New Delhi: Prime time debates Monday were dominated by the ongoing farmer protests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches in Varanasi and the upcoming Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.
ABP News discussed Modi’s speech on the occasion of Dev Deepawali Mahotsav in Varanasi while Deepak Chaurasia on News Nation believes Hyderabad’s name should be changed for prosperity.
Chaurasia’s prime time question of the hour was — “Will Bhagyalakshmi free Hyderabad of the Nizam culture?”
“The real meaning of renaming Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar is to link it to prosperity,” the anchor said. “Adityanathji has said that the place can be renamed so that not Char Minar but Bhagyalakshmi’s mandir is the main attraction point.”
“AIMIM’s Owaisi is boiling after hearing it but even Home Minister Amit Shah wants Hyderabad’s Nizam culture to end,” Chauraisa added.
Maulana Ali Qadri was asked by Chaurasia as to what is the problem in renaming Hyderabad to ‘Bhagyanagar’. “Hyderabad is already an IT hub and there is no communalism here because the BJP government isn’t in power here,” Qadri said. “This is why our city is developing; if BJP comes to power then only the Hindu-Muslim rhetoric will come forward, nothing else, the unity will be destroyed.”
From Hyderabad to Varanasi: “PM Modi used one arrow to hit multiple targets,” said anchor Rubika Liyaquat said on ABP News, referring to the Prime Minister’s speeches.
“Narendra Modi has clarified that the three farm laws are for the betterment in the lives of the farmers, to make things easier for them,” Liyaquat said. “He has directly attacked the opposition that those trying to spread rumours are scared, hence they have resorted to fuelling these rumours against the farm laws.”
“What will they do if the money reaches the farmers’ account? What will happen to their politics?,” the anchor asked.
Senior journalist S.P. Singh who was on the panel, said, “PM Modi never leaves out a chance to give his message. He has given a political message to the farmers about the opposition’s attempt to create chaos. PM Modi also doesn’t leave out any chance to mix with the citizens.”
In a debate hashtagged #FarmerFury, CNN-News18 Zakka Jacob discussed the ongoing farmer protests against the new farm laws. He called it a “failure of the government” to have not adequately communicated the benefits of the farm laws to the farmers or removed misconceptions about the legislations.
“That’s on you,” he told BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli. “That’s not on the farmer.”
“Over-generalising is also a failure of those who try to look at it as a national movement,” Kohli said. “This is primarily a movement from Punjab, a Congress-ruled state, (and) to some extent Haryana.”
Congress spokesperson Shama Mohammed said PM Modi has been “confrontational” on the issue by blaming the opposition instead of giving farmers a “healing touch”.
“Every sector has benefited because of privatisation, because of liberalisation,” Jacob remarked. “I don’t know why that does not apply to agriculture, and every economist for the past 20 years has been asking this to happen.”
Chairman of SKA Advisors Sunil Alagh said the government could have been better at communicating with farmers but “nobody can question the laws”.
Republic’s Arnab Goswami also went after the farmer protests in his debate on ‘Will PM Modi’s direct reach out to farmers yield a breakthrough?’
“We need to very calmly analyse — is this about farmers or are farmers a front for a lot of other groups who have failed in the last 12 months to break this group, break this country and divide this country?” asked Goswami.
Political analyst Professor Kapil Kumar said, “Since 1947, Congress has only been using them [farmers]… It was a shame to hear the Chief Minister of Punjab yesterday.”
Former Professor at IIM Bangalore R. Vaidyanathan said, “This entire thing is futile because MSP is going to stay. Mandis are going to stay….the intermediaries are going to suffer.”
On Mirror Now, anchor Sahar Zaman reminded everyone it was day five of the farmers protests in the national capital and “it is far from over”.
BJP spokesperson Iqbal Singh Lalpura began by wishing everyone on Guru Nanak Jayanti and then said, “We have taken every aspect of the farmer into confidence. Now, we are now extending an invitation to the farmers to join the negotiations. We have already conducted two rounds of negotiations and it was very cordial. They discussed everything with Narendra Singh Tomar for seven hours.”
When Zaman asked if the central government “is just not willing” to have a dialogue with the farmer, All India Secretary of Bhartiya Kisan Sangh Mohini Mohan Mishra said “nobody is discussing the real problem”, which is the mandis. “No mandi is giving MSP to the farmers…Mandis should be revived in the correct direction,” he added.
Also read: Farmers’ protest a big challenge for Modi. Bigger than demonetisation, GST