Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged the media to shun obsession with politics and delve more on issues concerning society and its people that constitute the bulk and backbone of the nation. “India is more than just us politicians”, he pointed out while addressing a media event here. “I observe that a lot of the media discourse today revolves around politics. It is only fair that politics be discussed at length in a democracy. However, India is more than just us politicians. It is the 125 crore Indians, which make India what it is. I would be happy to see media focus a lot more, on their stories, and their achievements”, the PM said.
To buttress his argument, he quoted late President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who had said, “We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?” PM Modi said in the pursuit of such success stories, the media would find a ready ally in every citizen with a mobile phone. While citizen reporting could be an important tool in the spread of success stories of individuals, it could also be of “immense help” in directing relief and rescue efforts in times of crisis or natural disasters, he reminded. Pointing out that natural calamities were happening more frequently and with greater intensity across the world, the PM urged the media to take the lead in the battle against the greatest challenge — climate change.
“Can media take a lead in the battle against it? Can media devote just a little space, or a fixed time daily, to report, discuss, or increase awareness about what we can do to combat climate change?” he asked, while thanking the media for its constructive role in generating positive awareness towards cleanliness so as to achieve Swachh Bharat by 2019, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The PM then came up with an interesting prescription for the media to help in his Ek Bharat-Shreshta Bharat (One India-Great India). He called upon the newspapers to print every day one simple sentence in their language of publication, along with its translation and transliteration in all the other major Indian languages. At the end of the year, the newspaper readers would have been exposed to 365 such simple sentences in multiple languages.
“Imagine the positive impact this simple step can create”, he said, adding that students too could also be encouraged to discuss this in their classes daily for a few minutes. The PM said the step would not only serve a noble cause but also “increase the strength of the publication itself”. Lamenting that over a period of time since independence, people neglected their “individual and collective sense of duty”, he said the need of the hour was to create a mass awakening towards “engaged, responsible, and aware citizens.” The civic sense of 'entitlement' must be suitably balanced by a civic sense of 'responsible engagement', which could be through the educational system, the political leadership and of course, the media, the PM said.
While performing such vital task, the media should exercise its editorial freedom wisely and in public interest, the PM said, cautioning that the freedom to write does not include the freedom to be 'less than accurate' and 'factually incorrect'. He then quoted Mahatma Gandhi, who had said, “The press is called the Fourth Estate. It is definitely a power, but, to misuse that power is criminal.”
