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The Vice President, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has urged the media to play a pro-active role in securing good governance to ensure the welfare of the common man and take the country on to the fast growth trajectory. Speaking at the National Press Day celebrations organized by the Press Council of India on its foundation day, here today, the Vice President expressed concern that the common man today is not sure if the four estates of democracy are really committed to the doctrine of shared responsibility towards him and the society. He is disillusioned and his sense of dissatisfaction and despair against the system is becoming more and more manifest in attempts even to subvert the democratic structure, Shri Shekhawat warned.
Underlining that the success of democracy is to be gauged by the extent of people’s welfare promoted by the four estates, i.e. the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and the press, Shri Shekhawant termed people’s welfare as the fifth pillar of democracy, and said that the strength of democracy lies basically in the people’s support to the system, which can be generated only by good governance that promotes common man’s welfare.
The Vice President said that while our Constitution has made a solemn commitment to secure for all its citizens justice, liberty, equality and promoting among them all, fraternity, the Supreme Court has also held that a citizen has a right to live with dignity. “It is a matter of serious introspection whether the fundamental rights guaranteed under the law have any meaning for the poor and the deprived. What meaning these rights have for them who do not have access even to basic healthcare, education, safe drinking water or shelter?”, he said.
Therefore, the four pillars of democracy including the media should have a constructive partnership with one another, there being no question of superiority of one over the others, Shri Shekhawat said and added that we need national consensus in our approach of action to the task of improvising governance and realizing the Vision-2020 to make India a fully developed, prosperous and strong nation.
The Vice President identified five key areas for focused attention for improving governance. These are – the malice of corruption, judicial reforms, electoral reforms, focus on poverty alleviation and governance at cutting edge level and population stabilization.
Underlining that without routing out corruption we cannot have good governance, the Vice President said that we have to built an environment of zero tolerance for corruption by ensuring affecting and comprehensive attack both at the top as well as at the cutting edge level.
The Vice President said that it was equally important to establish public credibility of institutions of governance and especially of institutions meant to check corruption. The success of institutions like Lokayukt or Vigilance Commissioner is not to be judged by the number of complaints handled or investigated but by the effectiveness in creating an environment of speedy and effective deterrent action against the corrupt ones,
The Vice President, however, reiterated his view that the high institutions of President and the Prime Minister, which are the very pivot of purity and sanctity of our democracy, should remain outside the ambit of Lokpal. “We ought to forthwith reject any possibility of need to investigate complaints against them; and, God forbid, if any unfortunate situation were ever to arise, our Parliament, the Supreme institution representing people’s will, can well be trusted to appropriately deal with it.”, Shri Shekhawat emphasized.
The Vice President also underlined the need for a legal system in which courts ensure regular hearings, unpunctuated by frequent adjournments; a system where fighting cases in courts does not become a luxury for the rich but that which inspires faith and confidence amongst the poor also.
Regarding electoral reforms, Shri Shekhawat reiterated his suggestion that elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies should be held simultaneously; if possible elections to Panchayats and municipal local bodies should also be clubbed together. This electoral reform would provide significant riddance from the evils of caste-based politics of vote-banks, criminalization of politics and the influence of money and mafia in elections, Shri Shekhawat said.
The Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Shri S. Jaipal Reddy, the Chairman of the Press Council, Mr. Justice K. Jayachandra Reddy and Dr. P.C. Alexander, Member(Rajya Sabha) also spoke on the occasion.
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