The spate of violent attacks and communal trouble has adversely affected India’s standing among other nations of the world, senior Congress leader A.K.Antony has said. He was speaking after presenting the K.Vijayaraghavan memorial award here on Monday.
“The India of Buddha and Gandhi is dying with every passing minute. Even in times of poverty, we have stood with our heads held high, in front of the world. We were known for our tolerance and diversity and was respected as a model liberal democracy. But, now we are slowly moving back to the dark ages,” he said.
Mr.Antony said that the country has a tradition of being a safe place to live for people of all religions and even non-believers.
“There is an atmosphere of fear and intolerance in the country at present. People’s constitutional rights are being trampled upon, as they have lost they freedom to eat the food of their choice, speak the language of their choice and follow the religion of their choice. The media, which has to play an important role in reclaiming what we have lost, is now playing to the tune of the government,” he said.
Delivering the K.Vijayaraghavan memorial lecture, Public Works Minister G.Sudhakaran said that media freedom has been surrendered to the capitalistic forces. He said that even social media, which is a far more democratic space than traditional media, is also under the control of such forces, due to which the focus has been on peripheral issues.
“Value is these days attributed to anything based on the money involved. We celebrate movies made on a budget of ₹1,000 crores, even though there is nothing to gain for us from such movies. On the other side are films made for less than ₹1 crore, which can make people think. Why can’t this huge money be spent for some welfare activity? Amid all this, we are losing our diversity and the small people are all ignored,” said Mr.Sudhakaran.
Calling himself the biggest victim of ‘breaking news’ in the State, he said that wilfully targeting someone is cowardice.
“The journalists these days are interested in only the hot topic of that particular day. If media wants, it can solve more than half of our country’s problems,” he said.
