Sunday, Nov 09, 2003
Sunday, Nov 09, 2003 |
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Karnataka-Bangalore
By Our Staff Reporter
Prof. Ananthamurthy was delivering a special address on the occasion of the 125th anniversary celebrations of The Hindu here. Fifty years ago, speeches made by persons like Praveen Togadia in Tumkur and Hassan would not have merited any mention in the print media. But today, Mr. Togadia was a national figure because of extensive media coverage given to him and his speeches, he said. Taking the media to task for sensationalising events, he said persons such as Narendra Modi, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and Mr. Togadia were better known than the activist, Medha Patkar. The media, he said, was exploiting whatever was considered newsworthy and this was being reflected in the coverage being devoted to "wicked" people. He said even adverse publicity was publicity for "wicked" people and regretted that a stage-managed event of a poor Muslim boy being pardoned by Mr. Modi for sending an obscene email was given wide publicity. "This act of magnanimity was so extensively highlighted that it saddened me." India, he said, was more independent before Independence than it is now. Political parties now were interested only in vote-bank politics as they ensured their survival. While some parties were intent on building a Hindu vote bank, others wanted a Muslim vote bank and a Dalit vote bank. "The vote-bank politics can succeed in achieving what great conquerors could not," he said. Calling The Hindu the best national paper, he hoped it would continue to defend the rights of minorities. He recalled being introduced to The Hindu as a schoolboy in the 1940s by his teacher. "I have been reading The Hindu since," he said. `Focus on education' The Chairman and Managing Director of Wipro Ltd., Azim H. Premji, stressed the need for the State to focus on elementary education. There were at least 50 million to 60 million children who had dropped out at the primary school level and it was imperative that they be brought back to school, he said. India, however, was a world leader in higher education and this provided it with a pool of technical talent. Moreover, there were 20 million people of Indian origin worldwide whose contribution in different fields was substantial. India was also a world leader in the knowledge economy and was ahead of several other countries in this regard. If the country was to progress, it had to build on the collective consciousness of what was right and wrong, and The Hindu could play a vital role here, he said. Moreover, India should shed its image of being a nation of holidays and concentrate on being a country where people worked hard. The Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Jagadish Shettar, said The Hindu, which strictly adhered to the highest principles of journalism, was "a good friend with an early wake up call". Politicians, he said, needed an effective yardstick to figure out where they stood and The Hindu was doing this job effectively. The reports and articles in The Hindu were informative and free of any vested interest, he added.
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