Blog site of iVarta.com » Entries tagged with "Indian Media"
Lessons for all from Election 2012
“The one-eyed mollusc on the ocean floor and I have the same knowledge of the universe.” – Aldous Huxley (This could only be a rough approximation of what the great scientist had said of his knowledge of the universe as it is quoted from memory and may not be an exact reproduction.) If Huxley had the humility to confess the limitations of his knowledge of the universe, our psephologists and television presenters should be humbled by hubris – at least in hindsight – for getting half of it wrong in their predictions of Election 2012. After all the number crunching, panel discussions and marathon debates, for most of them it was a story of hits and misses. TheCongress (Indian National Congress) did not surge as predicted and the BJP was not relegated to the … Read entire article »
Federalism and National Security
No one can deny that the US has greater federalism than most nations and more certainly than India. Each of its fifty states is fiercely independent and zealously guards its turf. The US also has the strongest anti-terror laws in the world and sees no contradiction between federalism and national security. In the aftermath of a rare terrorist attack on US soil in September 2001, the US administration strengthened its intelligence gathering organs. The enactment of the PATRIOT Act in 2001 was the first step. In fact ‘PATRIOT’ is acronym for ‘Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism’. This was followed by enacting the Homeland Security Act in 2002. The objective of these acts is to collect, collate and process intelligence and prevent terror related activities. The upshot … Read entire article »
Kashmiri Pandits: A Forsaken Minority
Another anniversary of the exodus that made the Kashmiri Pandits orphans of history stared at us on January 19. The Pandits, were uprooted from their home and hearth and cast about as refugees in their own homeland. The tragedy and tribulations that befell this unfortunate community for the last twenty two years include some of the most heart-rending stories. Theirs is a story of humanitarian disaster of unprecedented magnitude, but strangely, had gone unnoticed by the rest of the world and more importantly by their own countrymen here in India. As K.P.S. Gill, former police chief of Punjab who rid his state of separatist militancy put it, “[...] one of the reasons for the apathy [of the rest of the world] could be the non-violent nature of the community itself.” … Read entire article »
Book Review: A worm’s-eye view of ‘The Statesman’ & ‘Times of India’
Book Review: “JS & The Times of my life – a worm’s-eye view of Indian Journalism” - Suraiaya, Jug. (2011). Chennai. Tranquebar Press, Westland Ltd. Pages: x + 340. Price Rs: 495. What is the role of the media in reflecting public thought? Should it merely reflect or attempt to shape it? Should it or should it not play the role of an Ombudsman in exposing venality and corruption in public life? If Arun shouries’s debut as a journalist at Indian Express provided some answers to these unremitting questions, there are others who differed with him. Girilal Jain of the ‘Times of India’ described him and others of his ilk at the Indian Express as the ‘Galahads of the press’. If we suspected that for the ‘Times of India’ the issue was more of … Read entire article »
Congress’s own “Gott Strafe India”- Baba Ramdev – Ramlila Debate
The media have not yet got around to denouncing UPA, but that will come soon, no doubt, since the bonafide Citizens are already bringing out billingsgate attack on Congress ,UPA and the Delhi Sarkar, in their emails, blogs, & tweets, for Truncating the Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev’s anti-corruption movement. The precariously perched UPA, lead by a factious congress party, and the loathsome attack on Baba Ramdev was reminiscent of pre 1947 independence resistance against the imperial British. Taking an inventory of sorts, where Baba went wrong is now unforgivable, as he escaped by a hair’s breadth. The largest democracy, had instantaneously become the largest dictator for nearly eight hours to begin with, with the omnipresent section 144, a draconian formulate, imposed arbitrarily by the British, before 1947, when ever their authority was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Corruption, India, Media, Politics
India Corruption: The Lokpal Bill
Corruption in India and the Lokpal Bill After independence India has been witness to a lot of corruptions in the last 60 years. The reasons for this were many. From the year 1950’s till late1980’s the economy of India was under socialist-inspired policies such as extensive regulation, protectionism and public ownership, which led to the slow growth of the Indian economy. Then there was also a “Licence Raj” a constant corruption occurring in the form of bureaucratic controls. During the Licence Raj system all kinds of free market mechanisms were thwarted, and corruption emerged as an illegitimate price mechanism which was created by the politico-economic regime. To solve this problem the Government had appointed a committee under the chairmanship the then Indian Union Home Secretary N.N.Vohra who studied the problem and stated … Read entire article »
Filed under: Corruption, India, Media
Media Ethics In Britain and India
On May 14, 2004 Piers Morgan was ‘fired’ as editor of Britain’s ‘biggest selling newspaper’, “DAILY MIRROR” over the issue of some pictures he published in the paper on Saturday, May 1. The pictures were of British soldiers of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment abusing Iraqi civilians, more specifically one of which published on the front page of a British soldier in full modern battle-gear urinating on a hooded Iraqi. The pictures instantly raised a furor in the political establishment as well as the media. The concern was not only about the veracity of the pictures but their effect on the morale of British soldiers in Iraq already under fire from the Al Qaeda. Alastair Campbell, Director of communications at No. 10 Downing Street … Read entire article »
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