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Journalism of Courage
Share with a UPA government a concern relating to governance,and it shall give you a law or a draft legislation,to be very precise. This tendency to reduce matters of gritty structural or administrative reform to a neat tabletop exercise in law-making is on display again. In what can only be described as a midsummer madness,the Congress-led government in Maharashtra wants to set up a panel to give the final touches to a piece of legislation that would make an attack on a journalist a non-bailable offence. There,Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is seized of the legislative agenda,and so the drift in his administration has presumably been arrested.
Leave aside the fine print for instance,who could qualify as a journalist,and what enhanced punishment an attack on her may invite. Chavans plans for the bill invite a greater worry. To provide for the security of all those who reside in the realm is the oldest compact between the state and an individual. The maturity of a democracy,in fact,is measured by how well a state manages to provide security and justice within a framework of individual rights,civil liberties and equality. In Chavans Maharashtra,some will be more equal than others. Doctors and paramedics already are attacks on them are non-bailable offences. Now,if his plans materialise,journalists shall be too. Tomorrow,lawyers may demand similar provisions,then farmers,then teachers,then shop assistants,perhaps political workers too. Till one day,we shall all be equally honoured by the protection of non-bailable provisions in the statute book.
