Date:10/01/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/01/10/stories/2004011004121200.htm

National

Review legislative privileges: INS chief

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, JAN. 9. The Chairman of the Indian Newspaper Society, M.P. Veerendra Kumar, has called for a national debate on the issue of parliamentary and legislative privileges.

There was an urgent need for review of the privileges enjoyed by legislators and parliamentarians as, of late, "violating every common law has become a privilege in this country.''

Talking in the context of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly's move in November last year to "punish'' the editors and journalists of and Murasoli, Mr. Kumar said the legislators had become grossly intolerant.

"They cannot take criticism,'' he noted.

Mr. Kumar, chairman and managing director of the Mathrubhoomi newspapers, was delivering his presidential address at the Pandit Jhabarmal Sharma memorial lecture, organised by the Rajasthan Patrika and the Makhanlal Chaturvedi National Journalism University, Bhopal, here today. V.N. Narayanan, former Editor of Hindustan Times, delivered the lecture.

"Is the use of the word `provocative' a criticism against the legislature,'' Mr. Kumar asked.

"The elected representatives behave as if the people who elected them have no privileges,'' he observed.

The situation was further compounded by the fact that a conviction by the legislature did not allow an appeal in the courts.

"I have been a Member of Parliament and I am at a loss to understand the need for this kind of unbridled power to the elected representatives," he said.

Mr. Kumar remembered the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, as a fine example of democratic tolerance. "We Socialists had always criticised Pandit Nehru. But he was a staunch upholder of common laws,'' he noted.

The INS chief spoke strongly against the attempt by foreign media groups to enter the country. "The arrival of foreign newspapers is not in the national interest. Should Rupert Murdoch teach us journalism,'' he asked. Some quarters wanted foreign newspapers here so that the industry could be used to promote commodities.