Paid news misleads the electorate, harms the prospects of genuine candidates with modest financial resources, thus culminating in unfair competition, and contributes to discriminatory public policy decisions in the long run, causing criminalisation of politics (“Pay to publish,” June 29). This turns the so-called public representatives into a mafia, sustained on money and muscle power. There is a way out: amend the Representative of the People Act (1951), categorise paid news as a criminal offence and seriously consider the Indrajit Gupta Committee’s suggestion of state funding of elections to curb undervalued information on assets and liabilities by candidates.
Aijaz Hussain Malik,
Baramulla