PUBLIC OPINION PART - II

Dr, Kaushik Mitra, Head, Department of Political Science, Lucknow Christian Degree College, Lucknow.. U.P. India.

PUBLIC OPINION CONTINUED......

B. A. Semester-II

Political Science -Paper I

POLITICAL THEORY-II

PUBLIC OPINION

Important Conditions required for the Growth of Public Opinion:

The following conditions favour the formation of public opinion:

1. Proper Education:

Only an educated section of the people can understand the issues of public importance and get involved in public affairs. So eradication of illiteracy must be a constant drive to secure the most effective public opinion. If the people are not educated, the clever politicians may mislead them in a disastrous way.

Education does not mean that every individual should have high degrees of the university. What is needed is sound common sense. Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great had no formal education, but he had an excellent knowledge of statecraft and sound common sense in the art of the goverance. A man should be in a position to understand what is good and bad for the general public. This is the basic or minimum education that is expected of every citizen.

2. Absence of Poverty:

Poverty is another hindrance in the healthy growth of public opinion. If the people are too poor, they cannot have the ability to understand public affairs, let alone sharing and participating in them. If a person is to struggle for filling his stomach by the toils of his labour days in and days out, how can he get time to think about the welfare of the society? The abject poverty incapacitates a person in forming public opinion.

This, however, may not misguide us to think that to share public opinion everybody must be very wealthy. What is necessary is a comfortable living in which there is no necessity of taking debt from others. A beggar in the footpath is definitely to be excluded from the realm of public opinion.

3. Unity of Interest among the People:

What is meant by unity of interest is the absence of conflict among the people with regard to their respective interests. When the people are divided over narrow communal and sectarian considerations, it creates a stumbling block for public opinion, Persons having different faith should cultivate goodwill and unity among all. When the citizens are plagued by narrow sectarian considerations, they are not entitled to become members of the club of public opinion, because their opinion will always be biased.

4. An Independent and Impartial Press:

The press has to do its role of a watch-dog by exposing the sadistic deeds in public. The newspapers must not be controlled by the government or any other agency. They should be independent and impartial. Regarding the impartial use of press, Mahatma Gandhi wrote- “The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole country-sides and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable when exercised from within.”

According to William O’Douglas, “Acceptance by government of a dissident press is a measure of the maturity of a nation.” It is the press that brings out to the public the hidden affairs which are of great public importance. It is for this reason that M. Hidayatulla said, “The press has been rightly described as the eyes and ears of the people.”

According to Vasant Sathe, “the role of the press in a democracy could never be adversary to the government as emphasized in the western countries. It was considered the fourth estate or pillar of the edifice of democracy and a hostile attitude could be disastrous to the edifice itself.”

The role of the press should be that of a true friend of the people as well as the government of the day. The criticism of a true friend is to help the friend to correct himself and not with the objective of condemning or scandalizing him.

5. Sound and Responsible Political Parties:

Political parties in the country must eschew violence, fundamentalism, sectarianism, religious bigotry, separatism and racialism or things of like nature. A model political party is one which has a healthy political outlook and economic programme. A good political party must appeal to the reason of the voters, not their emotions.