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Re: Is India a model Democracy?
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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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Hello ,
first of all let me extend my NEW YEAR greetings to all of you.
It is always sad to see we Indians falling prey to alien propaganda and
dis-information.
Views and concepts become distorted when NOT seen in the correct light or
seen in partial circumstances.
Sir, NOBODY in his right mind shall oppose the concepts of FREEDOM and
DEMCRACY and all the paraphernalia that goes with it today, which includes
Human rights, freedom of press etc.
However, let us understand the following :
Can you imagine the kind of derogatory and demeaning statements that would
have got published and propagated by the Indian (?) newspapers and channels
if we had even half the kind of tamasha that US had while electing its
President?
However their FREE ( ?) press got away by mentioning only few facts and
stating that this by itself is the strength of the GREAT AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
BS.
The fact is that their press never critices their own country.............
and it does not matter if they do it on their own or made to do by ah. aha..
not so subtle means.
US had promised that the Serbians shall return to their homeland by X-mas of
1999......... even 2000 has gone by and nothing has hapened
..............where is CNN and ABC today to discuss this issue........ which
can be blatantly embarrasing to US today?
Sir, issues must be seen in HOLISTIC fashion always.
The local FM's have not yet proved their credentials and why do they want to
braodcast NEWS? are you not aware that how much of infratsructure is
required for this? Are these not the same FM's licensee's who begged to the
Govt. to reduce their guarantee fees?
So, just like Gold is not wieghed by a spring balance, every small
democratic issue is NOT to be weighed by the US democratic spring balance,
whose percentage of error may be more than the value of the material itself.
Cool down, all you activists. Whats good for the goose is NOT always good
for the gander.
Their is a time phase in the history of every nation. All cannot be
synchronised at the same time.
If a musical RAGA does not have one note. say 're' . does it men the raga is
not music?
NO. Music is created by combination of notes............. some are played
again and agin and some are PURPOSELY ignored. Thats music.
Purposeful ignoring of some irritant notes is therefore perfectly justified
in the managing of the contemporary history. DOnt doubt your own democracy.
iT IS SOLID.
Youmay be doubting yourself otherwise.
THANK YOU.
SUNIL PHADKE
-----Original Message-----
From: Padmanabha Rao <kvprao@igidr.ac.in>
To: debate@indiapolicy.org <debate@indiapolicy.org>
Date: Monday, January 01, 2001 1:09 AM
Subject: Re: Is India a model Democracy?
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>Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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>On Sun, 31 Dec 2000 vamsi@siliconcorp.com wrote:
> What I would like to know is how the Government expects to produce
> quality regional news better than the regional FM stations which are
> empowered to do so? In essence, the population remains under the strict
> control of the center while they remain ignorant of regional concerns
> which are more important for local democratic institutions to function
> efficiently.
>
>On the other hand, what too about the irresponsible folks handling the
>private-sector Newsrooms and Newspapers, who make (and I suppose
>deliberately) events as News, without going into any analyses/syntheses
>whatsoever. Nepal in the immediate time, and almost all violent histories
>earlier, were as much m-a-d-e by the reckless media as by the actors
>there. Yes, the media has become the message today. And it's horrendous.
>If we are any the wiser, its seems eminently right for a government to
>establish a regulatory system when it comes to News and Reports, on
>FM Networks.
>
>The point is very obvious: FM is LOCAL and INSTANTANEOUS. And there's no
>positive social welfare in CurrentAffairs on FM. "News and Current
>Affairs". That's where the problem of handling time gets in. And the
>private-sector Information-Disseminators have every short-term incentive
>to abuse it. Mind you, reporting on the Kashmir fiasco since in the 90s is
>not CurrentAffairs for the FMs, but what they might do is to tell you that
>40 people got bombed in Doda district two minutes ago. Tell me what's the
>USE of this information, except perhaps, other circumstances contributing,
>it might flare up the town, Doda, and maybe soon Delhi and Dadar. There's
>no positive social welfare.
>
>I suppose we can distinguish the products that Information-Disseminators
>provide, in terms of the time-scale and apply regulation there. It's
>what the government is trying to do.
>
>The reasoning is quite obvious, I wonder why the debate. The simple tale
>below is not necessary, but for the record.
>
>I think there's very little *USE* (and therefore VALUE), for instant news
>to a citizen who is quite removed from the point of action and whose loss
>in value is perhaps in the long run. And in the long run, not only are we
>all dead but also the system gets back in valuable shape (we either
>believe in the capacity of a system to drive itself to greater welfare or
>we nuke ourselves morrow; there's no rationale in believing the system is
>rotting and one continuing to exist without doing. Sometimes doing lies in
>not-doing.). So, say, if a bunch of lunatic jains and lunatic buddhists
>are killing each other in a locality in Bangalore, at 3.15 p.m., it is of
>no value for anybody to know it *instantly*, and the Bangalore TimesFM
>shouldn't like to report it, and yet it will if allowed. Because it can
>cash in my (probable) weakness to ill-transcend time. It can cash in the
>geographics, the demographics, the economics, etc. and do such
>instantaneous reports that are profitable over time for itself. It's an
>active explosive. Probably it's not an explosive at all. Who KNOWS ? The
>EQUAL possibility justifies the regulation. If the producers were to
>somehow inform the constituency that they are all
>ever-and-do-gooders-for-all-time-to-come then perhaps the regulation is
>not required. Well the word itself exists because the other thing doesn't
>or is atleast presumed not to exist.
>
>In the instance if the FM does report the CurrentAffairs at that 3.15 p.m.
>I cannot *instantly* call up my MLA and tell him to get the government to
>put it out *instantly*, nor can I *instantly* DO anything about it as a
>lone individual. I can DO something by being deaf to the instant news
>however and not contribute to the gory melee. (of course let's not assume
>the FM can reach where the local police station cannot; and if it did, the
>FM ought to be getting the News to the police and not the shopkeeper ten
>mile away.) It DOES NOT contribute anything, except more sales to those
>producers. And no, violence (or conflicts, and actually everything since
>everything that needs a report implies there is a conflict somewhere) is
>an externality that should not be allowed to profit an individual at the
>cost to the community. I will however value a thorough report later in the
>week or fortnight or the month or the year that will *enable* me to DO
>something. I will expect it to be a nonpartisan report (not just
>non-government), if I support a good democrasy.
>
>
>Thanks for you patience.
>
>Padmanabha Rao
>
>
>
>
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>This is the National Debate on System Reform. debate@indiapolicy.org
>Rules, Procedures, Archives: ../debate/
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>
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This is the National Debate on System Reform. debate@indiapolicy.org
Rules, Procedures, Archives: ../debate/
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