What is at issue here is a 1955 cabinet decision not to allow foreign ownership of newspapers and magazines. Think about it. In 1955, India ...
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What is at issue here is a 1955 cabinet decision not to allow foreign ownership of newspapers and magazines. Think about it. In 1955, India was just a four-year-old republic which had been through just one general election. It was a country that was tentatively finding its feet in terms of its own identity and a place for itself in the comity of nations. Therefore, if the politicians of that era had believed, in good faith, that they needed to guard the mindscape of the fledgling republic, well they at least had a good reason for doing so.
But what can possibly justify hanging on to such a restriction in this day and age? In circa 2002? After we8217;ve been through 13 general elections and have defined ourselves as a self-confident democracy? Such questions have been raised earlier, of course, but they need to be raised again and again, every time the nay-sayers get into the act. These cocks of the hoop, who in a bid to guard their little patch furiously crow themselves hoarse the moment there is the faintest possibility of the anachronistic law being rendered a dead letter, have consciously chosen not to look beyond their own barnyard. But the world has, indeed, changed and you just have to punch in 8216;www.google.com8217; to discover this.
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The argument that is often raised by the guardians of Indian nationalism 8212; and they span the entire political spectrum from the far left to the far right 8212; is that even restricted foreign ownership of the print media would make us, through some strange alchemy, slaves to foreign powers. Our national agenda would suddenly be hijacked by dangerous external forces, with their nefarious designs on our economy and politics, or so the argument goes. This is just plain codswallop. If public opinion has not been mortgaged by CNN News or BBC World, why would foreign equity in print 8212; which has far less popular reach 8212; have such a insidious effect? Finally, it appears, we must all take a cue from Raj Kapoor who sang so very long ago that although his shoes may be Japanese, his hat, Russian, and his trousers English, his heart remains Indian. Hundred per cent.
