Author:
Publication: BJP Today
Date: April 16-30, 2001
Introduction: Cho Ramaswamy speaks
at Nachiketa Samman ceremony
Well known satirist and editor of
the immensely popular Tamil weekly "Tughlaq", Cho Ramaswamy said in New
Delhi on March 23 that the reason why the Bharatiya Janata Party felt deeply
hurt by the allegations against it because the Party had set for itself
very high standards of conduct for itself and its leaders.
Presiding over the Nachiketa Samman
Samaroh organised by the nationalist Hindi weekly Panchajanya, Cho referred
to the Tehelka tape case in his speech on the occasion.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
who was the first editor of the Panchajanya in 1948, gave away the awards.
Shri Dhirendra Nath Bezbaruah, Editor
of the SENTINEL newspaper published from Guwahati was awarded the Nachiketa
Samman consisting of Rs. 1 lakh in cash, a shawl and a citation for the
courageous manner in which he has been writing about the dangers to national
security posed by various militant organizations in northeast India and
the Bangladesh infiltrations, despite threats to his life.
The other two recipients of the
Nachiketa Samman who were awarded Rs. 51,001 each, were Shri Girish Mishra,
a former Editor of the Panchajanya and Shri Ashim Mitra, former Assistant
Editor of the daily AAJKAAL of Calcutta who has been writing for nationalist
causes ever since he joined journalism about forty years ago.
Five other junior-ranking but courageous
journalists too were given the Nachiketa Samman.
At an interesting seminar on partisan
politics and reporting by young journalists", Disinvestment Minister Arun
Shourie expressed regret that the media were consistently neglected the
threat posed to national unity by Bangladesh infiltrators in Assam where
the writ of the Government hardly ran.
Interestingly, Mr. Dilip Padgaonkar,
Managing Executive Editor of the Times of India, supported this view and
added that the media should also focus on the sudden mushrooming of mosques
and madrasas on the Indo-Nepal border, about which he had been receiving
information from Kathmandu.
Shri Cho Ramaswamy spoke at this
seminar too and told questioners, when asked If he had ever supported the
Leftists as he did most of the parties in Tamilnadu at one time or the
other, that "if the Leftists came to power in India, there will be nothing
Left of India".
At the presentation ceremony, Sarsanghachalak
KS Sudarshan, Home Minister L.K. Advani, Human Resource Development Minister
Murli Manohar Joshi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushama Swaraj,
former Sarsanghachalak Rajuu Bhaiyya and a large number of media personalities
were present.
