Mumbai: Maha Governor presents The Week’s Man of The Year Award to Rangasamy Elango

By Rons Bantwal
Bellevision Media Network

Mumbai, 30 April 2014: The Governor of Maharashtra K. Sankaranarayanan presented the Week magazine’s ‘Man of the Year Award’ to Shri Rangaswamy Elango, a social worker from Tamil Nadu at a function held at Hotel Oberoi, Nariman Point, Mumbai on Tuesday (29 April ).

The award has been presented to Shri Elango in recognition of his work of bringing about a transformation in the entire village of Kuthambakkam in Thiruvalluvar district of Tamil Nadu through work in the areas of rural development, women’s empowerment and de-addiction.

The Speech delivered by the Governor at the awards presentation ceremony is enclosed at the end of this mail.

In the picture: Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan is seen presenting the Man of the Year Award of The Week magazine to Shri Rangasamy Elango from Tamil Nadu at a function held in Mumbai on Tuesday (29 Apr. 14). To the left of the Governor is Riyad Mathew, Director, Malayala Manorama Group.
 
Address by Shri K. Sankaranarayanan, Governor of Maharashtra at the presentation of The Week’s Man of the Year 2013 award to Shri Rangasamy Elango at the Oberoi Rooftop Hall, Nariman Point, Mumbai at 4.00 PM on Tuesday, 29 April 2014
 
Shri T. R. Gopalakrishnan, Editor-in-Charge, The Week, Ms Laxmi Subramanian, other eminent people, Man of the Year Shri Rangasamy Elango, journalist friends, ladies and gentlemen.

 

 

 

I am indeed delighted to associate with the presentation of The Week’s Man of the Year Award to Shri Ramasamy Elango.  I join all of you in felicitating the outstanding work of Shri Elango the man who has come to symbolize the courage of conviction and the power of change.

I am particularly happy that The Week which is known for its tradition of journalism with a human touch has selected Shri Elango and honoured his extraordinarily work of bringing out a people steeped in poverty, ignorance and privation to a life of dignity, development and prosperity.
 
The Week published by the Malayala Manorama Group has started this commendable tradition of honouring the real heroes who are working away from the glare of public attention, in adverse, un-helpful and at times under hostile conditions to bring about a positive change in society.
 
Over the years, it has honoured men of eminence like Baba Amte, Rajendra Singh and many others. I congratulate The Week magazine for standing up for goodness in society and for bringing to the fore the people who deserve to be applauded.
 
All of us know how difficult it is to change the heart of one person. Here is one man, Shri Ramaswamy Elango who did the impossible. Through the power of persuasion, he changed the heart of several people and brought about the transformation of the entire village of Kuthambakkam in Thiruvalluvar district of Tamil Nadu.
 
Shri Elango gave up his comfortable job with CSIR. He faced threats to his life, but did not lose sight of his goal.  I was amazed to note that every family in the village today earns around Rs. 40000 per month. Shri Elango has fulfilled Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of Gram Swaraj.
 
We need an Elango in every single village to empower our villages socially, economically and politically.
 
Let us give a big round of applause to Shri Ramaswamy Elango, The Week’s Man of the Year.
 
Sisters and Brothers,
We are meeting in the midst of the biggest polling exercise in the world currently underway in India, the world’s largest democracy.
 
The world is watching with amazement how a country of 121 crore people with 81 crore registered voters is conducting its elections in a free and fair manner. The highlight of this election has been the highest voter turn-out in many constituencies across the country. Secondly, this election is witnessing large scale participation of youths. This augurs well for the future of our democracy.
 
Various newspapers, news magazines and television channels ran campaigns appealing to the youths and the people to cast their vote.  All of them deserve credit for the high voter turn-out.
 
I feel proud that I have served as a journalist in the initial years of my life. Subsequently, I joined politics. But politicians and journalists cannot live without each other and therefore I have best friends in the media even today. I am a newsman and cannot live without reading at least 8–10 newspapers daily and watching news channels.
 
I am amazed by the transformation that has taken place in the media in our country. Today, we have more than 1000 television channels in our country at least one-tenth of which are news channels. Together with newspapers, magazines and online news portals, the media has been making an important contribution in the process of nation building. The vibrancy and independence of our media has been widely acknowledged. Our Constitution has given us the freedom to criticise anybody and everybody, including the Prime Minister.
 
However, some undesirable trends have crept in the media in recent years for which all of us should feel concerned.
 
According to a PTI report published on 24th April, as many as 854 cases of  of ‘paid news’ have been registered across the country so far, and that the Election Commission found some truth in 326 cases.  While Andhra Pradesh has topped the chart of paid news, Maharashtra has come a close second.
 
Today any sensible man having little knowledge of politics can identify and recognise a paid news even in a reputed newspaper. This has put a question mark on the credibility of the media.
 
Secondly, this is perhaps the costliest election witnessed by the country. According to news reports, unaccounted cash running into crores of rupees and illicit liquor meant for distribution to the voters were confiscated. Such trends are harmful for the future of our democracy.
 
The third issue I want to raise today is about the deteriorating quality of debate during the election process.
 
Issues like poverty, under-development, unemployment, price rise, corruption and others were put on the backburner in the campaigning, while emotional issues, meaningless controversies and personal attacks dominated the headlines.
 
If we wish to be a great nation, all of us, including the media will have to ponder over these issues and reorient our priorities.
 
I have great expectations from The Week magazine which is known for upholding values in journalism.  I do hope that The Week will continue to lead from the front in bringing about a social transformation in our country through informed public debate.
 
I congratulate Shri Rangaswamy Elango, the Man of the Year recipient, and I do hope that this felicitation will inspire the people to look beyond themselves and work for a change.