Soul of democracy under relentless attack

Senior journalist Ravish Kumar was on Friday awarded with the Ramon Magsaysay Award in Manila, for "harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless." Ravish, who is a Managing Editor with NDTV, in his speech highlighted that the "soul of democracy is under relentless attack every day".

"We are living in testing times, as journalists and as common citizens. Our citizenship itself is on trial right now and make no mistake about it, we need to fight back," Ravish told the gathering.

Talking about the Chandryaan-2 landing later tonight, he added, "the state's surveillance apparatus is more overbearing than ever, the individuals or groups who are able to withstand this onslaught and emerge stronger from it, will be the ones who lay the foundation for a better citizenry and for that matter, maybe even better governments in the future."

"News channel debates take place within a vocabulary of exclusionary nationalism wherein they seek to replace the collective history and memory of the nation with that of the ruling party's in their viewers' minds.

There are only two types of people in this news universe narrative: the anti-nationals and us. It's the classic "us" and "them" technique.

They tell us that the problem with anti-nationals is that they ask questions, disagree, and dissent.

Disagreement is the aatma [spirit, soul, or essence] of democracy and citizenship. The democratic aatma is under relentless attack every day."