Refer to the news item which says that in Rajkot, BJP uses Art of Living Association (AOL) for Poll propaganda.
Further to that the EC has warned AOL against adding such political colours to their events.
EC has said that if any candidate addresses a gathering or shares the stage at the programme, the expenditure of the entire programme would be counted as the party's poll expenditure.
*** Why am I writing this piece of thought and what are my concerns ?
It was only couple of months back that I pushed my parents to attend an AOL camp. And I have a good impression about the association. Also, I have personal friends who are members of the group. My concerns and queries are fairly objective :
1) Does this event at Rajkot mean that, some members of AOL are using the AOL event for promoting their personal political will/support, which happens to be BJP in this case ?
If that is true, wouldn't AOL disallow such usage of their brand to conduct such activities ?
I haven't seen any report or statement from AOL, not allowing such events to take place.
2) Additional to the above fact, I understand that there is a "viral" mail chain which is doing the rounds and it seems that its being propagated by AOL members. The mail has a well constructed piece of text and asks to "vote for change" and also specifies the change as BJP.
The above two facts makes the situation quite ambiguous.
- If AOL is not stopping the use of their banner to promote BJP and there are instances of the "Vote for Change" propaganda (change being specified as BJP), then why doesn't the group come out in the media and declare their support for BJP ?
- Is the so called education being spread, limited to their members only ? ..so that they can spread the message through whatever means, as their personal initiative i.e., using the brand value for all practical purposes but without declaring the official brand support.
- Now, with the above understanding of AOL being supportive for a change (read BJP) but still not officially supporting BJP, is there a reverse brand-tagging issue somewhere ?
- Does AOL fear getting a tag of being more of a religious organization, if they openly supported BJP ? Obviously, that will not do any good to their existing brand value.
I have no issues or concerns w.r.t AOL showing their support for any party, be it BJP or any other. Suppose it was supporting the INC or NCP or any other, in this manner, I would still have similar concerns. The only point of concern for me is, why is there a lack of clarity and be non-committal ? I have always had my sincere respect towards the organization but I find this manner of conducting a propaganda as highly unethical until there is a clear public statement made by AOL on this topic. And this definitely would constitute a breach of trust.
I am a firm believer in the democratic and secular ethos in our society.
Noam Chomsky said "I think there is a good reason why the propaganda system works that way. It recognizes that the public will not support the actual policies. Therefore it is important to prevent any knowledge or understanding of them" And also "Propaganda is to a Democracy, what a Bludgeon is to a Totalitarian State"
We see it here as well.
1 comment:
Agree totally..
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