"BREAKING NEWS" : Is It ?

Before i write this post let me clarify that I'm a big supporter and fan of Media and i think it has played a huge role in creating awareness about a whole lot of issues among us - the common people of our country.

Now getting to the agenda, this post related to the in-numerous 24*7 News Channels that we have today, i want to comment on the seriousness, merit & impact of the news shown on them.

The word "BREAKING NEWS" when it was started to be shown by the news channels maybe 7-8 years back only used to refer to those news which were really breaking i.e. something that was really important, had some urgency to it etc. I will agree that it is a matter of perception for an individual for what he might call a breaking news and what he might not but nowadays for our news channels every news is a breaking news and they have lost the true meaning of breaking news. So how does one differentiate one news which might be of national importance with one which says which film actor links up with which actress as both are 'Breaking News'.

Isn't journalism (which tv news channels are a part of) about using wisdom, looking at facts, proofs, history and then reporting it in a simplified & truthful way so that the common people understand it and get aware ? Why can we call the normal stuff simply "News" and the really important ones as "Breaking News".

This trivial issue apart, let's come down to the content of it ? How often have you seen some comedy show from some other channel playing in news channels ? How often do we see innumerable reruns of stupid linkup stories of actors and actresses ? How often we see people completely misquoted in which, the person in the video might be saying something in some perspective and the title of it or the underlined statement as breaking news saying something else altogether in a fully different context ? How many times have we seen too trivial or miniature issues projected as national calamities, essentially as in the Hindi phrase "राई का पहाड " ?

So the question is are those news channels really want to make this mockery of journalism or are they doing all this just to get the maximum TRP(s) in-essence making the maximum money out of it after all its a business and not a charity or a non-profit organization ?

But in a country like ours where people almost blindly believe those news channels, shouldn't they be more concerned and responsible ?

Even after all these criticisms, there is a lot of good work that our media has done. There are a lot of shows which talks about various happenings in the country, various good interview shows where the people at top are held responsible and asked about their doings, and many other things which creates huge amount of awareness amongst us.

To conclude, all i want to say is our news channels should "Keep up the good work" but do it in a more sensible and journalistic way rather than a commercial or a "breaking news" kind of way.

Why do we have to be Party people ?

this post refers to those of us (common people not the people working for the party) who call themselves party people, for e.g. some people say they are Congress people and they always vote for congress, some say they are BJP people and they always vote for BJP etc.

But my question is why ? Can't we be the "best candidate people" who votes for a candidate only if we think he/she is the best person for the job ?

I agree that one might have an inclination towards the political ideologies of any particular party but not all candidates of that party can be good and not all candidates of the other parties can be bad. If we seek an average citizen of our country, he votes for the people contesting for the posts of parshad, mayor (in some cities), MLA, MP etc. and that citizen might like a candidate of one party for one post and another candidate of another party for another post yet if he chooses all from a same party just because he likes that party might not be the best way forward for our democracy.

However i see this problem (i perceive it to be one) majorly happening with the not so educated yet quite affluent & not at all educated and severely deprived citizens of our country. Their is a large chunk of our population who are too ignorant for all this and the truth is we cannot blame them, we cannot expect someone who's deprived of basic necessities like food, home and lives in "zhopad patties" to be really considerate of all this. It is very simple for them, who gives them food or money or anything that helps them there and then gets their vote. They don't have the means to think of long-term for they have to fill their stomachs short-term.

But on the bright side, i think things are headed in the right direction, i think we the people of India are getting quite aware about our rights and the kind of people we should elect. We are starting to look at candidates on their merit and not on party lines.

Is Criticism the only option ?

This post comes after seeing all out politicians praising themselves and their own parties about how great work they have done and criticize all the others about they haven't done anything or they are just corrupt etc.

What i want to say here is, why can't the opposition political parties access the situation properly and then decide whether the party with the government has done the right thing or not ? or whether they have done something adequately or not ? etc. Why can't they do an honest assessment and then go on to take actions whether it is praising or opposing the government. Why is it so that they always have to criticize the government ? The same goes for the ruling party, why they have to always criticize the opposition parties views on things, they should also assess it properly and then go on to accept it or reject it.

Today we saw one of the biggest rise in Petrol prices (Rs. 7.5 per litre) in the history of India and all hell went loose, every other party other than the ruling one came out and opposed this move like anything. But do they realize that this was inevitable and out of government's hands. If they think that this should have been avoided why don't they give/propose an alternative to the government ?

Also quite a while back government have successfully taken out the subsidy out of the petrol prices and now it is the oil companies that decide the prices not the government. However considering its importance and significance government must be having a huge say in this but the current economic conditions are such. We also understand that this big a rise will have a huge impact and our people will suffer a lot because of it but with the current economical conditions, the fall of rupee against dollar by such a huge margin , the ever rising prices of crude oils this was inevitable.

With the problems such as the rising fiscal deficit, decline in growth rate and the problem of rupee vs dollar at hand this was unavoidable, and those who criticize it (I'm talking here about the Leaders and other intellectuals who are criticizing this not the common people who certainly are suffering a lot because of this) should propose a alternate first keeping in check all those other aims and then go on talking about it.

Just saying time and again  that the government had failed is not justified, if at all you claim that then prove it by justifying what the government did wrong and what should have been done or what shouldn't have been done for the betterment of the country.

Are we all Cry Babies ?

this post is about all our comments like "Politics is crap" "All Politicians are corrupt" "Nothing could happen in this country" "The country is going down in the dumps" "Politicians or leaders just make promises but don't actually do anything" "All Politicians are criminals and a lot of them actually have cases going on against them" and so on....

But my point is aren't we the citizens of this esteemed democracy are the ones who elected these politicians to represent us ? If they were corrupt or criminals or uneducated then why did we elect them in the first place ? I think it's time we realize this as our responsibility and voice against anything that we feel is being done wrong. How many times have we seen problems like bad roads but how many times do we actually go to municipal offices to inquire about what plans have been made for the roads and if not anything then suggest them to do something about it, if they don't listen then there are Parshads, Mayors, MLAs, MPs and so on. And I think if we unite and take these problems of society as problems of our own we can easily get the work done.

Right to Information - a very powerful tool given to us by the government but how many of us know about it, leave aside using it ? I don't have the backing of official statistics but i don't think apart from a very few activists (as compared to 1.2 Billion people in this country) anybody has ever used or even knows how to use RTI. 

What i say is instead of cursing our politicians and leaders for not doing their job effectively why don't we play our part and select the best of candidates irrespective of their party, religion or cast but based on their merit. And those of us who think themselves capable enough should come forward and fight elections themselves.

But just crying like babies that politics is bad or our politicians have ruined the country is of no use. So its time we wake up and fight for the problems of society as our own !

For instance if a tube-light in our house goes out don't we replace it immediately then why not the same with those lights on the street shouldn't we make sure that they are in proper shape ?

It might be difficult, tiring & time taking but shaping our Nation the way we want is totally in our own hands.

60th Anniversary of the Indian Parliament

the date 13th May 2012 marks the 60 years of Indian parliament and it's been six long decades since the soul of Indian democracy has been in place. I wasn't actually aware about this but the special sessions of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and a Joint session today on a Sunday made me look into it. In both the houses i saw all the big leaders given a chance to say something about how great the Indian Democracy is , how great our Parliament system is or some went on to be skeptic about the things we achieved, or the way our Parliament works. Most interesting or rather funny i found was Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav who started with criticizing the Lokpal as someone who might sit on the head of the MPs and then went on to praising the finance minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee (maybe that has something to do with Mr. Mukherjee being the frontrunner in forthcoming Presidential elections)

But my question as also raised by many is are our MP's professional in their work in the parliament ? How often do we hear or read about the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha sessions being disrupted ? How often we seen different parties shouting and fighting like cats and dogs?

Can't we have our MP's to behave more professionally and discuss and debate things in an orderly manner and bring something constructive out of it in a timely manner. There have been in-numerous hours of session time being wasted by the shear indiscipline and this is one simple thing in hands of our elected leaders to correct.

Also it has almost become a trend for our parliamentarians to act first as a party member and then as the house member, if something is introduced by the government and if an opposition party decides to oppose it then even those members of that opposition party who might actually agree with the proposal or the discussion don't raise their voice to support it. I understand that people in same parties follow the same ideologies but i fail to understand how can they all agree on something all the time. The same goes for the MP's of the ruling parties, it's their responsibility to raise their concerns about government policies and working, even if it is their own parties government.

All I'm calling for is our leaders should be leaders first and then the party-men they are.

disclaimer

Well I'm a random Indian guy, who had been fortunate enough to have a reasonably good education and understands or is trying to understand various issues that our country faces or even us as individual citizens face. And this blog is aimed at putting out all my thoughts on paper (not literally but still :)).

I wanted to put this disclaimer upfront to emphasize that all my blog posts will be my own personal thoughts and i don't represents anything or anybody nor i want to offend anybody. And if at all i offend or hurt anybody's feeling i apologize in advance but rest assure it is not intended.

Also I'm not to be held responsible if i get my facts wrong anywhere, I'll try my best to put forward my thoughts based on update facts but a humane error is very much possible.

Rather I'm not to be held responsible at all in any case, so read this or use this blog at your own wisdom.