Assault is not a privilege

IN Media Freedom | 26/03/2013

While the electronic and print media in India are free to report incidents and relevant stories, are they free enough to comment on behaviour of members of a state legislature? The question arises since the Maharashtra Assembly has issued privilege motion against editors of IBN-Lokmat and ABP-Maza.

Five MLAs of Maharashtra state encircled a police sub-inspector (PSI) in corridors of the Assembly and beat him so severely that he had to be admitted to hospital with multiple injuries. The incident was duly reported in the print media with some comments. But the two channels in their usual style carried out a comprehensive discussion with prominent speakers from various fields besides some political personalities. The discussion harped on the cruel and criminal action of the said MLAs who are described as goons and mavalis. Criminalisation of politics was discussed. The editors Nikhil Wagle (IBM-Lokmat) and Rajiv Khandekar (ABP-Maza) added their own comments on ‘goondaism’ during the discussion, saying it is a matter of shame and wondered what would be the message to those who elected them. It was also pointed out that in the beating incident MLAs of almost all parties were directly or indirectly involved.

The next day, the privilege motion was raised in the Assembly. All MLAs backed the action without any vote of dissent. The MLAs also raised the vital issue of police officers’ entry into the Assembly without permission of the Speaker and the way they had planned to arrest the accused MLAs on the basis of the PSI’s complaint. It was said that high officials in the police departments had a special meeting to plan the way to arrest the concerned MLAs.

The privilege motion against the two editors again triggered a similar discussion and IBN-Lokmat in its daily program ‘Question Today’ raised the issue on March 22 with a panel of experts from various fields, including a legal expert. After reporting vehement discontent of journalists’ fraternity against the privilege motion and protest demonstrations in some parts of the state, Wagle asked panelists whether the privilege motion is an action to terrorise the media and suppress freedom of expression. Most of the panelists commented that it is certainly an action to pressurise and terrorise the media, which has been exposing misdeeds of corrupt politicians irrespective of their political affiliations. The incident has been an opportunity to take action against the media and to cut media personalities to size so that they should not criticise politicians in future.

What exactly is the privilege of the legislative members? According to advocate Uday Walunjkar, the MLAs’ privilege is a legal immunity given to them to speak freely without any inhibition or fear of legal action in the state Assembly and is in public interest in democracy because the truth should come out and people should know it. But beating a police officer, that too in Assembly corridors, is criminal action and does not enjoy any privilege or immunity. Public or media comments on it also do not come under the privilege. Hence the action of privilege motion against the editors has no valid legal basis. He cited the Supreme Court judgment in a case of Bihar Assembly and its exposure by the then news publication Searchlight.

All speakers in the panel protested against the privilege motion and pointed out that politicians who have criminal records are elected because their winning ability is considered by political parties. The fact that both ruling party MLAs and those of the opposition unanimously passed the resolution of the motion is indicative that all MLAs are of the opinion that they should not be targeted and exposed by the media in future. Another comment was that the motion is indicative of legislative arrogance. Also, that when Maharashtra is hard-pressed by drought and farmers are struggling to survive, the  confrontation between police and MLAs gained so much importance that the drought situation was sidetracked, deliberately or otherwise. It was also pointed out that in democracy people have supreme power which should not be neglected due to so-called legislative arrogance.