https://thewire.in/109454/mayawati-up-elections-media/

Mayawati has alleged that the media actively discriminates against her
party, calling media organisations chitpawan brahmanical.

Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati, the main opposition leader in
poll-bound Uttar Pradesh has alleged that ‘the media is being managed’
to influence polls. Addressing a rally in Saharanpur on February 11, she
said, “The opposition parties are using opinion polls and paid surveys

to influence the voters. These opinion polls suggest a poor BSP
performance. In 2007, something similar was done when both the media and
opinion polls placed the BSP on third and fourth position but their
lies were exposed when the results came out.”

At her rallies,
Mayawati has repeatedly accused the media of discriminating against her
party and constantly showing its performance in poor light. A survey
allegedly conducted in October 2016 had given the BJP a clear majority
in UP even before the notification for the polls was issued. Mayawati
slammed the survey alleging that the media, controlled by capitalists
was showing such skewed survey results to demoralise the BSP workers.

Addressing a meeting of senior party leaders, Mayawati said, “All the
newspapers and TV channels are owned by capitalists and
multi-millionaires. The agencies conducting the poll surveys are also
controlled by them. These capitalists are using the media and survey
agencies to create a conducive political environment for parties like
the Congress and BJP because they run the government keeping in mind the
profits and losses of their corporate allies. In the forthcoming polls,
such surveys will be used to demoralise the BSP workers. The voters
must beware of them.”

On February

M8, Mayawati reiterated the
allegation while addressing rallies in Badaun and Shahjahanpur. “The
media may undermine the strength of the BSP but the party will form
government in UP on its own.”

Mayawati has repeatedly accused
the media, which she labels Manuwadi and chitpawan brahmanical, of
ignoring the BSP and not giving it proper coverage despite it being a
leading party in UP. In the ongoing assembly polls, the scathing attacks
have continued.

A chitpawan brahmanical media?

“Mayawati
is right,” says sociologist Badrinarayan. “She has been pushed to the
margins. People are talking about her now when she entered the fray.
Somebody claimed that the BSP will get 24 out of 50 seats. As a matter

of fact, the media does not understand the BSP. Due to this, it only
focusses on the political strategies of other parties. If you don’t
visit the villages, how can you present the true picture? Opinions
formed at tea stalls are different from those formed in cities. A
complete picture emerges only when opinions are collected at all
levels.”

“Mayawati is right,” says Abhay Kumar Dubey, member of the Centre for the Study of Developing Society.

However, JNU professor Vivek Kumar agrees with Mayawati. “Look at the
facts,” he says. “All the opinion polls show BSP in a negative light.
What she is saying is true. It is well known that her voters are not in
cities. How deep inside the villages do the pollsters go? They never
say. Even in cities, do they go to slum areas? The survey sample is not
representative, which is why the results are skewed. Secondly, a debate
around perception is built by showing speeches of several BJP leaders
but only Mayawati for BSP. It appears to be a well-thought out strategy
of the media.”

Dilip Mandal, a journalist working on SC/ST
issues, says, “It is true that none of the opinion polls have so far
shown Mayawati. in the lead. Usually opinion polls and surveys lean
towards specific political parties. The rising forces in politics or the
subaltern voices are not presented that way. It is possible that the
surveys are honest and the voters of these parties are not as vocal. But
if it continues this way, it only seems like a pattern. Why is it
happening? Those conducting surveys must seriously think about it. In a
diverse society like India, if the sampling is not done correctly, a
fair survey cannot be conducted. Secondly, there is a pressure on the
voter to speak in favour of a particular party, owing to the distrust
media faces today.”

“The media has an upper middle class
character,” says Badrinarayan. “People in media do not want to work
hard. They form opinions based on information easily obtained and run
the news. Besides, it is a political game to keep the BSP and Mayawati
on the margins.”

What are the powers at work behind this strategy to sideline the BSP?

Whether or not Mayawati
and her party are victims of caste discrimination cannot be clearly
said. “Mayawati’s support base is not vocal,” says Dubey. “It is
possible that poll surveys do not include their opinions completely. As a
result, Mayawati’s political strength in UP is often underestimated.
But election results show her in the lead. The difference in estimate
and reality is based on context and conditions. The better and more
scientific a survey is, the closer it is to reality.”

Opinion
polls have suffered a massive setback in all previous elections,
including the past three general elections. The latest examples are
assembly elections of Delhi and Bihar.

Kumar says, “Caste bias is
characteristic of the media. Surveys across the world show the vote
percent but in India it is broken down seat by seat although it cannot
be done merely based on objective and scientific assessment. It happened
in all the previous elections.”

“Perhaps, it is characteristic
of the media to work against parties like the BSP,” says Mandal. “But
more than that I believe that the dominant political powers are capable
of capturing the media’s attention. There is no one to challenge it. It
is not necessarily a conspiracy. That the BJP remains in the spotlight
may not be intentional. Also, the BJP may not even perform as it is
predicted. It may all just be general behaviour.”

Insufficient engagement?

However, Ashish Mishra, a journalist based in Lucknow, believes that
there is truth behind Mayawati’s claims. “She has a point because her
party’s media relations are the worst. She maintains a distance from the
media. Her party makes no effort to approach the media. No party leader
or spokesperson is available to us for comment. No official statements
are made. We need content for news. Who will provide it? When we do not
have their side of the story we often leave it. In her rallies, there is
no information about the organisers, managers and the strategy.
Akhilesh Yadav, on the other hand, regularly speaks to us.”

Another senior journalist, on the condition of anonymity, says,
“Mayawati’s allegations are wrong. I cover the BSP. But the BSP is
different from other parties. Its leaders do not give statements like
others. We are only allowed to publish what Mayawati says. If a reporter
publishes a story based on information from another source, she calls a
press conference the next day, condemns it and declares the reporter
‘Manuwadi’. If the BSP is getting lesser coverage in the media, it is a
result of Mayawati’s own strategy. If it is not so, why is no BSP leader
ready to give an interview to any newspaper even when leaders from
other parties are regularly giving interviews during the ongoing polls?
If a BSP leader is approached for comment on any issue, he says ‘Behen
ji will respond to it’. But Behen ji is never available to the media.”

The BSP’s strategy of distancing itself from the media has been in
place from the very beginning. Speaking to BBC, senior journalist and
writer of Mayawati’s biography, Ajay Bose said, “Kanshi Ram [the founder
of BSP] used to be in constant touch with the media when he was
consolidating the All India Backward and Minority Community Employees
Federation (BAMCEF). But once he formed the party he grew distant.
Actually, the mainstream media did not portray Kanshi Ram’s politics
correctly. So, both were mutually distant. Mayawati continued the
tradition.”

Questioning the limits of survey techniques, Dubey
says, “Every survey has its limitations because it is dominated by
urban, educated and upper caste people. Yet we try to include as many
marginalised voices as possible. It is true that the upper caste casts a
lot of influence in the media but it does not mean they negatively
portray Mayawati intentionally in the surveys because nobody wants to be
blamed. If the BSP performs well in the results, and the surveys are
proved wrong, we will need to reexamine our survey techniques.”

Several journalists in UP believe that Mayawati does not need the media.
Her voters are mostly illiterate and do not get influenced by the
media. The statements against the media she makes in her rallies are to
urge her voters not to trust the news or the propaganda against her.
Nevertheless, the question remains – is the media untouched by such
allegations of casteism, discrimination, strategising electoral coverage
and party bias?

Mayawati has now changed her tone with the
journalists and responds to their questions, something she never did in
her press conferences earlier. Once attributed to the BSP, the socially
engineered slogan ’tilak, tarazu, aur talwar; inko maaro joote chaar‘
(Thrash Brahmin, Baniya and Thakur with shoes) has now been given up.
Even the media is no longer as Manuwadi for her. In the ongoing
elections, her media contact has definitely seen a historic rise. But
journalists still eagerly await a call for Mayawati’s interview.