Ideology, Issues: R.I.P

Mark Tully, Author and Broadcaster
"Electronic media will kill us with boredom! It will be interesing to see what response rallies get. We’ll have to see whether the TV studios will replace the mass programmes which made Indian elections so memorable."

Sham Lal, Veteran Editor
"Iagree that Indian elections are not maturing but degenerating. But to some extent this is the logic of the process of a democratisation of a segmented society. The public is also constantly exposed to false propaganda by the media."

N. Ram, Editor-in-chief, The Hindu
"There is a tabloidisation of the media. The manner in which some mainstream newspapers have been covering the Indo-Pak series is illustrative of this. They want to present everything as a spectacle."

B.G. Deshmukh, Ex-Cabinet Secretary
"What was simply called an election tour is now called a yatra or a roadshow. The whole election looks and sounds superficial because this time around politicians have evolved a PR approach to elections. Let them be warned that citizens cannot be taken lightly."

Ram Guha, Social Scientist
Today no party stands for anything. No one is in politics for the implementation of ideas or policies. Politicians of the past felt deeply about solving economic and social problems. Today, they only care about retaining power."