Should opinion polls be banned? OPINION POLL hosted by churumuri Vinaasha kaale vipareetha budhdhi, is a saying which captures the mood of the Congress-led UPA government very well. As it swerves into the final lap of its second term in office, as bad news swirls all around it, as the foreboding gets grimmer with each passing day, the 128-year-old party has turned its eyes, well, on opinion polls. In a communication to the election commission, a party functionary writes: Opinion polls during election are neither scientific nor is there any transparent process for such polls... our party fully endorses the views of the Election Commission of India to restrict publication and dissemination of opinion polls during the election. Random surveys lack credibility, and could be manipulated and manoeuvred by persons with vested interest, is the Congress conclusion, which is broadly in line with attorney general Goolam E. Vahanvatis legal opinion to the law ministry in which he said a ban on opinion polls would be constitutionally permissible. For a government which has consistently trained its guns on free speech, the latest move is par for the course. There is no question that many opinion polls are dubious exercises undertaken by fraudulent agencies with little no field presence; sponsors, sample sizes, date of polling, margins of error (all pre-requirements in reporting a poll) are opaque. There is also no doubt that many cash-strapped media houses are happily carrying polls with an eye on the future. Still, is a ban the only solution? Would the Congress and UPA be in favour of a ban on polls if the Congress was doing well in them? Do polls really influence voters, who chose just the opposite of what opinion polls advised them in 2004 and 2009? Whether dubious or not, does a ban on polls restrict the medias fundamental freedoms? Above all, wouldnt Indian democracy be healthier if a voter is exposed to what his co-citizens are thinking in other parts of the country, rather than being denied access to it? ------------------------------- You can participate in the poll at churumuri.wordpress/author/churumuri/
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 12:28:06 +0000