India becoming "democracy of sound bytes": politicians

New Delhi, May 17 (PTI) India is increasingly becoming a "democracy of sound bytes" because of "undue" coverage given by the media to disruptions in Parliament and not to serious debates. This was the general sense expressed by politicians across the board who nudged the media, both electronic and print, to cover the noise in Parliament less and give more weightage to serious issues that are raised in the two Houses. Politicians Arun Jaitley (of opposition BJP) and Mani Shankar Aiyar (of ruling Congress) spoke in a similar vein at a function Wednesday to release a book - 'Straight Thoughts' - penned by media baron and Lokmat newspaper group Chairman Vijay Darda when they rejected suggestions that politicians were "intolerant" in the wake of the recent cartoon controversy in a school text book. A cartoon by veteran Indian cartoonist Shankar drawn in 1949 and used in a school text book depicting delay in the then framing of Indian Constitution was the target of attack by followers of B R Ambedkar saying that it put Ambedkar, who was in charge of framing the Constitution, in bad light. At a panel discussion moderated by senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, Jaitley and Aiyar said politicians are "more accountable" to people and to the media than anyone else in the society and they laugh at cartoons of themselves but oppose only when there is some sensitivity involved. When the MPs disrupt the House and go out, the media wait for their bytes and make it the news of the day. "If I make a decent speech, there is not a hope in hell that you will get two words in," was how Aiyar summed up his views. CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury was more vocal and lent support to Aiyar's views that India was increasingly becoming a "sound byte democracy." He wanted to know how many newspapers and television channels properly had covered the impeachment process against Justice Soumitra Sen of Calcutta High Court in August-September last year. "This (India) is moving towards becoming a democracy of bytes. There are serious discussions which take place. For the first time, there was an impeachment of a judge. We were exercising the sovereign right of the country through Parliament. But it won't get covered," he said. India's Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said the country has achieved whatever it could because of the political leadership and added, in an apparent reference to anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare and his team, that the "Jantar Mantar" (a major Delhi demo venue) demonstrations are "dangerous" for democrarcy. PTI