VSK TN
Narad Jayanthi and felicitation awards to journalists for this year was organized by Vishwa Samvad Kendra at Rasika Ranjani Sabha, Mylapore on 16th June. The program started with a prayer song by Shri Ranganathan, Giri Trading. Following the welcome address, five journalists were felicitated. Entries were called for from the media houses and a team of jury selected the awardees this year with some entries. Shri M R Ramalingam, Dinamalar, Smt Manjula Ramesh, Snegithi, Shri Vasanthan Perumal, Thuglak, Shri Rajagopal R, All India Radio and Shri L Murugaraj, Dinamalar were the journalists felicitated ‘Narad Jayanthi’ awards. Shri Rakesh Sinha, Founding Honorary Director of India Foundation Policy, Delhi addressed the gathering. Shri Sampath Kumar, Former Correspondent – Doordarshan and BBC presided over the function.
Shri Ramalingam felicitated
Then the awardees were felicitated with a shawl, a book, a plaque and a cash award. The Senior awardee Sri Ramalingam Ji, who has groomed many journalists in his long career, said, “Journalists have become leftists in their attitude who have no say and have lost basic values who have become irrelevant to china and Russia itself. We have followed the philosophy of tolerance from our ancient times. A.B. Vajpayee Ji always thought Tamil Nadu to be Bhagyavaan, as we accept people as they are, immaterial of the good and bad that comes, as we are tolerant and our ancient kings have been practising the adhvaitha ways. Tamil language has been displaced by English language and people are not aware of the differentiation in the dialects of Tamil language”.
Shri Vasanthan Perumal felicitated
Sri. Vasantham Perumal, who in his speech profusely thanked the weekly Tamil magazine THUGLAQ and its deceased owner sri. Cho Ramaswamy Ji.
Sri. Vasantham Perumal, who in his speech profusely thanked the weekly Tamil magazine THUGLAQ and its deceased owner sri. Cho Ramaswamy Ji.
Smt Aishwarya Raghav on behalf of Smt Manjula Ramesh felicitated
Smt. Manjula Ramesh, whose daughter-in-law Mrs. Aishwarya Raghav had come to receive the award on behalf of her and in her short speech she said, “She couldn’t be seated amongst the other awardees and chief guests as she found herself to be not up to their mark. She praised her Mother-in-law to be very gutsy, unafraid to face any circumstances in life be it financial difficulty, personal life mishappenings and her mantra is “NEVER EVER GIVE UP”. It’s on her mother in laws encouragement that she was able to take a job and be in a good position today. She also shared that to this day she and her mother in law have a very good relationship unlike the usual to be a part of the function was a blessed moment for her”.
Shri Rajagopal felicitated
Sri. Rajagopalan, AIR, who happens to be a collector of all folk songs, said “he frequently travels to yelagiri, jawwadh hills spends time with the people there to collect and record the ancient folk songs which are on the wane now. Being an agricultural graduate he often listens to MANN KI BAAT where information regarding agricultural produce is given to them by Sri Sudarshan Ji”.
Shri Murugaraj felicitated
Sri. L. Murugaraj, a photo journalist said that he always stood behind the camera and now it’s the first time he is standing in front of a camera. He wished for a good availability of medical education in the future and accepted the award with the blessings of all.
Shri Sampath Kumar
Sri Sampath kumar Ji, ‘He started the speech by appointing God Hanuman who was also a carrier of messages from Rama to Sita and vice versa instead of saint Narad. Journalists now days are sensationalising all the news and it’s not given the way as it should reach out to people. Journalists should have ACCURACY, OBJECTIVITY AND SPEED he insisted. He talked about an incident about the talks on INDO-PAKISTAN, where he first said the talks failed and later prayed that his prophecy should come true, with hilarity. He talked about the modern trend of the Digitalisation of the Journalism media which is the thing now. He condemned saying that the most corrupt are the Journalists and Politicians who are driven by their idealism and have leftists’ attitude. He recollected the outrage that happened at the time of 2G spectrums by a Journalist and the treatment meted to AIDS affected people near Namakkal while shooting a short film there.
Sri. Rakesh Sinha Ji, in his special address said that Journalism can be shown, how it’s different in India by a magazine called SWARAJYA and PRAYAG with that of West. Mission and profession should be the same otherwise it would result in an unhealthy society. Its journalists and politicians who can resurrect such unhealthy society he emphasized. He was in awe of the 1330 couplets of Thiruvalluvar which he felt hadn’t disconnected with the ground realities of life like Bhagavath Gita and were thought provoking too. He quoted from Upanishad the interconnection from earth-water-plant-person-speech-rigour (mantra)-loud voice-OM. To this day the people who come to Kumbhamela have risen to 120 million since 1906, where people come from all walks of life and religion. He reminisced about the partition and it’s after effects leading to secularism where the Hindus still tolerate the other religion people. He stated the apathy of state of politics in Tamil Nadu who are still intolerant to other languages and religions with an exception to the Dravidian Movement and called upon Tamilnadu to lead India spiritually, politically, linguistically with a mission and cannot remain confined to geographical boundaries.
With a vote of thanks and Vande Maataram song and the function came to an end.