India Today asks if Kangana has crossed the line, NDTV wonders if Delhi needs another lockdown

A quick take on what prime time TV news talked about.

File photo of Kangana Ranaut | Wikimedia Commons

New Delhi: Prime time Thursday offered up a few different topics, from actor Kangana Ranaut’s “soft porn” comment about actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar to India’s worrying spike in daily Covid cases. Times Now focused on the Congress observing PM Modi’s birthday as National Unemployment Day.

First, to India Today, which discussed the “mother of all cat fights” — between Ranaut and Matondkar. The channel asked its viewers the question everyone has been asking: “Has Kangana crossed the line?”

On News18 India, anchor Amish Devgan called out actors Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan for their “silence” on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation breaking Ranaut’s office. “One woman’s office gets razed and they don’t utter a single word,” he said, before asking why Ranaut and Sushant Singh Rajput don’t have the support of “superstars”?

He also, helpfully, answered the question himself, saying, “Probably because they [superstars] have been in the acting industry for so long, they can’t understand the pain of a 70-year-old father. Whenever the topic of Bollywood’s drugs gang erupts, they go into a silent mode.”

Meanwhile, ABP News had a “super exclusive” interview with actor and BJP politician Jaya Prada, who remarked, “Jaya Bachchan shouldn’t protect Bollywood so aggressively. The industry wasn’t insulted with Ravi Kishan’s statement. The industry provides employment to so many people, it is as much as ours as it is hers. She can’t act like she is the only one in Bollywood.” She was referring to Bachchan’s speech in Parliament defending the industry against allegations that it was a den of drugs.

“Sushant was used by Rhea Chakraborty and her brother. Rhea took the names of the other heroines claiming that they were involved with her. It’s like saying, if I am sinking, I won’t spare anyone on the boat,” Jaya Prada added.

Moving on from B-Town, it is as if a few news channels have finally remembered there is a pandemic on. NDTV 24×7’s Sonia Singh explained, “There has been a major spike in India’s coronavirus cases, at 97,894. That’s been the highest ever so far. It is just short of the one lakh a day mark. The bad news is that this spike comes after a day’s decline.”

The channel’s Vishnu Som also brought some worrying data: “The situation in Delhi is alarming at this stage. We have seen a second sharp spike. Earlier, there had been a bit of a flattening of the curve, then there was reversal of a three-day trend with another sharp spike taking place.”

Som wondered out loud, “As Delhi opens up, these cases will also increase due to enhanced testing. Therefore, when does the government start looking seriously at the possibility of another lockdown?”

But Times Now’s Rahul Shivshankar was consumed by other issues. He first gave a history lesson, “Let me remind you of some time-honoured traditions. India marked former Prime Minister Nehru’s birthday as Children’s Day. This has been a longstanding custom.” He then reminded viewers that Indira Gandhi’s birthday was celebrated as Ekta Diwas.

“No political party has questioned the decision to observe these days in the spirit that the Congress party believes this should be celebrated. But, in what BJP calls today a graceless attempt at sullying PM Modi’s birthday, Congress has chosen to mark the day as Unemployment Day.”