NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar charged the media with not discharging its duties objectively and said the most glaring example of its failure in recent history was when it went overboard covering “Operation Bluestar” in the Golden Temple complex.
Addressing the concluding session of a three-day seminar on “The role of media in national integration” here he said the media did nothing against the tide in 1984 and went whole hog in “praising and lauding the Army action as a great heroic deed”.
The seminar was organised by the Delhi-based Centre for Development Initiative.
Had the media been on the right track it would not have overlooked Sikh traditions and history. Instead it should have brought to the notice of the people the sacrifices made by Sikhs and the harm the Army action would cause to the Sikh psyche the Prime Minister observed.
Mr Chandra Shekhar said the media had neither understood the Punjab problem in the right perspective nor gone to the root of the problem.
“After all why the name Sikhs who laid down their lives for the nation at the call of Mahatma Gandhi have taken to arms and are now listening to the advice of the Prime Minister of a foreign country” he asked.
The bogey of a foreign hand behind attempts of destabilization was a myth he said adding that time had come for introspection into the causes of the unrest in various parts of the country and take immediate remedial action.
The Prime Minister said the greatest service the media could do to the nation was to present facts without distortion and let the people judge and decide for themselves. “As of today distortions were ruling the roost” he noted.
The exemplified his point by citing press reports that he had recently met certain people whom he had not even seen for months together.
“How could the media be more aware about my activities more than myself?” he asked and added “one cannot keep on denying such distortions as one see them in print everyday”.
He said just as the politicians should know their limits the media should also learn to respect its limits and should not remain under the misconception that it decided the course of history.
The Prime Minister said if one came to talk of “bare facts” the independence of the media was almost a myth because it was unable to dissociate itself from society and the events taking place The media also raised only those in power and history stood testimony to the fact that media was never a pioneer or leader in any change. “On the contrary it also followed the usual pattern of first making fun then opposing any change and then finally accepting it when society accepted it” he said.
The seminar Chairman Dr L.M. Singhvi felt the media should not focus only on entertainment and spicy news items and there was need for a national consensus on vital issues.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 8, 1991
