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Shekhawat calls for simultaneous polls to Parliament, Assemblies

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, on Tuesday called upon the media to promote public opinion in favour of holding simultaneous elections to Parliament and the State Assemblies so that Indian politics might get rid of criminalisation and money and muscle power.

Releasing a book, "The Indian Media: Illusion, Delusion and Reality", published in memory of the veteran journalist Prem Bhatia, Mr. Shekhawat said elections were being held quite frequently like festivals and this had made it difficultZ for right-minded people to contest them and serve the country.

"Elections are becoming more and more centred around caste or region, making it difficult for any government to take hard decisions in public interest," he said.

Recalling that the idea was first mooted by him about three years ago and that India Today had conducted a survey which showed 69 per cent of the readers in favour of this view, Mr. Shekhawat said noted journalist Inder Malhotra, who is also the Secretary-General of the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, had also written an article in The Asian Age stressing the need for simultaneous elections to the legislative bodies.

Paying rich tributes to the late Prem Bhatia and describing him as a "journalist who expressed the concerns of the masses at large in his writings", Mr. Shekhawat said while now there was a proliferation of media, its impact on public opinion had come down. He said commercialisation of media had affected its credibility.

The book on Prem Bhatia is a compilation of articles on various aspects of functioning of the media, its reach and impact, by a number of eminent authors, thinkers and journalists and has been edited by Asha Rani Mathur.

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