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Journalism of Courage
The sometimes absurdly carnival-like conventions of the Democratic and Republican parties in the US cap a long and strenuous process that democracies like India8217;s would gain by studying closely. The primaries are a brutally transparent democratic process, one that compels candidates to lay all their cards on the table. The debates don8217;t just vet candidates. This trial by public scrutiny, and vote, makes candidates take stands on issues, to modify those same stands and account for those modifications as the campaign drags on, as muck and luck continuously condition that campaign. And the culmination of this meticulously democratic process is the presidential debate. The Democratic primaries thrashed out positions on health policy and social security. The Republican debates saw the 8220;maverick8221; McCain challenge the party establishment, and then gradually slide back to the beaten path of George W. Bush. Obama is no longer the personified ideal that people took him for, having positioned himself as close as he can to the Democratic centre since ejecting Hillary Clinton from the race.
It is imperative for a democracy to know its prospective leaders, to know them well, down to the bone. There is no dearth of media attention on politicians in India, but nothing akin to the American debates. The recent trust-vote was a two-day exception; there is no institutionalised mechanism that would conduct such debates between leading political figures ritually and periodically. The purpose of the transparent public debate is to let people examine, ask, examine again and choose.
