Re: Is India a model Democracy?

[Padmanabha Rao <kvprao@igidr.ac.in>]

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On Sun, 7 Jan 2001 Npsingh123@aol.com wrote:
 The reason why government is lukewarm to truly Independent broadcasts
 and greater freedom on the internet is because of the fear that the hold
 of corrupt politicians and corrupt government on every aspect of our
 lives will be considerably weakened if we have a real freedom of
 expression.

Corruption is a procedural issue and cannot be called "CurrentNews". It
would be a current issue in the polity -meaning for a period of time
longer than atleast a day- and such (dis)coverage would be within the
definition of public investigation. "CurrentNews" needs to be defined. I
think the definition would have in terms of the content and its
'timelessness'. It can become a never-ending thing if we harp on what
constitutes 'time' and I guess there does not exist one public definition
of 'time'. God, this leads to nowhere. Conflicts occurs for the simple
reason that each of us transcend 'time' or understand it differently. That
is not at all a problem. But for a public body such as a government, whose
purpose it is to safeguard the interests of ALL the people simultaneously,
it will go about with a definition of 'time' or 'timelessness' depending
on how competent it is to contain those conflicts. This is all plain
thought. So, we can all either believe in a government for ALL people or a
government for a FEW people (the few who will give those definitions). I
argue for the former, and so abide by the definitions it presently gives
and applies that in the policy of not allowing CurrentNews coverage by
FMs.

 Of course with greater freedom comes greater responsibility. But our
 system of laws and courts is quite capable of dealing with any serious
 deviations from responsible broadcasting.

Yes, of course. Ten years after the killings are past. I like to live in
peace every moment.

Thanks.

Padmanabha Rao



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