Letters-70: "Code of Conduct"

1. Much of the Election Commission's resources have gone into disciplining and pulling up candidates and political parties for their behaviour during the election campaign ("Honouring the code in the breach," The Hindu, April 16) so far. The erring candidates have received excellent help from the electronic media which relayed and analysed every act threadbare and provided hour-after-hour of publicity to them. The campaigning was generally distasteful. What ought to have been issue-based - there is no dearth of local, regional and national issues - became an acrimonious exercise. The voter had an overdose of rallies devoid of intellectual content, with parties releasing meaningless manifestos. - R.Swarnalatha, New Delhi.

2. The editorial, it appears, has been written more in sorrow than in anger at the dismal state of affairs in the largest democracy of the world. As pointed out, increased public awareness is the only solution to prevent further decay. - K.N.Bhagavan, Bangalore.

3. Since it has no statutory backing, the model of code of conduct is like a balloon without air. the campaigning for the first stage of the election was characterized by irresponsible remarks by many leaders. What we need are reforms to make the parties more responsible and the Election Commission more powerful. - Ankit Kumar, Ghaziabad.

Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, April 17, 2009

Grateful thanks to M/s.R.Swarnalatha, K.N.Bhagavan, Ankit Kumar and The Hindu, India's National Newspaper.