Occasions witnessing speakers of all hues fantasising about the land’s glorious past and the legends associated on one side and platforms from where people are face-to-face with the land’s literati worrying about the fast deteriorating quality of life across different sections of society on the other side are being reported in the dailies. Sandwiched between these two factions in the milieu are the rest fooling themselves as it were dreaming of a golden future for the nation and the coming generations. Irked by the media portraying Indians who matter in brazenly unflattering manner, a House Committee of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly has been set up ostensibly to frame rules and regulations for the news media,  a measure that has evoked criticism from journalists.

The media has been charged by the law-makers as reporting on happenings in public domain arbitrarily and irresponsibly by sensationalising trivial family disputes, crime and ghost stories for improving the television rating point. While the law-makers losing no time in self-certification of their impeccable profile is well-taken, one is prompted to remark that if unpleasant things are said about someone or something, there is probably a good reason. The idiom, “There is no smoke without fire” is born out of experience marked by “gossip or accusations” are often substantiated by fact.

The land’s legends to whom we owe our euphoria while refreshing ourselves about their monumental achievements in different fields including philosophy, literature, music, architecture, sculpture, agriculture, science, mathematics, State craft, governance of the land and its people, to make only a partial list, didn’t have to worry themselves about figuring awkwardly in gossip circles unlike the current flock of law-makers, mistakenly perceived as duly elected representatives of the land’s people themselves, barring some microscopic exceptions. Now, the media, guaranteed by the nation’s Constitution to carry out its business backed by well-framed rights, apparently has no issues with its patrons, thus not only passing the litmus test of professional norms but also remaining without crossing the Laxman Rekha as it were.

Lastly, notwithstanding the adage “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride them,” in order to realise the wishes of the diaspora for the golden days ahead, we have a long list of tasks such as protecting greenery, water bodies, air quality, denizens of the forests, women, economically deprived sections and so on, alongside protecting the humble journalists from persecution unwarrantedly.