Role of Opposition Party

This was translated for a gujarati publication

Ever since the opposing party concept in democracy was implemented, their function was to keep a check on the actions of the ruling party. It was to assist to bring the ruling party to the map of the world.  The opposing party was not envisioned to detriment the positive economic benefit being brought by the ruling party but highlight and amend the wrong steps taken by the ruling party. However, opposite parties have taken upon themselves to malign the ruling party on every occasion and it appears that the power to raise their voice is only used to put forth their own agenda rather than change the course of the country towards betterment. Local leaders of the opposite party are the most active in demeaning the efforts of the ruling party’s initiatives. This brings about the negative impact of living in a democratic environment where right of freedom of speech is being a tool of abuse.  Most prevalent form of this abuse of freedom of speech is through newspapers. While newspapers exist to highlight current events there is no maturity in publishing the news.  Today’s newspapers exist to sell themselves. In this opinionated world filled with various media platforms such as twitter, facebook and message forwards, controversial news are the best selling news and media thrives on such news without validating their meaning. While in the US, newspapers are only one of the various tools of gaining information apart from social media online, most of India still uses newspapers as their primary source of getting information. Hence, instead of highlighting the efforts and initiatives of the ruling party, newspapers end up showcasing only the controversial part often ignoring the development which is seen. Where the founders of constitution envisioned the opposite party’s role to correct the ruling party as it governed our country, what is being created is a ruckus with parties trying to highlight only their voices instead of moving towards a common goal of reforming India through constructive criticism.