EVEN as parliamentary and legislative elections to a few States draw nearer, the political discourse is threatening to get dirtier. This is something the nation just does not need at this or at any other stage of our collective decision as to who will lead the Government. This awareness pushes us to appeal for restraint on part of the political community as a whole. This appeal also is to the media as a whole to maintain stricter restraint what it proposes to write or telecast or broadcast in the following weeks. The trigger for this appeal comes from some of the dirty comments and posts available on social media platforms of some political leaders about the candidates a few parties have chosen for the impending elections. Some of those comments are outright filthy and promote a culture of shamelessness. This is the last thing any civilised nation can expect to have. For, the core value of a sophisticated human society is dignity and honour of human individual engaged in whatever pursuit. Unfortunately, some social media posts about a few candidates throw to the wind all caution and care for human honour and dignity and attempt to portray those persons in the dirtiest of light. This is reprehensible, to say the least, and calls for complete restraint on the part of the political community across dividing lines.

 

It should be the basic commitment of the whole political community across divides to a fine discourse based on ideas or ideals or even ideologies. There may be references, all right, to issues such as corruption or compromises with larger public interest. But none of these should prompt anybody to cross limits of decency and decorum and target individual candidates in the filthiest words and pictures. When the national spokesperson of a major political party was lambasted for having made some fully filthy posts, she hurriedly explained that those posts were the outcome some hacking of her account and that she could not indulge in such misdeeds. But if one person has made such a clarification, many others have chosen to keep quiet. Their respective political oragnisations, too, do not seem to have taken any punitive or restrictive action against them. This is not the political culture the country would ever bargain for. Even as we realise that the current pre-election mood of the political community is in a no-holds-barred mode, we also insist that there is no justification whatsoever for losing a sense of control and restraint on statements and their tone and tenor.

 

Hence this appeal to the good sense of the entire political community, no matter to which side of the divide people or parties may belong. Though there is law to take care of such violations of human dignity during elections, the political community should commit itself to maintain a high sense of restraint on its actions and utterances -- so that the quality of political discourse remains fine and polished standing on the foundation of respect for others. This has been our standard practice to issue such appeals before every electoral battle. But this time, we realise that the battle can get the murkiest if not kept in check right from now. We have no other mode at hand to make such an appeal except spelling the issue out as accurately as possible. Hence this appeal. We are sure, the leaders of the political pyramid of the country will realise their sense of duty to maintain civilisational finesse in high order by keeping the political discourse at its purest and finest. That will raise the respect of the international as well as internal communities for India as a nation and as a civilisation with long and glorious history and tradition.