India Uncut
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Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Knock knock
Do we see reform as just a narrow economic process or one that involves changing mindsets, less regulation, enlightened law? Can a Web-based economy coexist with Weberian bureaucracy? We have a government committed to manic public spending, all in the name of that bottomless pit called “poverty alleviation”. This statist world view has another side. The mai-baap state goes hand in hand with the thanedaar state. If paternalism comes, the policeman follows.
And the policeman followed for Avnish Bajaj. From "The Thanedaar State", a piece by one of the best minds in Indian journalism, Ashok Malik, in Indian Express. (On the same subject, also read my earlier post, "Moral police goes too far".)
Update: New target – TOI
Rediff reports that the authorities have locked in a new target in their sights in the DPS MMS case: the Times of India (TOI). The Juveline Justice Board had ordered last week that "nothing should be printed that will lead to the identity of the school or the juvenile," and TOI had flouted that ruling, merrily naming the school. The school moved the court, and the principal magistrate handling the case has now asked the editor, publisher and the reporter concerned to appear before her on December 24 to explain their actions.
Oddly, TV channels like NDTV and Zee News had also named the school, but the advocate for the school, Punit Mittal, did not complain about them. Mittal's reason for this ostensibly was that the channels had promised to "remove the name of the school from their reportage." Well, even TOI could have made that promise, surely. This case gets murkier and murkier.
