Clips from the sting operation aired by the channel showed many pollsters agreeing to produce favourable numbers by leveraging the so-called margin of error, a statistical concept meant to indicate the quality of sampling and the accuracy to be expected from survey results. “For a price, the prediction of seats tally can be changed to suit the interests of political parties.
The agencies have no qualms accepting even black money for this purpose,” the channel, News Express, said in a statement. Polling agencies approached by the channel include QRS, CVoter, Ipsos India, MMR and DRS, apart from a clutch of littleknown ones. Representatives from these agencies are seen responding variously to the undercover reporters, who posed as consultants for political parties.
India Today magazine and Times NOW have said they were suspending opinion polls conducted by C-Voter, pending an explanation from the agency.
Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party called for an investigation. Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal urged the Election Commission to urgently take up the matter. “This (the expose) is a very serious development. It shows these agencies are trying to manipulate public opinion. It is nothing but paidnews, manufactured to serve vested interests.
This is an extremely serious offense that warrants a full-fledged inquiry… I also call upon the Election Commission to take all effective steps to ensure such shady operators are not allowed to manipulate the public opinion in the run up to the elections.” In November last year, the Election Commission had written to the government asking that a law be passed to restrict release of opinion poll results after the notification of elections. Fourteen out of fifteen national parties had agreed to the proposal.
BJP opposed the proposal, saying such a move would impinge on freedom of expression. “We got the idea for the sting operation from the Election Commission letter. And then the fact that there seemed to be a new opinion poll almost every day now. Everybody is a pollster and a psephologist it seems,” said Vinod Kapri, editor in chief of News Express.
“The very first thing I said is that C-Voter won’t do this, Yashwant Deshmukh is not available to do this. Why are they not showing that? I’m explaining the concept of margin of error and talking about the limitations of the poll. Am I anywhere saying that I’m ready to fudge the figures?”
The Economic Times is owned by the Times Group, which also owns Times Now. Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi said the sting operation confirmed the party’s long-held position that the integrity of opinion polls was suspect. Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Ashutosh said the tapes should be investigated and those found guilty should be prosecuted. “It is the channels which engage agencies and the agencies which conduct these opinion polls.
It is up to them to go into the whys and wherefores. We haven’t yet demanded a ban because these are just opinion polls, and people vote on their own considerations,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said. Most recent opinion polls gave the BJP a significant lead for the elections due in a few months.
February 26, 2014 at 10:03 pm
China prospered without your dummy democracy.
You’re brainwashed to believe that “voting in elections = democracy”.
In democracy it’s your vote that counts; In “feudalism” it’s your count that votes.