“Criticise corrupt politicians by all means, make people angry about corrupt politicians, but do not create revulsion and disgust among people about the political system itself, because political system in continues to be the main pillar of democracy,” cautioned Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar here on Sunday.
Speaking at a media seminar on “Conscientious Journalism” organised by Goa Union of Journalists in association with 'One World', a civil society organization, the Chief Minister cautioned that good people will not engage with the political system if they find that “everybody is relentlessly hounded.”
“Moreover,” he said, “A feeling of disgust and revulsion against political system is not in the interest of the country… (it) is dangerous for the democratic system and polity.”
Mr. Parrikar further told the gathering comprising largely of media-persons that politicians, after all, are accountable to the people through elections and politicians have been taught lessons by the electorate on a number of counts.
Speaking about fast-paced media where at time truth is sacrificed in the hurry to break news, Mr. Parrikar, who has been in the eye of the storm for criticizing journalists, advised the media, ”Don't allow truth to be sacrificed on the altar of breaking news.”
Acknowledging media's contribution in his success in politics, Mr. Parrikar said he has never hesitated to criticise the media, yet never interfered in its functioning. He lamented that “understanding capacity and quality has been going down in media with exponential growth or rise in sheer numbers.”
While explaining that literacy and education did not necessarily mean “knowledge, he asserted that “knowledge and training” are both important even for journalists.
Senior journalist and columnist Patricia Pereira Shetty was felicitated by the Chief Minister on the occasion in the presence of senior journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, senior journalist Sanjeev Latkar and others.
