“Society has become silent to injustices”

The civil society had become silent to injustices in society, said R. Murali, Principal of The Madura College, here on Saturday.

He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Social justice and civil society duties’ organised by Evidence, a city-based non-governmental organisation. According to Mr. Murali, the inaction of the civil society has resulted in rise in number of injustices.

Speaking on the responsibilities of media, A. Kadir, executive director of Evidence, said many media organisations were keen on publishing and telecasting “sensational’’ news without proper research.

Henri Tiphagne, executive director of People’s Watch, said governments should refrain from targeting rights-based non-governmental organisations. “It is essential for the government to monitor organisations that indulge in malpractices. However, most often it is the righteous organisations that are targeted,” he said.

Senior journalist B. Thirumalai noted that the number of Members of Parliaments with criminal background was on the rise. “A total of 186 MPs have criminal cases pending against them. The number of educated MPs is on the decline. In 2009, about 80 per cent of the MPs were graduates. Now it is 74 per cent,” he said.

Twenty-six resolutions were passed at the end of the seminar. Elected representatives should hold grievance meetings in their constituencies once in six months and State-level committees should be constituted to monitor functioning of MPs and MLAs, it was suggested. Fixed hours should be introduced for field work of elected representatives and their properties assessed every year, one of the resolutions said.

The act of Chennai City Police in constituting committee to monitor media organisations was condemned and action sought against media houses that did not follow the code of conduct listed by the Press Council of India (PCI). It should constitute a legal committee to deal with false defamation cases slapped against media, the resolution added.