The Hindu : Encourage more people to vote, Modi tells media

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

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Encourage more people to vote, Modi tells media

By Our Special Correspondent

SURAT, MARCH 27 . The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, today hit out at a section of the media for playing a ``destructive role'' and advised the electronic and print media to encourage more people to vote.

Mr. Modi was presiding over a function to launch the Surat edition of the Gujarati daily, Divya Bhaskar. While constructive criticism was welcome and necessary in a democracy, the country now saw a horde of ``accusers'' who got away with ``baseless accusations'' against people in power, he said. This would pose a threat to the democratic edifice of the country.

He said it had been observed that while the poor and the illiterate participated in voting with enthusiasm, it was usually the middle class newspaper readers who preferred to stay indoors on polling day. The media should take it up as a challenge and ensure that none of the readers abstained from voting.

The communication technology was fast growing, Mr. Modi said. The time had for the media to re-define its role in nation-building. No advantage would accrue from denouncing everything in the present and running after an elusive future, he said. The Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, asked the media to stop ``exaggerating'' and present before the people the true facts.

The media, he said, should write on issues that ``generate hope'' among the people rather than highlighting only the ``weaknesses''.The Congress Working Committee member and former Foreign Secretary, Natwar Singh, wanted the media to give more coverage to international news to broaden the horizons of its readers.The Rural Development Minister, Kashiram Rana, said newspapers must devote more space to the ``silent revolution'' in the countryside. ``I really wonder... reading the newspapers, it seem that things are happening only in elite urban centres, as if the rural India that makes up 70 per cent of the country does not exist for the media.''

The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, had a lighthearted exchange with Mr. Modi when he pointed out that Surat was once a part of Maharashtra. Mr. Modi responded by saying that Shivaji had also ``targeted'' Surat. Mr. Shinde, turning to him, said: ``But I have not come to raid Surat.''

The Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, said newspapers should not be run as mere commercial establishments, but as a strong vehicle to create awareness among the people.

When the executive had been branded ``corrupt,'' and the judiciary was also not functioning as well as it should, the responsibility was now on the media to challenge social evils and reform the society, he said.

Two other Chief Ministers, Uma Bharati of Madhya Pradesh, and Vasundhara Raje Scindia of Rajasthan, could not make it to the function.

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