suffer from a total clampdown. Not only have official party briefings ceased, ministers and ruling party MPs appear to be barred from interacting with the media in their capacity as political actors of significance and worth.
Thus, party groups and factions seem to have been denuded of any sense of agency as an information blackout has come to obtain on the political side. Such groups informally ventilate evolving concerns relating to the shaping of policy in democratic parties, especially if they are in power, and also in respect of communicating at the Centre the needs of states from which MPs are elected.
Such is the impact of the rollback of traditional channels of information through the media, and the hold of a tight circle of just a few leaders right at the top on information — indeed their emergence as a monopoly source of information — that well-known BJP leaders have gone into the shade.
BJP’s “Dronacharya”, L.K. Advani, has been reduced to singing the PM’s praise in public. And yet, strangely enough, Mr Modi has spoken of “resistance” (to him) from “within” the wider “governmental system”. What’s going on?
