The Great Big TV debate
Should Manmohan Singh debate Advani on live TV? Or shouldn’t he? While commentators get themselves worked into a sweat debating the merits and pitfalls of either side, The PM’s former media advisor and now Visiting Professor, Sanjaya Baru, observes that:
There is a larger point to be made as well. Populist TV in India has converted discussion into debate and debate into argument. I have always felt Amartya Sen has not served the cause of democracy in India well by glorifying our “argumentative” character.In fact the great Indian philosophical tradition was not one of point-scoring through argument, of declaring a winner and a loser. Debate and discussion are about the search for truth. Indians are as much consensus-seeking as argumentative. The panchayat was based on a consensual approach, not argumentative.
Read his entire analysis here.
