Markandey Katju slams ‘intolerant’ politicians

New Delhi  :  Press Council of India chairperson Markandey Katju Wednesday regretted that some politicians were becoming “increasingly intolerant towards the media” and pointed to Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Virbhadra Singh threatening mediapersons in Shimla.

Katju, a former judge of the Supreme Court, said Singh’s “undemocratic behaviour” was the latest instance of politicians “not behaving in a manner which is expected of them in a democracy”.

The former Himachal Pradesh chief minister, who is accused of financial impropriety, had threatened to break the cameras of newspersons in Shimla Wednesday. The Congress has apologised for his remarks.

In a statement, Katju also said that politicians “must realise that in a democracy people have a right to criticise them, and media has a right to enquire about the activities of politicians and inform the public about it”.

“In a democracy it is the people who are supreme, and politicians are only servants of the people. Since people are the masters in a democracy, they have a right to know how their servants (which includes politicians, judges, bureaucrats, policemen, etc) are functioning, and it is often through the media that they know about this,” Katju said.

“The media thus acts as an agent of the people for giving them information about their servants”, he said adding that “intolerant behaviour by politicians has no place in a democracy”.

Katju said that if “something untrue is published about a politician, he has certainly a right to get his rejoinder published, but losing one’s balance or giving an ugly display of temper is just not acceptable in a democracy”.