150TH ISSUE

A DATE WITH TIME - 8TH SEPT. 2012

On 8th Sept. 2012, ISSUES & CONCERNS formally released its 150th issue at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College Udupi. Function was presided over by Padmabhushan Dr M.V.Kamath. Former Supreme Court Justice and former Karnataka Lokayukta was the Chief Guest and released the milestone issue in the presence of a packed gathering. Other Guests of Honour were Mr Gautham Pai, M.D. of Manipal Technologies Ltd., and Mr Ronald Fermnandes, Deccan Herald Bureau Chief in Mangalore. All Guests spoke highly of the efforts by I & C to keep the issues, plaguing the people and the nation, alive in the public domain and wished it long and fruitful existence. Mr Shriyan, the editor presented a perspective of the journey of I & C to its 150th milestone. Earlier on 31st August, an elocution competition was held at the same venue for degree students of Udupi & Dakshina Kannada districts.Nine of the participants namely Joyen D'Souza (I), Akanksha Hebbar (II). Shravana J. (III), Sudesh Kumar (III). Consolation Prizes were won by Vinutha, Renita D'Souza, Karthik, Geeva, Rashmi Fernandes won the prizes. The topic was "TOWARDS A FAIR SOCIETY - WHERE INDIA WENT WRONG?" Along with the release function, prizes for winners were distributed by Mr Gautham Pai and Ronald Fernandes.
Detailed talks by the editor and the guests are reproduced for the information of patrons and readers in the following pages.

President of the function, Padmabhushan Dr M.V. Kamath, Chief Guest Justice N.Santosh Hegde, Media Moghul Mr Gautham Pai, Bureau Chief of Deccan Herald Mr Ronald Fernandes, distinguished gathering, media friends, ladies & gentlemen.

I am indeed honoured to be sharing some of my deepest thoughts on our honest media effort, ISSUES & CONCERNS, as it arrived at the 150th milestone.

Among the joys of life is a sense of perspective looking back over the shoulder, the labyrinth you journeyed to cover the distance. As we look back, it is indeed a matter of deep satisfaction that we managed to remain vibrant and alive, despite little support in the competitive media world and that we managed to leave our footprints on the sands of time, in our own quite way. Despite nay sayers, there were souls, very generous, who were both graceful and kind. To all of them it is a very big thank you.

There were many, who asked as to WHY ISSUES & CONCERNS? as we started off in Nov. 2000.

On Jan12, 2006, one ALISTER PAREIRA, a son of a rich and therefore a powerful man, in the early hours of that fateful day, driving his limousine under the influence of alcohol, well past midnight, runs over 15 labourers sleeping on the pavement near Liberty Cinema, in South Mumbai. Seven of them were crushed to death.

A police panchanama, FIR, court case followed. The Session Court in Mumbai, sentenced this inebriated young killer of 7 hapless poor men, for a mere 6 months in jail, exactly 15 months later, on 15th April 2007. So it was not even one month punishment per killing or can we call it murder. Can you comprehend the cruelty not just insensitivity of this judgement? Do you think it is difficult to surmise that this young murderer must have paid thru’ his nose to get this judgement? There were 3 parties to the case, the victims, who were poor and therefore defenceless and hence cannot fight, the state police, who could have made a case of culpable homicide, but didn’t. Then the judiciary, with the full knowledge of what happened and how it happened, and seven innocents paid with their life on a wagabondish life of a spoilt brat. But the court decided to play the ball, on the letter, rather than the spirit, of the law, and compromised such a serious heinous crime as mere ‘reckless driving’, and reduced the punishment to a joke by giving 6 months in jail-for the gruesome killing of 7. Are you shocked?!

Even more shocking was, this drunken spoilt driver challenged even that 6 months conviction. But Bombay High Court on Sept. 6, 2007 confirms his conviction and enhance the jail term to 3 years. More aggrieved, money bags of  Pareira family, knocks at Supreme Court,  and Apex Court too confirms, 3 years jail term, with a remark that  “Sentence could not be enhanced as Maharashtra government had not filed any appeal to increase the jail term”.

Culpable homicide attracts a jail term of 10 years. At the end of it all when this drunk driver surrendered before the session court, to undergo, the remaining 2 years and 11 months of the 3 years imprisonment, he was sent back home. Do you know why?  “a certified copy of the Supreme Court order cancelling his bail had not reached the police/ or court in Mumbai”. I am asking, Where is our 24x7 media? This is Yeh Mera India. 

Where officially government weeps for the aam aadmi-the poor man, but otherwise always side the rich. A drunken youth kills 7 poor men. With 8 seriously injured,   under the influence of alcohol. In all fairness, he should have been made to pay for it, not merely in cash but also by suffering a long jail term with hard work, to make him realize, what it means to kill somebody by his wanton act. In the event police and judiciary, with due respect to Justice Hegde, joins hands to commit a judicial hara-kiri. However when the highest court of the land decide to take the call, it passes the buck on the state, which conveniently kept quite, and failed to make this Alister Pariera pay for his sins. May be he is well connected, and after all, who were the killed ones? Poor, faceless, defenceless & voiceless, even 24x7 media, the watchdog, ignored them. It was, as if, all were working for this powerful moneyed accused. As in the words of Justice Katju, the present Press Council Chairman, media is alive only to sensation and titillation. And we are a democracy-of the people, by the people and for the people. The state did not even enforce a modicum of fairness even in compensations for the victims. So what right we have of accusing Union Carbide and its chief Warren Andreson for not paying enough compensation to the victims of world’s worst industrial disaster? when we are naked in our own backyard? Haven’t our state and the judiciary even then, 28 years ago, erred in favour of the powerful and the moneyed by returning the verdict of mere ‘NEGLECT’ instead of man slaughter, where some 20000 were killed with half a million maimed in different degrees. Did the 24x7 and main stream media keep the issue alive? 

Sometime in 2006, one Mr Bharath Jagdev, from British Guyana visited India. He was coming to see his ancestral home and his people. His grand father Ram Jiyawan, from the backward Lonia Community was sent to British Guyana, as an indentured labour in 1912. Three generation down the line, this Mr Jagdev had come to India to look for his roots. In 1912, this Lonia’s in Nawawa village in North West Bihar were only 2 households, in the intervening almost 100 years, it multiplied to 25 households. They were landless labourers then, and they were still landless labourers in 2006 as well. Ten Development plans left them untouched. Nothing had really changed for this community, except their number. But of course, this Mr Bharath Jagdev, who came calling on India from half the globe away, was the president of British Guyana. For the 1st citizen of British Guyana, it was an absolute embarrassment seeing the distance covered by him, in the realization of his own human potential, and the lot of his own people who were, like other millions of Indians, caught in the time warp, we can broadly call as ‘miserable failure of governance in India’, where our being 128 in the United Nations-Human Development Index, compared to tiny Cuba at 56, does not make news in the 24x7 media.

And our 24x7 media is busy making a story of ‘The Greatest Indian after Mahatma’. Our so called eminent Jury finalises a list of probables. This eminent Jury, probably under a bout of amnesia, forgets to include in a list of 50 probable’s the most decent and most honest politician the independent India ever had, Late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Doesn’t this show the ignorance of our so-called eminent Jury? And come to think of it, both Shastri & Mahatma share the same birthday! Another shocker is, 10 have been shortlisted from the 50, and our J.P., Jayaprakash Narayan, equally decent and honest, couldn’t make it to the top 10.

Doesn’t this represent the intellectual impoverishment of our so called elites, where Nehru gets 57 votes, and Mother Theresa 168, JRD Tata 102, Indira Gandhi get a mere 49. Lata Mangeshkar, the Indian nightingale gets a poor 20 votes, but Tendulkar get 309. Where are we heading as a nation? 

Questions are many but answer are few and far between. Has media, the 4th estate, the watchdog, played its role   in positive nation building? It is a question begging for answer. And this one is a Ripley’s believe it or not “Come 11th Oct. our 24x7 media is agog with birthday felicitations for Mega star Amitabh Bachchan and they are so well informed and they even remark, ‘how ironic that actress Rekha was born a day later on 12th Oct.’ But this, all knowing, omniscient media has lost its sense of  historical  perspective that Jayaprakash Narayan, the father of the Original Sampoorn Kranti, which gave birth to Janatha Party and changed completely the arithmetic of politics in this country for ever, and never to go back to one party politics at national level, that JP too was born on 11 Oct, like Bachchan, but media did not know it.

What an irony, isn’t it? This is media for you. Surely while I can go on and on-on what constitutes priority for the main stream media, we felt there existed a space for some meaningful convergence of thoughts on issues that concerns us all. Thus was born ISSUES & CONCERNS. Yes, like John F. Kennedy said “Job on hand may not be complete in 100 days not even in 1000 days, not perhaps in whole life time, but we have to make the beginning”. To get to anywhere is to start from where you are. Having started, we kept at it non-stop for all 150 issues.

Friends there are number of stories of monumental bungling, for all the 65 years of post independent India. They all need to be told and retold by the media, so that someday, the awakened section of the society, take the call, “Towards a fair and just society”. As we complete this 150th issue, we do hope and pray that we shall continue as the Tennyson’s ‘Brook’, “Men may come and men may go, but we go on forever” in service of this Mother India and Indians.

Jai Hind.

President of this evening’s  function respected Dr M.V. Kamath, a Padmabhushan awardee, Managing Director of Manipal Technologies Ltd. Mr Guatham Pai, Bureau Chief Deccan Herald Mangalore, Mr Ronald Fernandes, Editor Shri  J.Shriyan and members of  the Editorial Board of Issues & Concerns, Principal of MGM College Dr  P.Venkatramana Gowda, distinguished guests and most importantly my dear students present here.

I am very happy to be with you all on this momentous occasion of releasing 150th issue of  ISSUES & CONCERNS and also to be  present here for prize distribution of Elocution Competition that was held earlier. At the outset let me first congratulate Shri J.Shriyan & members of editorial board of ISSUES & CONCERNS on this milestone they have achieved today & also the  winners of Elocution Competition. 

In India under the constitution, 3 institutions were created, the Legislature, the Executive & the Judiciary. It is considered to be the main pillars of the Indian constitution and were supposed to function to hold the ideals of law. Over the years, a 4th pillar came into existence which came to be called as the 4th estate in this country. That was media. It built up the status because of its hard work and sincerity and remains to be the 4th pillar recognized by the country under the constitution of India. Its contribution to the society was huge and highly respected. But over the years like most of the pillars of the constitution, be it legislature, the executive or the judiciary, this 4th pillar also started shaking. You would have read about it in magazines, the very interesting thing was the weakness of the system was exposed by the media itself. The Out Look magazine in 2009 brought out certain articles showing the existence of paid news in the media in this country. That was a shocking period for most of us who had respected the media very highly. Of course the consolation was we have already lost our respect in other 3 institutions of the constitution. Thereafter you would have read about the incident of Nira Radia taping of the conversation between Nira Radia and big industrialists in this country. The matter is still in the Supreme Court. I do not want to say more here at this stage.

What I am trying to impress on the institution which built itself to be one of the safest pillar of the constitution, in a short period say about 50 years, has started shaking. The reason was not far to seek. Obviously the management of this media, be the print or the electronic, were purchased by powerful people, industrialists, politicians and others. There was infiltration of funds  from these sources which made media in general committed to the cause of the owners  of these institutions. Not a very good sign in a democracy, where freedom of speech is guaranteed as a fundamental right of a citizen which includes institutions. The contribution of media in spite of this weakness cannot be underscored. In this background from what I have seen from your articles in ISSUES & CONCERNS Sir I congratulate, you have maintained the integrity in your expression and publication of those issues that really really concerning the voiceless and poor. You gave certain examples in your welcome speech of what is happening. I do endorse your views in this matter and also complement you for maintaining your independence  and showing your courage in maintaining this independence and truth. I hope and sincerely feel that you continue to maintain this integrity and standard so that the real issues concerning the people, anyone it may be, every part of the society, but most specially, the ones which have no voice of their own and which does not have an access to the other media, should be made known to the people and the people should be made aware of what really is happening and it is not only a sugar coated news that should come out. I again say that I hope you will keep fighting for this cause of the weak and the poor. 

But at the same time I would like to give a little bit of my   advice that apart from the real issue concerning  people, you also give some thought over articles in regard to the system of democracy that is functioning in this country today. When the constitution of India was being drafted by the members of the constituent assembly who were freedom fighters, who sacrificed their profession and life for the freedom of this country,  discussed about what type of a political system that this country should have. Many of them expressed the view that we Indians were never really or personally independent in the eyes of the law. We were under the regime of Rajas and Maharajas, we were under the regime of foreigners. We never had any say in the administration or legislation that were made by those rulers. Laws were made without consulting the people and they were asked to obey those laws. The members of constituent assembly expressed their emotions, now that we are going to be an independent country shortly, let us evolve a political system which makes every Indian feel that he is free. He feels this govt is mine, he feels that this govt is for me and he feels this govt is of me. That was the feeling that there was a system internationally available along with the monarchy, dictatorship  and ism-based   politics, a  system called the democratic republic. Abraham Lincoln defined it as the govt of the people, by the people, for  the people, was the definition at that point of time. I don’t think it is the definition today in 2012. That’s what makes me to  appeal to you Mr Shriyan that please concentrate  on this and make an analysis how far this definition today is relevant as it was thought of when the constitution was being drafted. There is a general feeling today that a particular institution built by the constitution is supreme. I beg to differ. Under the Indian constitution, I don’t think any particular institution is supreme. If it is to be said that the legislature is supreme, it may be correct to the extent of the floor where the legislations are being accepted, drafted and discussed on the floor of the legislature. But that does not make this institution supreme. Does, it mean, if that law is concrete to the constitution of India, would it stand the test of judicial scrutiny? Any number of laws, in the last 63 years of democracy, have been struck down by the courts. That doesn’t make the court also supreme. The law that is struck down by the supreme Court, minus the virus pointed out by the Supreme Court, can be re-enacted by the parliament or the state legislature, and can be brought into force. There is no question of any particular institution being supreme. If there is somebody supreme in this country, it is we the people of India, who are supreme. The constitution of India with very first sentence, starts with, “We the people of India”, then there are few other factors adopted by this constitution. When we adopted this constitution which created the legislature, executive and judiciary and  this was my understanding of the law that  nobody is supreme. If there is anybody  supreme it is the people, that should be made to known to the people in the  legislature, executive or the judiciary that they are not supreme, but supreme is sitting somewhere else watching them.

There is a general feeling among the people who are holding high offices that they are not public servants. There is a feeling that they are masters of the people. They feel the word servant is very derogatory. Our elders who fought for the freedom of the country were excited when they were called the servants of the people. The word servant had very high noble meaning. Today that meaning seems to be disappearing. But in reality they are all public servants and not public masters. Anyone who takes emoluments from the state is, ipso facto, a public servant.  

I have heard many people saying ‘look at this, we are being called public servants’. Prime Minister is called a public servant. What are we then? This is a  talk that goes around, when someone want to make suggestion to make a law  or   to modify the lawwhich is existing, a word comes from somewhere  'who are you, unelected and unelectable',  to dictate to the parliament? It is a parliament elected by the people of India. The person who goes there and talks on behalf of his constituency is not his voice, it is the voice of the people whoever elected him. 

There is a monthly called ‘Election Watch’, which has conducted  a performance audit of  members of the parliament elected from 2004 to 2011. It was found that in the entire 7 years the people who opened their mouths only once- not for yawning- but for talking, only 174 people spoken at least once in five years and they want to beat their chest and tell ‘we are your  leaders and netas’. Gone are the representatives of the people in this democracy.  Is there a voice of the people still left in this system? What is happening in the parliament? How much it cost to send them into parliament? How much money has been  lost to the state? I think responsibilities lies with the media to highlight, not only the actual events that have taken place during the last 10 days in parliament and actually what damage has been caused to the fabric of the democracy in this country. I hope ISSUES & CONCERNS, to the extent possible, highlight the matter and educate the people that you are not the servants of the institutions created by the parliament but certainly in a democracy you are the masters. Let  this message go through the depth of the population of  this country and of course you keep the fight for  the cause of the poor and for the welfare of the poor. Let this  also be one of your thoughts and I wish ISSUES & CONCERNS all the best. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon Dear Mr J. Shriyan, Kamath mam, Justice Santosh Hegde, Dr Gowda, Dr Ronald Fernandes & friends. It is my pleasure to be here this afternoon on the occasion of release of  150th issue of ISSUES & CONCERNS and prize distribution of the elocution competition. My congratulations to Mr J. Shriyan & the editorial committee for bringing out the 150th issue and all the issues successfully and for students who won the prizes. 

I met Mr Shriyan few years back when he approached me in the context of getting the magazine printed and from those days we have had several interactions and I have been very impressed by the perseverance, commitment, integrity and courage with which he is acting and working.

Issues that he has been covering in the magazine take lot of courage to bring out that most people hesitate to speak about in the public. Because it is sometimes against power centre, against politicians. It takes lot of courage to continuously bring out these issues in a selfless manner and that’s the most important thing because it is not for himself but for trying to correct things in the society, to make our country a better place. I truly appreciate the effort and the work he is doing. 

When he invited me to be here I was very happy to come back to  the place where I studied and also be here because he is doing such a good work which will help our future. But he did not tell me that I will have to  speak after Justice Santosh Hegde which is very challenging, that Shriyan did not tell me.

Friends I am very proud to be a part of a great country. We have such a great heritage and history. We also have so much potential to be a much greater nation. The kind of resources we have in terms natural resources, talent  in terms of intellectual capital.  Indians all over the world leading in most areas and the kind of the demography we have, also put us in a very unique place to be really where India is. Once upon a time in history we were at the top of the world. But the challenges we have in terms of society in general, a major factor is corruption, which is a major challenge to our progress. When I speak about corruption  is not in the context of few people making money, but they are depriving us of what we deserve today and depriving the country of progress for the future. India is 95 on corruption index. It is almost of 50% behind other countries. Its 135th place on the index to do business. 

In my short business stint in my carrier I had extension to few countries. I find it is difficult to do business in India even when compared to some African countries, that is a very sad situation to be in. My first experience in business was when I set up a small  unit,  when I was doing my engineering in 1993, my father encouraged me to set up a small industrial unit in  Manipal for some practical experience. 

I had one gentleman who had come from the Gulf to open some industry. Having some money, he borrowed some money from Karnataka Financial Corporation. He had lot of values. He did not want to take short cuts. He did not want to bribe the system. He did not get power connection for a long time, in the meanwhile loan installment became due. The situation was such that ultimately that industry went sick. Last week I met an entrepreneur who planned a new export business near Kallianpur. He borrowed a quite a bit of money from bank after putting some money he had, he had to pay 5½% to get loan from that bank. When such is the  situation you are killing the industry before starting itself.

While we have tremendous amount of potential we also have  challenges to overcome.Work  which is done by Mr Shriyan is making people aware of the issues in hand  and contribute in major manner to bring change. But I think each one should be part of the change and that is the problem. I feel lot of times we take easy way out because we don’t want to sacrifice for the current. We know it is wrong. We feel that if we fight against the system we will suffer. We want someone else to do it. I think if all of us do it like Mr Shriyan and I hope we will build a better future for the next generation as well as we take India to its past glory. Thank you.

 

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Respected Dr M V Kamath President of today’s function, Justice Santosh Hegde, Mr Gautham Pai, today’s hero Mr Shriyan, MGM College Principal Dr P.Venkatramana Gowda Capt Karnik, distinguished guests and my dear students.

When Mr Shriyan asked me to be the part of this programme the first thing I told him was why he want unknown person among well known persons. I was a bit hesitant but he said he want somebody from the media. He wanted to get Sir Mark Tully he couldn’t come this time perhaps. I am honoured to be with renowned personalities of this region. 

It is said that if you don’t read newspapers you are ill informed but if you read newspapers you are misinformed. You don’t know what is the real news, unless you read 3 or 4 newspapers. It is very difficult to make what real news these days. It is a tragedy that I am also a part of it anyway. News passes faster than sound and light through internet. But when it comes to ISSUES & CONCERNS I must say it is known as the EPW of coastal district. Every issue has many issues and Mr Shriyan’s concerns for every issue makes ISSUES & CONCERNS more interesting. The advantage of magazine over newspaper is that you get ample space and you can write whatever you want which is not so when coming to newspapers, where you can’t write more than 400-500 words. 

In ISSEUS & CONCERNS, apart from the main issues, the popular column by Prof B.M.Hegde on medicine, Last Page by Dr M.V.Kamath make it more interesting. You may buy The Outlook, The Week or India Today but you can’t get coastal issues, when it comes to ISSUES & CONCERNS you can find so many coastal news which you fail to see in other magazines and the credit goes to Mr Shriyan. There are few basic elements in news when it comes to proximity, timeliness, accuracy, objectivity, impact. You can find all these in ISSUES & CONCERNS and I congratulate Mr Shriyan for his single handed effort in bringing the magazine for last 150 issues. There is a Japanese proverb which goes like this ‘Vision without action is a day dream, Action without vision is a nightmare’. But here is a man with vision and action creating awareness on issues with concerns. 

Many times, many issues and many persons find place in newspapers which they don’t deserve. Sometimes may be because of compulsion. Example like when Prince  fell in the borewell hole all the channels carried it for 2 to 3 days, not because nobody fell before or nobody fell after. Because other channels were carrying. We don’t have any other options. 

But Mr Shriyan has the advantage. He can do whatever he wants. I am giving example of Mr Mohan Alva, whatever happens it happens meticulously and systematically and decisions are taken very fast because he is a one man army. Here  also Mr Shriyan is a one man army and he can do whatever he want to do. But media in general have some pressure from some corner. 

I feel society needs people like Mr Shriyan who is into serious journalism as already pointed out by Justice Santosh Hegde and Gautham Pai. He writes on so many issues perhaps some papers may hesitate to do it. Saluting for his tireless and thankless effort I wish him that he  brings out volume after volume, many issues which concerns, and that he brings not only  200, 500 but 10000 issues. All the Best.