Our polity has come to terms with coalition governments. Political parties of varying hues and diverse constituencies are trying to work together in complex coalitions. For a country to move forward, any government has to ensure consensus across a wide spectrum of political opinion. The national media has an important role to play in the process of consensus building. If media is content with focusing only on disagreements, who will widen the area of agreement?

In free societies there are bound to be extreme positions taken on many issues. But a great majority of people normally occupy a consensual middle ground. To say that there is a Left view and a Right view on an issue is not enough. More often than not, the majority view is the Middle view. Mass media may give greater expression to those who are vocal and articulate, but it is the electoral process that reflects the will of the silent majority. No democratically elected government can ignore the interests of the silent majority.

We often say that we are a plural society and that our nationhood is a celebration of Unity in Diversity. But we do not always remember that this unity has been made possible by our ability to arrive at a consensual common ground on most policy issues. If every viewpoint insists that it reflects the Truth, then diversity will manifest itself in disarray, in anarchy, in a social and political impasse. How then is unity possible?

Our democracy was not built on the simple principle of the rule of the majority. It was, I believe, built on the idea of Unity in Diversity. That is the most important idea that Gandhiji and Panditji gave us. The idea of building a consensus. It is a great liberal idea. It rejects extremes and extremism. I believe it is an idea that our media must grapple with, come to terms with and promote in its own way.

... contd.