Minister of Parliament Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda. (File)
Speaking at the 22nd Prem Bhatia Award for Eminent Journalists, Minister of Parliament Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda Friday said that “privacy ought to be a fundamental right but I am not against Aadhaar”.
The awards went to Manini Chatterjee, National Affairs Editor of The Telegraph, for her “hard-hitting weekly column taking the ruling party to task for its sins of omission and commission” and K Rajendran, senior editor at Kairali TV, for a “focus on climate change and its impact on the Western ghats and Arabian Sea, and the lives of fishermen”. The awards were given to two journalists in the field of political and environment writing by the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust. Panda spoke about judicial, parliamentary, privacy and electoral reforms, emphasising that “one needs to talk about institutions rather than personalities”.
