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Mainstream newspapers Wednesday are divided on their choice of lead stories.
The Indian Express highlights Justice Arun Mishra and his question on demands for recusal in a land acquisition case, while The Hindu’s choice of lead features Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his claims of not sharing river water with Pakistan anymore. The lead story in Hindustan Times outlines the Army chief’s statement: “Home-made tech will win us future wars”. For The Times of India, ED summoning Praful Patel makes for the lead story.
Praful Patel
The Enforcement Directorate “has asked” NCP leader Praful Patel “to appear before it on Friday in connection with a money laundering investigation related to the assets of the late Iqbal Mirchi,” reports HT.
TOI notes that the former civil aviation minister “denied allegations of a financial deal between a company promoted by his family and the family of Iqbal Memon ‘Mirchi’, the late drug lord and a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim”.
Hindu says that “it is alleged that a deed of confirmation was signed between Millennium Developers and Mirchi’s second wife Hazra Iqbal and their two children” in February 2007.
Express in its ‘Explained’ box writes that “with assembly elections in Maharashtra scheduled less than a week away,” ED’s action against the main leaders of the opposition NCP is “set to muddy the waters and spark a war of words about the timing and intention”.
Justice Arun Mishra
TOI reports that the Supreme Court “witnessed a sharp clash between” Justice Arun Mishra and petitioners “seeking his recusal in a land acquisition case”, with the judge saying “he did not think the apprehension that he might be biased was correct and he saw no reason to withdraw”.
Express quotes Justice Mishra, “My conscience is clear, my integrity is clear before God, I will not budge.” Hindu and HT have not carried the news.
J&K protest
HT reports that “police arrested women activists, including the sister and daughter” of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah “during a march in Srinagar to protest the withdrawal of special status” to J&K.
Express highlights the protesters were “booked under Section 107 of the CrPC” and shifted to Srinagar Central jail. Hindu notes that in addition to Section 107, they were arrested for “violating Section 144, barring assembly of more than four persons.” TOI drops this news.
Hindu’s lead underlines that PM Modi said “India would put to use its share of water from the rivers flowing to Pakistan” and ensure that “every single drop was used for the country’s farmers”.
HT’s lead states Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat’s assertion, “India would fight and win the next war with locally produced weapons and system”.
BJP released its manifesto for the upcoming Haryana elections, and “promised” that its government “would recommend the name of Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar” for the Bharat Ratna, says HT.
Opinion
TOI: The newspaper has a “larger message” for Indian policy-making — there is a “need to use evidence as a critical input in policy making”. Terming demonetisation as the best example of “an ill-conceived policy whose adverse effects lingered long,” TOI writes that India “needs to enhance its standard of data collection” and ensure “its timely dissemination”. It calls on the government to “work on ways of incorporating” data into “decision making”. The paper suggests that domain experts need to be brought into the executive. It notes that the government has “strangely avoided inducting more domain experts in economic ministries”. The newspaper observes that “economists of Indian origin excel everywhere” but they “remain unwanted at home”.
Express: In “Erasing the Slate”, the newspaper claims that the “comeback” of mobile phones in the Valley is “welcome”. However, there still remains a “reason to worry” as major party leaders of the Valley remain in detention. Express also raises the question, “Who will be part of this political initiative, choreographed by Delhi?”
For the paper, what’s more troubling is the suggestion of the “emergence of a new political class in the Valley”. It writes that the “Centre’s will to clear the political board in Kashmir, to wipe it clean” and to “repopulate it in its own image” stands out “for its staggering ambition and hubris”. Express suggests that the only way out of this is “democratic politics”. J&K needs “full democracy, noisy and chaotic as it may be”.
Prime Time
The death of two PMC bank depositors in the context of protests against the RBI prompted CNN-News 18 to ask whether depositors would ever get their money back.
On Republic TV, Arnab Goswami discussed Praful Patel’s alleged links to the Dawood Ibrahim gang. Hindi TV channels, meanwhile, focussed on Maharashtra and Haryana elections and the BJP’s promise to confer Veer Savarkar with the Bharat Ratna.
NDTV: The debate on ‘Left, Right and Centre’ by Vishnu Som was whether the economy is doing as poorly as Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee suggests. Banerjee said the Indian economy is in a crisis as investment has collapsed and imports are not growing.
Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist of Care Ratings, disagreed. “There has not been a governance failure and I don’t think the Indian economy is doing as badly as it is being made out to be,” he said.
Former RBI member Renu Kohli said, “Two-three years ago, we were told when implementation targeting was put into place that it will lay the ground for strong sustainable growth for many, many years to come. What happened to that?”
Times Now: On ‘NewsHour’, anchor Navika Kumar discussed alleged terror links of Praful Patel, which emerged just before the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
“Dealing with people who were involved in the ’93 blasts is nothing less than ‘desh droh’,” said lawyer Shehzad Poonawalla.
Political analyst Dushyant Naagra dismissed the “terror links”, saying “such cases come whenever polls are on the door”.
Aaj Tak: Congress’ objection to giving Veer Savarkar a Bharat Ratna, a poll promise by the BJP, was discussed on ‘Halla Bol’.
BJP’s Prem Shukla brought Jawaharlal Nehru into the picture. “Not just Veer Savarkar, Nehru disrespected Shivaji and B.R. Ambedkar also. When Ambedkar passed away, they (Congress) sent his body to Maharashtra to avoid his last rites to happen in Delhi,” he said.
Congress’ Charan Singh Sapra called BJP a ‘Jumla Party’ for diverting from real issues. “World bank has also said that our economy is in shambles…they (BJP) want people to do yoga with empty stomachs and open Jan Dhan bank accounts with empty pockets,” he said.
ABP News: The point of Rubika Liyaquat’s debate on ‘Kaun banega Mukhyamantri’ was to discuss the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana. But it turned into a slugfest between the Shiv Sena and Congress.
Rohan Gupta of Congress said, “Congress is a party which has given blood for freedom…Nobody should teach us a lesson on nationalism.”
“The same party then goes to our colonisers who ruled us for 200 years to discuss our internal matter (Kashmir),” Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena retorted.
Gupta then took a personal dig at Chaturvedi for leaving Congress in April. “Thoughts can change but the ideology can never change,” he said.
“Your ideology has already changed in the past 150 years…this is not the Congress of Nehru,” Chaturvedi replied.
Abhijeet Banerjee the indian American Nobel memorial sveriges Risks Bank prize winner not noble laureate.
Sir,how many people who write in the Print would even remotely like to deal with the likes of Iqbal Mirchi ? As was written in one of the judgements that white collar crimes are the most meticulously planned are very difficult to prove.