The ongoing campaign for Assembly elections in Telangana has touched a new low this time with the major parties, at least some of their leaders if not all, resorting to use of filthy and objectionable language, aped of ideas for mass communication such as songs and advertisements, and copied schemes in manifestos.
In the absence of availability of authentic information and lack of mechanism to cross-check the information being spread, the electorate were taken for a ride by all major political parties as people are not fully aware as to who is speaking facts and half-truths and who is spreading lies. Not only the electorate, event the party ranks are were pushed into confusion with fake, deep fake and fabricated videos made with an objective to demoralise the opponent camps.
The choice of words, its tone and tenor by certain leaders in the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) camps in particular this election has crossed all limits of decency compared to the approach and attitude exhibited by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Those who followed the campaign styles of the three-four major parties can observe the marked difference this time.
Marked difference
Chief Minister and BRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao who used to have the uncanny approach of slighting the opponents too has toned down his style and has limited his speeches in nearly 80 election rallies he addressed so far to what the BRS Government has done since 2014, what they plan to do if voted again and cautioned people about the impending implications in case the rivals parties are voted.
“We are explaining what we have done and what we plan do as part of our campaign rather than using filthy language against our opponents. Let the opposition party leaders tell what they did in the past and what they plan to do if voted, rather than resorting to vulgar and objectionable language”, BRS senior leader B. Vinod Kumar said.
KTR cautions SM soldiers
Apparently shocked by an audio that has surfaced on social media platforms, BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, who is contesting the election for the fourth term from Sircilla, has alerted the party cadre, particularly its social media soldiers that “there will be many false and deep fake videos and other forms of nonsensical propaganda over the next few days from the Scamgress scammers. Let’s make sure no gullible voter falls into their trap”.
Accusing the rival parties of copying the schemes in BRS manifesto, its publicity material such as songs and advertisements, another senior leader of the party T. Harish Rao said several novel schemes introduced by their government were being tweaked and used in their manifestos by Congress and BJP. They have also stooped to lows such as copying songs made for BRS much in advance to the elections.
