Mudslinging politicians

With the Lok Sabha election campaign gaining momentum, political leaders are seen indulging more in mud-slinging against one another rather than trying to win the hearts and votes of the electorate. They are calling each other names, often using demeaning and derogatory words, which sometimes amount to defamation. There was a time when election campaigns had a class of their own. While meetings were once upon a time like eloquence contests with the leaders delivering wonderful speeches that, when written down, would have become amazing literary essays, in most cases, political leaders are nowadays taking to calling each other names. There are also instances of making personal attacks and even dragging in the names of relatives like the parents, wives, or husbands of the opponents. Political mudslinging is a form of negative campaigning that has the metaphorical implication that candidates or politicians are “throwing mud” at each other. This is also called smear campaigning or mudslinging campaigning. It involves a large use of “ad hominem” attacks, or character attacks against political opponents. A political attack is a political move made by a candidate, person, or group associated with a candidate or incumbent, during which the attackers attempt to make their political opponent(s) appear incapable or incompetent. The attack can be toward the person’s policies, or the attack can be toward the person’s character. Though the common people enjoy healthy political debates, what politicians fail to realise is that when the attack is on personal character and when mud-slinging becomes the rule of the game, then the common people stop enjoying it. Studies have shown that voters may become frustrated when politicians focus their time and energy on attacking their opponents instead of promoting their own policies. Throwing insults and abuses at one another may also disappoint the voters, who are in reality keen on hearing how the candidates will tackle crucial issues.