New Delhi: It seems like prime time enjoys desert storms as it continues to focus on Rajasthan after the Sachin Pilot camp moved Jaipur High Court to challenge a disqualification notice against 19 MLAs by the state assembly speaker.
NDTV 24×7 interviewed lawyer and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the speaker. Meanwhile, Mirror Now shone the spotlight on the coronavirus situation in Mumbai’s backyard, the Kalyan-Dombivali area and News Nation‘s Deepak Chaurasia went after the Palghar lynching incident’s chargesheet.
First to NDTV 24×7, where, in an ‘exclusive’, anchor Sreenivasan Jain asked Abhishek Manu Singhvi, “Did Sachin Pilot reach out to you for legal advice?
Singhvi displayed admirable loyalty to both party and friend, saying, “It would not be fair to distort that he’s a dear friend. He had innocently called me two days ago, asking for advice. I told him that I can’t tell him anything and we both laughed about it. He called me with no intention.”
He added that the fact that the Pilot camp is represented by Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, lawyers known to be close to the central government, was not necessarily a message of Pilot’s closeness to the BJP, but simply a matter of lawyers doing the job they are assigned. Thank you, Mr Singhvi, for a lesson in diplomacy.
Over on NewsX, anchor Priya Sehgal, added that “(Pilot) is of course citing freedom of speech.” She said, of Pilot’s future, “The NCP is also an option. I don’t see him joining the BJP. He is going to bargain in a later scenario.”
“He wanted to be the CM. How can you dictate terms?,” demanded the AICC Legal Cell’s Anoop G. Chaudhari. “He doesn’t get an order in his favour. Governor is nobody in this scenario,” he added, ominously.
On ABP News‘ ‘Seedha Sawal’, anchor Rubika Liyaquat gave the Congress spokesperson Archana Sharma an “extra welcome” for her debut on TV debates, but soon after, went all guns blazing at her, asking what Ashok Gehlot’s “magic’’ was that Sachin Pilot’s “landing” seems to have failed.
Cool as a cucumber, Sharma replied that action would be taken against those who are indisciplined, and went on to call Pilot camp “baaghi” — actor Tiger Shroff has competition.
As usual the BJP’s Gaurav Bhatia brought up Rahul Gandhi’s “indiscipline”, saying that anybody with capability and leadership qualities would suffer like Pilot at the hands of the Congress party if he or she doesn’t have the “surname”.
From Rajasthan’s Congress problem to Mumbai’s coronavirus one: Calling Mumbai’s backyard “India’s forgotten zone”, Mirror Now discussed the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Kalyan-Dombivali area.
“A stepbrotherly approach has been shown to Mumbai’s backyard. These are the areas that provide the workforce for the city,” said BJP’s Shweta Singh.
“When we know how interconnected the satellite cities are with Mumbai, why is it that for the first three months of lockdown, a lot of health infrastructure was not built in these districts?” anchor Tanvi Shukla asked the NCP’s Mahesh Tapase.
“We do agree, the infrastructure in these areas is not up to the mark as compared to Mumbai… Nobody was prepared to tackle Covid and we are a lagging nation when it comes to development and medicine,” he answered, with an honesty that is rather refreshing, even if sugarcoated.
Mahesh Tapase appeared also on News Nation, where anchor Deepak Chaurasia turned to Maharashtra CID’s chargesheet in the Palghar lynching incident. Tapase insisted that no “loose investigation” was going on and that the culprits would be convicted.
Chaurasia was clearly in no mood to listen, though, as he taunted, “Murder ki saza suspension, murder ki saza transfer!” This was a reference to the transfer of policemen from Palghar as a result of the incident.
Communist leader and politician Vivek Srivastava, bringing up gangster Vikas Dubey’s “encounter”, yelled at the top of his voice that suspension is also “punishment”. “Transfer isn’t a gold medal!” And then former UP DGP Vikram Singh and Srivastava got into an argument that went on and on…