Veteran journalist P. Sainath has said that the nation is in a crisis. And this crisis is not limited to just the rural area. It has become a national crisis at various areas such as agriculture, education, economy, job creation etc.
He was delivering the endowment lecture on the topic ‘Indian democracy at the post-liberalization and post-truth era’ at Media Manthan 2020 organized by the PG department of journalism and mass communication at St Aloysius College (Autonomous).
Mr Sainath said that the many policies adopted in the 90s led to India becoming unusually unequal. Referring to the speech Ambedkar had made at the Constituent Assembly while handing over the draft of the Constitution, Mr Sainath said, “Ambedkar had warned about the weakness of Indian democracy that liberty without equality allows the supremacy of a few over the multitude. Liberty, equality and fraternity must be kept together as we cannot have one without the other.”
Mr Sainath stated that the agrarian crisis was no longer about the loss of productivity, employment or about farmer suicide; it was a societal, civilizational crisis. Commenting on the lopsided policies such as cow-slaughter ban, he explained how cow slaughter ban had adversely affected many industries due to their interdependency. While Muslims who slaughtered cows were rendered helpless, the cattle traders who were mostly OBCs lost their earnings as the cattle prices crashed. An important industry like Kolhapur sandals industry in Maharashtra went bankrupt as a result of the cow slaughter ban in Maharashtra. He said the policymakers had no idea how the rural industries were interconnected. Demonetisation too devastated the rural economy as 98 percent of rural transactions happen through cash.
Mr Sainath also spoke about the crisis of inequality which affects the Dalits and the Adivasis far more than anyone else as 90 percent of the rural households take home less than Rs 10,000/- per month. “Women are yet another group whose labour is never counted in the gross domestic product. Women and girls globally do unpaid work which amounts to about 12.5 billion working hours per year. Monetarily speaking, this is worth 10.8 trillion dollars,” Mr Sainath added.
Speaking about the crisis of jobs Mr Sainath said that major companies were laying off employees just to create more profits for the investors and the adoption of artificial intelligence in the industry would further destroy millions of jobs.
Rector of St Aloysius College Institutions Fr Dionysius Vaz SJ, Principal Dr (Fr) Praveen Martis SJ, HOD of Journalism and Mass Communication department Dr (Fr) Melwyn Pinto SJ were present.
‘Veerappan and Vijay Mallya’s business models are interesting!’
Addressing the gathering during his endowment lecture on Friday, Mr Sainath made an interesting comment on the so called ‘revenue model’. “Whenever I visit IIMs and IITs for lectures on my PARI project, the students there ask me what my revenue model for my project is. I tell them that I do not have a revenue model. In fact, journalism does not begin with a revenue model. Gandhiji, Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh were all great journalists. But they did not have a revenue model,” Mr Sainath said.
On a lighter note, he said that the best revenue model that he liked was that of forest brigand Veerappan and liquor baron Vijay Mallya. “Veerappan ruled the forest for forty years and from the top ministers to the villagers he could dictate terms and liver royally. Similarly, Mallya’s revenue model was to steal the banks and run away abroad and live like a king,” Mr Sainath added.
Journalism is not and can never be a business. It is a calling, he opined. While newspaper can be a business, television can be a business, journalism per se cannot be reduced to a business. “Unfortunately today, journalists are recruited on a contract basis and they have no bargaining power; and there are no unions to fight for their cause. Hence, they are at the mercy of the corporate media houses for their survival and are made to write stories that cannot be called journalism,” Mr Sainath said.
Answering a question as to the pressures he faced as a journalist, he said that external pressures from the government or others could be very well handled. It is the internal pressures from once own media house that journalists find it difficult to manage.
Organised by RSS propped Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), a body of Muslims patronised by Sangh pracharak Indresh Kumar, Pakistan too has been on the invitee list.
Comments
Waoooooo.....
Beef Sukka will be the main menu in this party.
What an idea sirjee, truly a international ___ agenda.
First thing is attending iftar party of haram earning is not permissible to a muslim.... dont host iftar party to show unity in hindu muslims instead go and save the poor hindu muslims who are dying of hunger and non shelter
Indresh Kumar who is the master mind for Samjoutha Express blast and accused in many terror activity in India..! Let them arrange Iftar party at Nagpur head office.
ALLAH is the creator of all that exists and even RSS members comes under it... they are not excluded.
ALLAH will judge according to our deeds done in this life and reward HEAVEN or hell which is eternity.
ALLAH sent many messenger to convey the message of knowing ALLAH who created all that exists & WORSHIP him alone without associating Partners with him.
ALLAH sent QURAN to the last and final messenger and its a guidance to whole of HUMANITY.....not just Muslims.
Quran asks MANKIND to ponder, contemplate and research on what it says. It also asks the intelligent creation of ALLAH to think again & think.
The ONE who is intelligent will understand it better
The ONE who doesnt want to accept - I feel pity on him that he could not recognize his CREATOR.
ALLAH knows What is RSS PLAN here. and ALLAH is the best of PLANNER... Any MUSLIM who attend this iftar party should convey the message of ISLAM. and also mention what happens to human life once ALLAH takes the LIFE back which he has created in the first place.
He can create us once again to give JUSTICE ... its easy for him .
WORSHIP THE CREATOR NOT HIS CREATION
Waoo wonderful Idea what for MRM looks like another part of 72 divisions of the group, any way, things are very/very good Ideology but do not Forget to Invite Our Master NAREN Bai !!!!!!!! you must call him he should have to have see the unity of a group!!!!!!!! no Gangasara served, Naren go buddy enjoy with your friends. Chalo Gujarat, you can see some of the Looted and Burned building.
if this sanghis can serve beef in this event, that will be the great meet i can call.
some negative comments i can c i will challenge those to celebrate diwali and show their real colour, some unwanted group of the country dont want the unity between the two. this is really sad because of few people.
all the best. will pray for the success of this program and this meet should be presented every year.
good move by sangha parivar, lets unite together,
Wow great anyways all the best for this great meet let both the party unite together,
Beef Sukka Serving!!!!
wow good one, everyone can attend?
Sangha Parivar doing good job, lets some dogs bark, nothing can harm the society and true agenda of the sangha parivar. they only want the growth of india. lets support it atleast instead of negative comments.
Please beware this RSS iftar party ...tiz is NAMROOD NARENDRA MODI
Plan...protest tiz type of iftar party....
DRAMA!!!!
or
SHOW OFF
OR
REALITY????
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