4 ms·

One of the disastrous consequences of the current government rule is the stifling effect it has had on press freedom. There is no honest discussion of the issue

by sn41 8y ago

One of the disastrous consequences of the current government rule is the stifling effect it has had on press freedom. There is no honest discussion of the issues. I have invested in the non-banking financial sector, as have many other Indians, directly, or indirectly through mutual funds. There is no honest and frank financial reporting on the current imbroglio even in the financial press, aside from some vague reports on the fight between the government and the central bank, RBI. What is the exposure due to ILFS default? What are the projections? What are the fallouts? How much recapitalisation is necessary? Is it only ILFS? No discussion. What was the demonetisation for? No discussion. The fin min has been trumpeting "consolidation" of public sector banks. Isn't this "too big to fail" coming up? Do we really need this? No discussion. -- Another fact that I sometimes worry about: after demonetisation, real estate has stagnated, and mutual funds have seen a boom. Hence the exposure of the economy to bad loans made by the banks has increased in the last 2 years. So the catastrophe, when and if it happens, might be much more enormous than might otherwise have been.

throwawawy42348 8y ago
I don't think that's due to 'freedom of press'; I think it's probably more due to 'lack of intellect'. Don't worry this affects every other part of the world.
- periya 8y ago
  You’d to create a throwaway to make that comment? ‍️
billfruit 8y ago
Perfectly valid comment, I do not see reason why it is being downvoted. Despite being a democracy, many things the government does in India lack transparency, and the press despite being nominally 'free' are very much complicit in maintaining the status quo.
KrishnaAnaril 8y ago
I don't know how this is related to press freedom. It's more related to the quality of the press these days. They are more interested in click-baits and twisted quotes.
newyankee 8y ago
In contrast i see the usual media personalities rallying against the govt. on a daily basis, i do not see how can you claim there is an issue with the media. They claim emergency at a drop of a hat, the SC makes a lot of decisions unilaterally frequently crossing its constitutional mandate without accountability to anyone. I would say that the media is doing a bad job of unearthing the actual facts and not being able to portray anything impartially without a political angle to it. The fact remains that this govt has been cleaning the sins of the 2005-2013 years and initiatives like GST, demonetization even with their short term pains are a much needed antidote in the long term cleaning up of the system. There has been a significant jump in the tax collections from individual taxpayers in this year and last and these are changes that will contribute in the cleanup.
- nafey 8y ago
  Which media houses are you talking about exactly? Even a cursory glance on the news channels at prime time will reveal the govt bias quite easily. People have been fired for criticising govt and even NDTV recently had, what some believe, to be a politically motivated takeover.
  - newyankee 8y ago
    even a cursory glance at twitter and the usual high profile journalists: Shekar Gupta, Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt etc. Only Arnab Goswami amongst the English media is more inclined towards this govt. In the last 15 years, ever heard any media house criticize Sonia Gandhi ? Even after the umpteen scams. That is what real power is. Sure they make fun of Rahul Gandhi, but every few months articles and reinvention of his persona is done. This is in contrast with the hounding of Modi from his CM days and nowadays where every tangential issue is attributed to him. Will Modi answer is like the Thanks Obama version of India.
    - sbmthakur 8y ago
      Even among the mainstream Hindi channels I would say only IndiaTV and ZeeNews have some pro-Modi bias. The rest of them(ABP news, Aaj Tak etc.) criticize the government routinely.

by sn41 8y ago

throwawawy42348 8y ago

I don't think that's due to 'freedom of press'; I think it's probably more due to 'lack of intellect'. Don't worry this affects every other part of the world.

periya 8y ago
You’d to create a throwaway to make that comment? ‍️

billfruit 8y ago

Perfectly valid comment, I do not see reason why it is being downvoted. Despite being a democracy, many things the government does in India lack transparency, and the press despite being nominally 'free' are very much complicit in maintaining the status quo.

KrishnaAnaril 8y ago

I don't know how this is related to press freedom. It's more related to the quality of the press these days. They are more interested in click-baits and twisted quotes.

newyankee 8y ago

In contrast i see the usual media personalities rallying against the govt. on a daily basis, i do not see how can you claim there is an issue with the media. They claim emergency at a drop of a hat, the SC makes a lot of decisions unilaterally frequently crossing its constitutional mandate without accountability to anyone. I would say that the media is doing a bad job of unearthing the actual facts and not being able to portray anything impartially without a political angle to it. The fact remains that this govt has been cleaning the sins of the 2005-2013 years and initiatives like GST, demonetization even with their short term pains are a much needed antidote in the long term cleaning up of the system. There has been a significant jump in the tax collections from individual taxpayers in this year and last and these are changes that will contribute in the cleanup.

nafey 8y ago
Which media houses are you talking about exactly? Even a cursory glance on the news channels at prime time will reveal the govt bias quite easily. People have been fired for criticising govt and even NDTV recently had, what some believe, to be a politically motivated takeover.
- newyankee 8y ago
  even a cursory glance at twitter and the usual high profile journalists: Shekar Gupta, Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt etc. Only Arnab Goswami amongst the English media is more inclined towards this govt. In the last 15 years, ever heard any media house criticize Sonia Gandhi ? Even after the umpteen scams. That is what real power is. Sure they make fun of Rahul Gandhi, but every few months articles and reinvention of his persona is done. This is in contrast with the hounding of Modi from his CM days and nowadays where every tangential issue is attributed to him. Will Modi answer is like the Thanks Obama version of India.
  - sbmthakur 8y ago
    Even among the mainstream Hindi channels I would say only IndiaTV and ZeeNews have some pro-Modi bias. The rest of them(ABP news, Aaj Tak etc.) criticize the government routinely.