"..Frankly though, one is weary of reducing corruption to a zero sum UPA versus NDA political battle. The average Indian citizen is not interested in knowing who is more corrupt - the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra or the BJP government in Karnataka. The Left may have a better track record, but let us not forget that their prime ally in Tamil Nadu is Jayalalithaa who still faces serious corruption cases against her. Taking the moral high ground may work in a television studio debate, it's unlikely to attract cynical voters. What the aam admi seeks (and presumably the UPA still claims to be an 'aam admi' government) is a readiness to act against the corrupt and make examples of them. Your leader, Sonia Gandhi, claims to her parliamentary party that the Congress has 'acted' against corruption. Can the notion of 'action' be defined please? Forcing a minister to resign is not action, prosecuting him would be. Handing over a case to the CBI is not action, ensuring that the investigation is taken to its logical conclusion would be. The nation is not a set of gullible MPs who will be taken in by rhetorical flourishes. We don't need to become a lynch mob, but the fact is an alert and enraged Indian citizenry will no longer settle for fine words alone.."
Now that Rajdeep has taken one right step, I urge him to take another. Eminent RTI activist Afroz Alam Sahil has demanded that media be brought under the purview of the revolutionary RTI Act in order to bring transparency in the fourth pillar of democracy. Here is what Sahil had to say on Twocircles.Net.
“Bringing the media under the domain of RTI will only strengthen the democratic structure and bring about transparency and accountability in the media. Now when the same media advocates transparency and accountability in executive, judiciary and legislature then why it should isolate itself from the same standards of transparency and accountability?” questioned Sahil.“Media is hardly accountable to anybody, and that’s why many journalists and media houses have excelled in the art of corruption,” said Sahil adding: “RTI will, to a large extent, curb corruption in media.”
Rajdeep Sardesai is the President of the Editors' Guild of India. It should be clear that citizens are also now concerned about corruption in the media and desire firm action. Will Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai please also champion this cause to bring the media under RTI with the same concern for corruption in the media?
