Corrosive public discourse needs introspection: Manish Tewari

Sushmi Dey gets Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award 2012; special mention awards given to Debaleena Sengupta and Shelly Walia

In 1990, Indian television was dominated by a single broadcaster. Now, more than two decades later, there are about 850 broadcasters in the country, apart from the ubiquitous social media, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari said, underlining the need for an urgent scrutiny of the acerbic nature of public discourse in India.

"The one thing that can become a drag - or unfortunately, is becoming a drag - is, at times, the very corrosive nature of discourse, which has marked our public spaces," said Tewari, previously a key spokesperson for the Congress party. "There is a serious need for some sober introspection within the larger media fraternity to really find that golden mean between a responsible discourse and a corrosive discourse."

Not merely within the press, interactions in other public spaces, too, must be of a suitable tenor, the minister reasoned. "It's not about journalistic discourse, it is about the manner in which we conduct ourselves in Parliament, the manner in which we conduct ourselves in legislatures," Tewari said, after presenting the Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award for Excellence in Print Journalism 2012 to Sushmi Dey.

Dey, a principal correspondent with this newspaper's New Delhi bureau, was recognised for her in-depth reporting of the pharmaceutical and health care sector, with her "fresh, uncluttered and sensitive" writing on various issues, including "clinical trials, patents, drug prices and health care malpractices".

Admitting to the lapses in the government's health infrastructure, Tewari, who incidentally grew up on a hospital campus, said, "Access to health care is among the most critical challenges that India faces as it goes into the next trajectory of its growth paradigm."

The award, now in its 14th year, is a given to a journalist of this newspaper aged below 30. It comprises a prize of Rs 50,000, as well as a silver pen. It was instituted by Business Standard and the Nazareth family in memory of Seema Nazareth, who died in 1999 while working with this newspaper

This year, the jury also chose to recognise two journalists with Business Standard's production team - sub-editors Debaleena Sengupta and Shelly Walia -for their contributions.

"As India evolves and grows, you have a much, much more impatient younger generation with the empowerment of tools of information dissemination available at their thumbnail," Tewari said, adding, "There has to be a certain amount of reason and rationale (with which we) must start benchmarking the manner in which we conduct ourselves publicly."