Division vis-a-vis Political Campaigns

In the era of online education and work from home, the political parties have found a new way to influence voters. The online campaigns by the political parties seem tempting at first but have some negative impacts in the long haul.

The elections have already been held in the states of Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and it is still happening in the province of West Bengal in an exceedingly total of 8 phases. The expenditure on the election campaigns by the political parties has never missed the opportunity to beat the previous election’s records. But unprecedented times require unprecedented expenditures as the election rivalry is at an all-time high this year so does the digital defrayment by the leading parties.

The Bharatiya Janta Party has been the pioneer of this trend of using social media for political gains. Although it is a level playing field, BJP remains ahead in this digital race. In the ongoing assembly elections, there has been a massive digital campaign fight over the state of West Bengal, it has been estimated to be the highest advertisement spend among all the states with approximately between Rs 120 crore and Rs 130 crore.

Following that second in this line is the state of Tamil Nadu where political parties are anticipated to spend in the range of Rs 35 crore – Rs 40 crore. In Kerala and Assam, advertisements spend is expected to stay in the range of Rs 20 crore – Rs 25 crore, respectively.

It is an irrefutable fact that these online campaigns manipulate and mislead people which often incites social disharmony. For any democracy to prosper its media ought to be independent, professional, and accountable. Their role is to educate, criticize and encourage critical thinking. For the media to be credible, it's essential to take responsibility for obtaining its facts right.

But what happens when one of the biggest tools of this media i.e Social Media is aggressively funded by the political parties? Social media incorporates a wider impact on the masses than any other mass media and therefore the political parties have adapted according to it. In the era of unwanted pandemics where everything is going online, why the election advertisement should lag!

Conclusion

One might ask how much digital advertisement is healthy for the democratic fabric of the country? The problem with this is that it is a vicious cycle as the election results can be solely affected based on which party has spent the most on the digital advertisement. Social media which targets an individual's critical thinking can be employed by politicians for their disposal. Therefore it won't be incorrect to call this era, “An era of Digital Divide”.