News and Reflections

The Indian Express reports that the Minister of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Salman Khurshid wants companies to properly disclose to their shareholders the details of political contributions. He is reported to have stated:

"I think when we are looking at greater corporate governance and shareholder democracy, this area itself is a very important issue. Who you are giving money to, what purposes you are giving money for, how much is permissible under the law, how much is to be disclosed... these are very, very important issues, which I hope will reflect in the new Companies Bill as well"

As a matter of corporate governance, this is a good proposal. But as a matter of political governance, wouldn't it be nice if political parties are bound by rules similar to companies for maintaining their accounts and placing before its stakeholders (mainly public) such accounts? On the face of it, this may seem ridiculous and far-fetched, but when the CAG could be empowered to audit the accounts of certain Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), why can't political parties be subject to a similar kind of audit?

Check out today's column of Shailaja Bajpai in the Indian Express. The article is sub-titled:

"There are three sides to every event- the Doordarshan version, the private network version, and the truth"

Her article is about how the news media tries to give its own take on the events. She has written about how the news networks try to show our parliamentarians to be hooligans disrupting the House when in the Lok Sabha/ Rajya Sabha channels, lively and informed debates are telecast. I am reminded of this.

[Added after posting: On the propaganda model and related aspects, check out the below resources/ articles:

Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: A Propaganda Model
Edward Herman, The Propaganda Model: A Retrospective
Edward Herman, The Propaganda Model Revisited
Chomsky, Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies
Resources/ Bibliography on the Propaganda Model]

BTW: By the way, Jawaharlal Nehru, an alumnus of Trinity College, Cambridge University was, according to today's Mint (page 4, box titled "Leaving a Legacy"), a "charismatic Oxford-educated lawyer-politician".