It's the shrug in this tweet that is part of the problem. If you share the survey minus a context where you explain how constitutional morality (as opposed to majoritarian morality) is supposed to work in law-making & life, you make the results seem like a mandate. #journalism
https://twitter.com/sardesairajdeep/status/1352635036810567683
Such findings are not surprising. What @IndiaToday @sardesairajdeep could do for context for eg: discuss SARI surveys which found that most Indians across caste lines want intercaste marriage outlawed. No govt said that's a mandate for such laws? Why not? thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/…
SARI surveys, which are high on context & analysis not clickbait, also found that a majority practices untouchability. That is not a mandate for legalising untouchability, and that needs to be underscored, explained when shared in media @IndiaToday
scroll.in/latest/864755/…
scroll.in/latest/864755/…
Interesting: studies show that among youth, the opposition to intercaste/interfaith marriage is weaker than it is amongst older folk. There tends to be more support for it, more ambivalence, less rigid opposition. #context @IndiaToday @sardesairajdeep statista.com/statistics/732…
Above all, what media needs to tell society & government is that in a democracy, "Majoritarian views, popular morality cannot dictate constitutional rights", that is the essence of constitutional morality of which Ambedkar spoke. firstpost.com/india/majorita…
Instead when channels like @IndiaToday and anchors like @sardesairajdeep give these regressive attitudes the status of #MoodOfTheNation, they help the far-right peddle the idea that those who do stand for constitutional not majoritarian morality are "anti-national".
Perhaps a majority supports untouchability, wants women's rights curtailed, believes communal propaganda. Media's job is not to declare this to be the #MoodOfTheNation. Media owes a social duty to point out that this "mood" is anti-national, anti-constitutional. @sardesairajdeep
On November 4, 1948, Ambedkar said: “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment … We must realise that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.”
“Constitutional morality” means that the rights of individuals and minorities are not left at the mercy of the opinion of the majority. Those who defend these rights – even when, especially when such rights are unpopular – are the leaders that India needs.
Instead of recognising this, @IndiaToday celebrates regressive, undemocratic, majoritarian ideas as the "mood of the nation", as a mandate on laws and policies. And that is a huge problem.
Acc to @sardesairajdeep, govt shd bend on farm laws coz that's the majority view. Does that imply the govt need not bend on laws against interfaith/caste marriages coz the majority supports these?
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