[Reader-list] India: Big Business Taking Over Will be undoing of Democracy

[Harsh Kapoor]

by Harsh Kapoor

The run-up to the 2014 general elections in India has been an
unprecedented demonstration of the massive infusion of money in
electoral campaigning. A veritable carpet-bombing of India’s voters
with the opposition BJP’s message is everywhere to be seen, from
advertisements in newspapers, on TV, Youtube, Radio, Mobile Phones,
CDs and the Internet, to billboards in all metropolitan cities and
small towns and on transport vehicles, including inside the Delhi
Metro trains. In effect, it has blocked out all other political
parties as far as public advertising goes. This vast campaign has been
on a scale never seen in history, estimated by some to be costing Rs
5000-6000 crores or more (from 800 to over 900 million dollars).

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