Politicians are being shown up by social media. They don't like it.

One Samanth Subramanian, an author, writes about the corrosive effects of politics in India.  'Politika' in Greek means 'affairs of citzens' and 'politicus' in Latin means 'of, for, or relating to citizens'. This is perhaps what Abraham Lincoln was referring to in the Gettysburg Address when he said that the "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth". Unfortunately, politics has long ceased to be about citizens and has become an end in itself, a means for criminals to evade justice, a means to get elected any which way and a means to enrich self and family for generations. "Politics now swamps every square inch of our national discourse; it contaminates every corner of our waking existence," he writes. Apparently it started in the US in the sixties with the feminist slogan, "The personal is political", which was to include the personal problems of women in the national discourse. Politics in India has come to mean "the antic rhetoric of campaigns, to the manoeuvres of leaders, and to the efforts of parties to chivvy and stymie each other". Having begun so well the author becomes overtly political by bashing the media and the election of 2014 which led to the present BJP government of Narendra Modi. "The divisive rhetoric of that election has, like acid, chewed straight through to the cores of our lives," he rants. Has it? India was divided into states according to languages by Jawaharlal Nehru, "the last Englishman to rule India". Books have been banned in this country for as long as we can remember, long before Modi was born. The amendment to Article 66A in 2009, by the then Congress government, which would punish any criticism of the government, should make him very angry, but perhaps he has a short memory. As for the media concentrating on politics it has always been the case. We, who are old enough, remember a time when there was only the radio and every news, read by Melville de Mellow or Surajit Sen, started and finished with Nehru. The reason why the media devotes so much time on politics is because today, with a camera on every mobile phone, politicians are revealed as they are, crude, corrupt and criminal. That is why it is known as a media curcus and probably why Arnab Goswami has the highest ratings. As for social media, it certainly has its dark side but it has done more to empower ordinary people since the printing press was invented in the fifteenth century. The official media, comprising of the press, television and radio, is owned by the rich who decide how news is to be presented. Thus, Fox News, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, is hated by liberals for its right wing bias, while Donald Trump blames the 'disgusting' media for being against him. Social media has given all of us a voice. Like this blog.