Hindi
Tuesday, 29 October: Amar Ujala says the national capital region saw a film of smog after Diwali. It clearly shows that the Supreme Court order curbing the bursting of firecrackers was defied. It is time, says the newspaper, for not just governments but people to do something to stop this poison in the air.
Dainik Bhaskar says India has made a big jump in ease of doing business rankings but what is causing unease is the country’s poor performance in the Global Hunger Index. All indices indicate a loss of employment opportunities and migration of youth from rural areas. If Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan can perform better than India on the hunger index, shouldn’t the government rethink its priorities? It needs to make more investments in health and education.
Wednesday, 30 October: Dainik Jagran addresses the continuing wait for a government in Maharashtra. It says the Shiv Sena’s demands go against the coalition dharma. One does not know if Shiv Sena will go ahead with its threat of forming an alliance with the NCP or Congress but it’s a fact that the idea of chief ministers for half a term each by the coalition partners doesn’t work – it turns out to be a burden on the administration.
Thursday, 31 October: Dainik Jagran talks about the EU delegation’s Kashmir visit. The attack on workers from West Bengal during their visit shows that everything is not right in the Valley. Till terrorists are not forced to flee, nothing is going to change in Jammu and Kashmir. The attack on outsiders in Kashmir is not new and is used to create panic among non-residents.
The EU delegation’s visit to Kashmir gave much more attention to Kashmir globally. MPs of European countries and communities across the world cannot ignore how truck drivers, workers are being killed in attacks. EU MPs have agreed to support India against terror. The question is when will those who support terror be punished.
Dainik Bhaskar also focuses on the EU MPs visit to Kashmir and the opposition’s criticism of the Narendra Modi government. The opposition had alleged that it was a government-sponsored trip. The newspaper says the duty of media and the opposition is to criticise the government but it should also make sure that this criticism doesn’t become a tool in the wrong hands.
Amar Ujala says it has been 87 days since the scrapping of Article 370, and J&K and Ladakh will now be union territories. It can be called a milestone in the history of India. But, in J&K workers and truck drivers are being targeted by terrorists. A large number of security forces were deployed on 5 August after the removal of Article 370. Despite this, there has not been a decrease in terror attacks.
Friday, 1 November: Dainik Jagran’s editorial says it is ironic that those who are responsible for coping with pollution in Delhi and other northern areas thought it better to not do anything about the situation. Governing bodies, including the central government, state government, NGT and Supreme Court, tried to deal with it but all have failed. The main reason for pollution reaching dangerous levels is that its root cause is not understood by the systems. For the past decade, air pollution has only been portrayed as a threat. This is a failure of the system. Why worry about air pollution only in winter? Stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab is a root cause of air pollution in Delhi.
Punjab and Haryana governments have failed to once again to prevent stubble burning. Both the central government and the Central Pollution Control Board have proved helpless before the state governments.
Also read: Delhi’s air pollution masks a class war that nobody is willing to talk about
Tamil
Monday, 29 October: Dinamani writes on the Haryana and Maharastra state assembly election results. It says: “The opposition did not showcase a huge canvas and did not take on the BJP electorally. Even then the BJP could not get a thumping victory like the previous assembly or parliamentary elections. This clearly brings out the discontentment among people.” It adds: “If only the Kashmir issue hadn’t come up, BJP would have encountered a terrible failure.”
Wednesday, 31 October: Dinamani writes on the recent death of a young boy, Sujith Wilson, inside a borewell in Tamil Nadu. Stating that it is a heart-wrenching incident, it writes: “Making it political and TV channels relaying it live 24×7 for four days, like a national disaster, was disgusting. The actual cause of Sujith’s death is the negligence of the parents. Whose fault it is when Sujith’s father Britto Arokiaraj did not close the unused borewell on his farm? If it were a neighbour’s kid, he would have been arrested”. It goes on to say: “The government should take action against everyone who do not close the unused borewells (including Britto Arokiaraj). Officials should also be punished. Only then will such incidents stop.”
Friday, 1 November: Dinamani addresses the issue of Supreme Court Justice Arun Misra refusing to recuse himself from the land acquisition law case. Giving the background of his 2014 judgment on the same issue, it writes: “It seems like Justice Arun Misra takes it as a matter of prestige. His argument that one should be non-judgmental about the judge even though she/he might have given a verdict on the same case before, is not acceptable. By moral obligation – and to avoid the slightest doubt in the petitioner’s mind – it is the duty of the judge to recuse himself from the case.’’
Also read: After-Diwali respiratory illnesses see a dip this year, numbers could go up in coming days