The CEC's reservations about the advertisements are very much valid. There is no doubt that the practice is hardly ethical. Inasmuch the real benficiary of such ads is some political party (NDA, in this case), the expense should be rightly borne by the party itself.
And there are other practices which are equally objectionable. Announcing sops with impending elections in view is as ethically objectionable as keeping unpalatable measures in abeyance - again with impending elections in view. There should be some kind of regulatory mechanism to ensure that no sops or doles are announced within one year before an election and that unpalatable measures (like hiking up petrol prices, hiking up electricity charges, withdarawing subsidies, etc.)kept in abeyance are not sprung on us within one year after an election. Stringent measures should be taken to ensure that politicians do not make fools of the public and make a mockery of the political system.
We expect governments to be on the right side of ethics, and this can be ensured only if ethically sound politicans rule us. If we allow crooks to rule us, crooked will be their ways and the public will be the victims.
