Thaindian News

Guwahati, Oct 19 (IANS) Responsibilities of journalists in India have increased manifold as the media today shapes the thoughts and aspirations of people, besides influencing opinions in the country, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil said here Sunday.”Media is only increasing and its platform has increased from print to radio, electronic and the Internet. Media in one form or the other, particularly the electronic media, has today penetrated dramatically to every home. In many ways media shapes our thoughts, aspirations and opinions and hence the responsibilities of the media are increasing,” the president said.

Patil was speaking after conferring the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award on noted journalist Shekhar Gupta and veteran actor and social activist Shabana Azmi at function in Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

Azmi was presented the award in absentia as she cited personal reasons for not attending the function.

Accepting the award, Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Indian Express, said politics today was the root cause of many problems in India.

“In a democracy we hate politics, everybody we know like to curse politicians. But in a democracy, just as the root cause of many problems is politics, even the solution and treatment of many problems lie in politics and that is why we say we need political solutions, but we don’t like politicians,” Gupta said.

Gupta received a citation and a cash award of Rs.200,000, besides a shawl and traditional mementoes in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Governor S.C. Mathur.

The president arrived here Sunday on a five-day visit to Assam and Meghalaya.

On Monday, Patil is scheduled to give away the Nirmal Gram awards to village councils of 13 eastern and northeastern states. On Tuesday, the president will lay the foundation stone of the Tezpur Medical College and address army troops at the 4 Corps headquarters in the northern Assam town of Tezpur before proceeding to Shillong for a two-day tour of Meghalaya.

In Meghalaya, the president is scheduled to inaugurate the Baljek airport at Tura and attend the centenary celebrations of the Laban Bengali Girls Higher Secondary School in Shillong.

She will leave for New Delhi Oct 24.