People should be careful in electing leader: Vice-Prez

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said people should be careful about the four Cs'- Caste, Community, Cash and Criminality- before selecting a political leader.

Participating in the 50th anniversary of 'Thuglak' magazine here, he said, "I would like to tell the people in public life that people should respect the leaders and select and elect the leaders on the basis of Character, Calibre, Capacity and Conduct. The four Cs".

"Unfortunately, nowadays, some people are trying to replace those 4Cs by other 4Cs which is Caste, Community, Cash and then Criminality. We have to be careful about this," he added.

Naidu cautioned that democracy would lose its value if people decide on the basis of Caste, Community, Cash or Criminality which he said: "was happening in certain times".

"We Indians are the largest democracy in the world and will be doing great disservice (to the nation) if you are carried (away) by that. You need politicians with discipline and devotion," he said.

Earlier, he advised the media to introspect before giving news and curb any trend that affects its "credibility".

"There has to be healthy competition and media should not mix news with views of the organisation. I am of the opinion that the media should introspect very seriously. I am not saying this paper, that paper. All (media)," he said.

Noting that politics, medical profession, journalism and education were treated as 'missions' in the early days, he said, "of late, in every field, some people started making it for commission and doing many omissions."

"I am of the firm opinion that news should be news and views must be viewed. News should be separate, views should be separate. News and views cannot be combined. You have an editorial page. You have commentary. But combining news and views is not correct journalism. that is my view," he said.

"The unhealthy trend of mixing news and views, slanting stories and providing disproportionate coverage in line with management thinking (of media organisation) has become the norm these days instead of giving correct information," he said.

"A section of media is deciding what the viewer should watch or the reader should read. That is not good for fourth estate and Indian democracy in the long run.", he said.