ABSTRACT
Seventy years after Independence the Indian Parliament and Indian mass media need to re-invent themselves and re-define their roles and functioning. This is critical because of people’s growing distrust of politics, politicians and the media in recent years. There has also been growing disconnect between Parliament and the people and growing disinterest in the media about the functioning of Parliament. Debates within Parliament have been desultory and often of poor quality. Worse, an unacceptably large number of legislations have either not been debated at all or debated perfunctorily before being passed. In contrast, Parliament has been increasingly spending disproportionate amount of time discussing events, allegations and public mischief, without in any way enlightening the citizenry or showing a way forward. The Indian media too have been guilty of not asking hard enough questions and allowing Parliament to fob off the media with headlines. As the character and composition of the two institutions undergo rapid changes, their relationship also is going through a transformation. While all democratic institutions are expected to uphold public interest, the cause will be better served if Parliament and the media work as allies even as the media play an adversarial role to the Executive.
