“If there would be no debates in Parliament and Cabinet, it will be destructive for democracy. And if no medicine found to cure the disease, the situation will be worse in coming days,” warned Varadarajan.
Ghazanfar Abbas, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, Sep 20: Concerned at the diminishing role of media due to political interference and pressure from the government in recent years, Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of The Wire, on Tuesday said that media is not doing sincere debates on the issues affecting people at larger level. He also cautioned over the recent trend of bypassing by the government of key institutions of governance even for major decisions.
“Media is not working the way it should. It is not raising the questions with sincerity as it should. There are debates on baseless issues rather than real and basic issues. Media is more interested in debating flag-hoisting at Madrasas than debating how children died at Gorakhpur Hospital. There was a massive farmer protest held in Sikar (Rajasthan) but there was now news in TV and newspapers,” Varadarajan said.
“And those courageous journalists who raise questions are questioned and called with various names such as ‘presstitute’. Such titles are given by the ministers,” he criticised.
“Government is making all efforts so that media do not function properly. A big part of media has become ‘Godi Media’ (puppet media) for advertisements and the rest are being pressurized.”
Former Editor of The Hindu, Varadarajan was speaking at a program on “Safeguarding the Constitution: Are the Pillars of Democracy Crumbling?” at the Constitution Club of India here on Tuesday.
Besides media, he also explained how restrictions are being imposed on debates and critical discussions in educational institutions.
“Like media, educational institutions are also facing same pressure. Recently many academic programs were cancelled in various universities. A discussion called to discuss constitution in Allahabad University, was cancelled in last hours despite the fact it was permitted earlier. Even major universities like Delhi University are facing restrictions. Delhi School of Economics didn’t provide hall to the students who wanted to organise a discussion on the Supreme Court’s verdict on Right to Privacy,” he told.
“When this is the situation at major and renowned universities, one can only guess about the situation at small colleges, universities in other towns,” he said.
He also expressed concern on how institutions of governance are being bypassed and debates and discussions are not taking place there.
“Constitutional checks and balances of Parliament, Cabinet and other institutions have seemingly failed. If not, then how an illogical decision of demonetization was taken so easily without any consultation and even without any discussion at the cabinet,” he questioned.
“The whole country is still facing its bad consequences. At least such matters must be discussed in the cabinet. If only one man’s decision is supreme, it means system of governance has been destroyed,” he averred.
“If there would be no debates in Parliament and Cabinet, it will be destructive for democracy. And if no medicine found to cure the disease, the situation will be worse in coming days,” warned Varadarajan.
