India is said to be the largest democratic country in the world.

it has been proven by giving

various kinds of rights to the people. Media plays a big role in the Indian politics not only in
politics but literally in everything that happens around at global or national level. all are
determined by media the things we buy are seen through various kinds of media. There was a
time when women were inside their houses and so many social injustices happening in India
but all those had gone now because of the public and government efforts. during the British
era there were only less amount of communication mode in practice but still the newspapers
and weekly magazines were used a ultimate weapon against the British people in order to
raise voice or prepare a collective voice against the Brits 1. Even though there have been many
punishments given to those who went against the British government by printing the voice of
freedom struggle they continued to do It example for it is RajaRam Mohan Roy. media still
played a big role at that time when it was difficult. now in the 21st century where there are
media which influences pretty much everything has gone a little too far because of politics.
media and politics weren’t a friend of each other until the corrupt minded infected media. The
state was a single media tool was being used has changed and time ahs come when each
political party has its own channel on television. Media is the biggest tool for political
leaders. Even the elections which are voted by the people are directed by the media .India is
the best example for politics as there are so much diversity and we can see clearly which
determines the vote whether the agenda, money, caste, religion, race .when media takes
connection to mass number of people around the world then it is said to be mass media .mass
media plays a big role in elections such as reporting the true facts, wrong happenings,
accurate results, campaign information and stuffs. Exit polls are one of the major deciding
factors in India politics and it will be dealt more deeply in the research. There were times
when where only certain communications were happening but now there are even 24-hour
media for instant news. Has is basically became of the entry of multinational companies into
the media in India2 .because of the overwhelming craze in India for television and politics the
private companies knew this wold be a wealthy investment even though it is chunky it could
earn wonder so slowly many private companies started entering the Indian media and
changed the course of action not only in television but also through the use of applications
which cant give you every information second to second by the use of internet. Technology
also plays a major part in developing these for the people. Media is the only source of tool to
speak against the politicians in the current scenario the video evidence and statements given

1
Bipan Chandra, Mridula Mukherjee, Adity Mukherjee, India after independence,
2
Chatterjee, Broadcasting in India, pp.104-105
are the only ray of hope for the people to raise their voice asking what they want from the
ruling members.so even though media is criticised in many ways this is the best and only way
which people have to rely up on to get what they want and voice out what they don’t want 3.
The objectives of the researcher is to analyse the role of media in Indian politics and analyse
whether media has any effect on people thought process of forming opinion at times of
election to find how lawful is it allow the media to go to the extent and if so then is it
democratic.

THE TRIANGULAR THEORY:

Media politics and people are the three components on this theory each rely upon the other
for their work .politics or the politicians rely upon the media to send the message tp the
people at large which they can’t do without the help of media and media on the other hand
send the news to the people but they not only deliver but also receive their thoughts at large
and give it back to the politics. this is a very basic feature of media and if this itself gets
wrong then the entire cycle of democracy gets affected. Not only does the media gets owned
by private parties who have political motives or political support by there are also television
channels, newspapers, and magazines owned by the party members or their close ones .this
ownership of politics in media is major cause today .Tamil Nadu is the state in which has the
most number of television channels owned by the parties .each party has its own channel
newspapers and some are in close touch with some political parties so they support each other
if this is the case then where is there freedom of media speech and expression in the country.
The people get largely influenced by the media. The tripartite relationship is getting affected
here because of politics

In those days the people of India weren’t that such educated so as to understand the plays of
politics neither the government showed interest in takin step to educate them to vote for the
right person they think for the future of the country

3
David Butler, Ashok Lahiri, Prannoy Roy, India Decides,Elections 1952-1995,pp. 41
SURVERYS AND EXIT POLLS, THE DETERMINER:

SPOTLIGHT AND BIAS:

The survey and exit polls have long started in other countries but it was late to India as the
literacy rate was much less before but nowadays it plays the major part in politics or it can be
said that it is the decider of the elections results as it swings the mood of the floating voters.it
was first founded in the year 1935 by Dr. Gallup who was The founder of the American
institute of public opinion, New Jersey which made a poll by saying that Franklin Roosevelt
will win over Alfred Landon who was the opposition it was the first ever exit poll taken
officially in the history of making and to his surprise it was correct and the candidate who he
chose won the elections by the same amount of number this showed the accuracy of the exit
polls. India Today was the first magazine ever in India to conduct the all India survey in the
1990’s .in Indian just voting for the candidates is alone not considered as election as its
celebrated like a festival of democracy. They pour in so much to influence the voters. 4 It is a
great concern for all political parties to see how it goes as it kind of determines to a level but
things stated to change when the dirty politics came into it. breaking the basic law by
allowing politics into media things have turned ugly politics have started to influence the
media .as it turned out to be tool for the parties to manipulate the voters by starting their own
channels and newspapers or even having certain influence over the media. This can be
explained in a example

Assuming that the state Tamil Nadu has ruling party called PZMK and the opposition party is
called ZMK .during the elections there will be certain amount of vote percentage for both the
parties say 40% vote bank for the PZMK party and 39% vote bank for ZMK .so the
remaining 21% is chunk over voters who don’t know whom to vote for either they might not
vote or vote for NOTA or they might decide while going to the poll booth. This kind of
undecided voters are called as floating votes. Which is the ultimate decider for both the
parties to win. Before the elections happen or on the day of voting the media is being used a
tool to get vote of the floating vote bank by releasing the exit poll results, it can be fake or
even true but all parties have their own channels, newspapers or even certain influence of the
media. There is a common mass mentality among Indians to go on the side with whom they
think or feel is going to win .so when exit polls are out they decide to vote for the party which
is shown to win. if PZMK is estimated to win by 45 % percent of the vote share then they
will go with it or ZMK whichever is shown higher.
4
ibid
this can’t be blamed completely on the media or the politicians but the people too because of
their lack of knowledge of going into to the masses they are getting exploited by the political
parties.2004,2009 ,2014 elections have really made a big impact on to the exit polling in
India .several private companies are being paid in large amount of money in order to do the
survey.it is even being done on the caste basis. This has certainly created more flow of funds
into the media sector and taking it to another extent 5 the exit polls are certainly one great help
for the media and politicians and even the other fellow voters of how people are getting
influenced and to know their views.

Attack on the freedom of speech and expression and restriction of media have started long
back in the early days one such example will be the Bennet Coleman vs UOI 6 , in this case
the government was trying to curb the freedom of speech and expression of the media by
trying to limits its number of pages or contents so that the small newspaper companies will
also stand a chance against these big companies but the real reason was to limits the
newspapers by making them limit their page or content if they limit there are chances that
people might stop buying it but the court gave judgement in favour of the newspaper
company.

THE INTERNET AND BLACKOUTS:

There has been a lot of user changing towards using the internet as a tool for knowing
information .it has choices to choose from which one to avoid and which one they prefer.
And It is more of a pocket T.V and newspaper. And easier to watch. this has happened all
because of the reach of internet in this technology era. But it has also become a pain for the
government and public as well because of the rumours spread through WhatsApp
messages.one such recent incident which was the death of ex-chief minister of Tamil Nadu
Ms. J. Jayalalitha as soon as se was admitted in the hospital rumours started spreading that
she died and there were even morphed photos of her spreading though the media. this might
create a law and order problem in the state. Technology Even though has developed a lot and
has given wonderful opportunities to be updated still has its own negative impacts.

Puthiya Thalaimurai case:

5
interview with Ajay Singh, editor, governance now magazine...
6
AIR 1973 SC 106
A public debate was organised by a channel called Puthiya Thalaimurai in the district of
Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu7 .BJP , AIDMK, DMK, CPM party spokesperson and a Tamil
movie director names Ameer was also present, problem started when director Ameer spoke
about the communal riots happening in the district of Coimbatore and questioned the
government and spoke against the ruling BJP government in the centre. Then he was escorted
to the airport. He was speaking against the ruling government in Tamil Nadu also so the
government of Tamil Nadu filed a case against director Ameer and the channel on which the
problem occurred that they are trying to stir the emotions of people and creating communal
violence8.this act by the government went worldwide and all started to criticise the
government saying it has been trying to curb the freedom of the media .this is a debate show
and people have gathered around to see the debate and even through televisions. there may be
anger and emotions in the debate and anti-Government sentiments they might be even
representing the views of the people.so they are not at any mistake this is another way in
which the governments or political parties try to curb the media or influence the media when
anti-government sentiments are being shown

Tamil Nadu government have been stopping those channels which are broadcasting the news
which are anti governmental, let it be the Sterlite issue, Jallikattu, NEET protest all have been
taken control by the government in their Arasu cable service which is owned by 60% in
Tamil Nadu. three reporters were being arrested two reporters from Malayalam newspaper
Mathrubhumi and one from Theekathir for covering the protest going on in Tuticorin9.

Short film was about to get released a story based on Ockhi cyclone which attacked Chennai
it was about the government inefficiency ,so the government banned the movie saying it is an
insulting act done against the good deeds done10.there are several blackouts done by the
government of Tamil Nadu such as the blocking of telecasting the Jallikattu protests which
happened on the marina beach during January 2007,when a words were written and telecasted
saying :MLAs FOR SALE” in times now channel ,the Tuticorin protest against the
government was blocked by May ,201811.first of all the government doesn’t have the

7
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/puthiya-thalaimurai-case-opposition-slams-govt-over-curbing-
press-freedom-82834
8
Section 153(A),IPC
9
Tamil Nadu Government Muzzling Media to Silence Dissent, at
https://thewire.in/government/tamil-nadu-government-muzzling-media-to-silence-dissent
10
Section (2) of The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act,1971
11
ibid
authority to do it without the permission of the TRAI and its going against the freedom of
speech and expression and the right to information .

OMBUDSMAN EFFECTS:

There is a big possibility to abuse when there is too much power or discretion given in the
hands of a person .it is pretty obvious that misuse of power is to happen at a large level when
it given in the hands of one without any proper counter attack method in case of injustice
done ,but even when there is proper redressal committee like a tribunal or court it might be
influenced by the government in order to address these came the concept of ombudsman
.ombudsman is nothing but a watchdog which looks after whatever problems has been
addressed to it by the people affected by the acts of government it was first started in the
country of Sweden and then because of its success it came to practice in other countries
currently Australia and New Zealand are the countries which has successfully implemented it
and got fruitful gains from it .it came to India only in the past decade there were many
debates about it It was in the parliament for many years without getting any consent but
because of the social activist Anna Hazare it finally got accepted but the way it was designed
was kind of a set back to the people as it was not giving any gains to the people affected by
the government acts.in India it called as lokpal and lokayukta 12 ,lokpal was for the state and
lokayukta was for the central government there are even for the local governing bodies like
panchayats13. Many states were ready to accept and many werent.it is a independent body and
mainly a anti-corruption weapon. The members are being appointed by the president of the
country in consultation with the chief justice of India they have only a 5-year term and a
member of the opposition party will also be present in consultation. But in case of a
ombudsman for the media,

The members should be appointed by the chief justice of India in consultation with the
Journalist Association of India and All India Media and Communication Association and few
social activists and a lay man or public.

Like lokpal and lokayukta this ombudsman for media and press should have seven members

12
R .K. Sapru, Administrative Theories and Management Thought, (New Delhi: PHI Learning, 2009) 433.
13
Need Of Lokpal Bill In Present Democratic System: A Present Need. 1st ed. gujarat: N.p., 2016.23 Sept. 2016.
 chief justice of India
 two high court judges (one from north capital and one from south capital for better
understanding of the happenings in local and functioning)
 two social activists for the understanding of the people
 one senior journalist and one public

they form the redressal committee as well they can look after the restrictions done over
them by the political parties and the influences over them there shouldn’t be any political
member in the group or any political member who should be consulted because that might
lead to a roadblock for taking decisions.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION:

Since the early days of law there has been restrictions and violating the right of freedom
of speech and expression in media there are various forms of media and all have been
affected the political parties. Article 19(1)(a) of the constitution of India which guarantees
the citizen of India the right to freedom of and expression .no one can curb it during the
electoral times the media is being exploited to a large extent they are not used as medium
of communication to show or tell people their steps but they are using it only for the
reason for getting votes. changing the mood swings of the floating votes and clinch
victory the political parties being the biggest culprit has not only influenced the media
tools but also own certain media tools to take advantage of the society. Many famous
cases and the recent scenarios shows that it is not only a mistake on the part of the media
or politicians but the people also at large who voted these parties and gave them the
ultimate power but taking the pro public side it can be said that it is the duty of the
government to educate people well enough that they don’t have to go to a state where
they decide whom to vote by seeing the exit pools .this has to be stopped at once. for the
past two decades media has been used for getting votes and the blockage of anti-
governmental scenes have raised questioned the democracy. For years India has been
seen as the largest democracy in the world but analysing these things we can say that this
is a “FAKE DEMOCRACY” if this had been continuing for a long time then how much
voters did these politics manipulate in wrong ways and did the country choose wrong
leaders for a ling time in the belief that its democracy? The only recommendation which
can be given is to limit the political influence in the field of media but will it be done
without the cooperation of the people the answer remains NO as it’s the people’s
mentality and thinking which has to change along with the media to bring a change and to
avoid political influence in media ombudsman for media should be developed.