Homage paid to Prakash Kardaley

[karira]

As reported by ENS in expressindia.com on 18 July 2008:
Homage paid to Prakash Kardaley - ExpressIndia.Com

Homage paid to Prakash Kardaley

Pune, July 17 The consistency and tenacity with which he pursued what he believed to be important was a rare gift that Prakash Kardaley had, said Magsaysay awardee Aruna Roy while speaking at the Prakash Kardaley memorial lecture in the city on Thursday at the MCCIA Hall to commemorate the late journalist's first death anniversary. Hailing the former senior editor of The Indian Express as a champion of the Right to Information Act, Roy said he went beyond the Act to truly understand his obligation to his friends and to the people of his city and redefined the role of a journalist in the society.

To put this in the right context, Roy traced the journey traversed by the RTI Act right from its first dharna in 1996 to the present, in which at every step she acknowledged the important contribution made by members of the press who took the activists' battle to the front page of newspapers, thereby arming them with credibility as they took on the entire establishment in their endeavour to have the Act instituted. Citing instances of exemplary support lent to the movement by stalwarts like Kuldip Nayar and Nikhil Chakraborty, she said Prakash Kardaley belonged to this special breed of journalists.

Displaying a copy of a book released a few months ago, which was dedicated to Kardaley, she quoted him as saying how he always said that to him there was no difference between reporting on the Indian parliament and the Pune Municipal Corporation.

But perhaps the most apt description of the journalist's credo came from her when she quoted Kardaley as saying, "People say journalists should know all the politicians and bureaucrats but I can proudly say that I also know the common man and his issues."

Roy concluded her talk by saying that she hopes scribes in the city would create a memorial for Kardaley — not one made of bricks and cement but one that would help in strengthening the RTI movement.

Chief information commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar highlighted how Kardaley had taken the next crucial step in RTI during his last days, which dealt with how to use the information that one had started getting through this act use in an effective manner.

Earlier Dr SB Mujumdar, founder-director Symbiosis Group spoke on the late journalist's unabated enthusiasm to take up issues and his efforts to prove that Indians were second to none with the Victory Memorial at Wadgaon being a tangible proof of that.Former Supreme Court Judge P B Sawant, Baba Adhav, Meera Borwankar and Vandana Chavan along with a host of activists, scribes and friends of Prakash Kardaley were present on the occasion.