Acquisition of material wealth has become ‘be-all and end-all’ of life: Krishna Prasad

Mysore/Mysuru: Senior Journalist Krishnaprasad regretted that in today’s world, the acquisition of material wealth has become the be-all and end-all of life and luxury articles are the yardsticks by which lives and careers are judged.

He was delivering H.Y. Sharada Prasad birth centenary commemorative talk on the topic “Journalism in the time of fake news, Propaganda and Mass delusion”, organised

by Devagitam Charitable Trust at Ganabharathi on Adichunchangiri Road in Kuvempunagar this morning.

Pointing out that journalism was the bookend of Sharada Prasad’s career at its start and at its finish, Krishna Prasad said that Sharada Prasad wrote columns for Deccan Chronicle in the evening of his life in the 1990’s.

Delving on how politics, big business and technology are rewiring the minds of citizens and distorting democracies around the world, he said ”Sharada Prasad, a man who served under three Prime Ministers as Media Advisor- Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai and Rajiv Gandhi, moved to his son’s modest home in Janakpuri, Delhi, after retiring from work. That is the medal of the man we are honouring here today”, he said.

Recalling Sharada Prasad’s simplicity, Krishna Prasad said “When Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, Sharada Prasad got a call late in the night asking him to rush to the PMO. But Prasad said he did not have a car to come to the PMO at that hour. Subsequently, a car was sent to pick him up. Contrast that with today’s upstarts who drive luxury cars after a year or two in the business”.

“We salute this craft of journalism even while offering a lament to those holding the flame against the onslaught of fake news, propaganda and mass delusion”, he added.

Noting that most people do not know that Sharada Prasad had served Mahatma Gandhi before he became an aide to Indira Gandhi, he said that Sharada Prasad was a Gandhian and therefore this is a really great time to remember him.

Prof. C.N. Srinath, Director, Dhvanyaloka, Mysuru, presided.

Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, Maj. Gen. (retd.,) S.G. Vombatkere, Ashwini Ranjan, Ravi Joshi and others were present on  the occasion.