Front Page
“NDA seals deal for Lok Sabha seat-sharing in Bihar” reads a headline in The Hindu. Hindustan Times leads with it too, reporting the alliance’s reformation after Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) left to join the Congress. In the latest development, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) will take 17 seats each, while the Lok Janshakti Party — the newest entrant into the seat sharing deal — will field candidates for the remaining six. That makes 40 in total.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party’s pact with Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has cemented the wider National Democratic Alliance equation in Bihar”, HT writes in its editorial, “Only an inclusive NDA — which has the BJP in senior role as the anchor but not as a hegemonic partner — can help the party deal with the Opposition challenge.”
In its ‘Explained’ box, the Indian Express says, “Ram Vilas Paswan is an important Dalit leader, and his exit would have sent a wrong signal. With the other prominent Dalit leader, Mayawati, firmly against the BJP, the ruling alliance needs a counter balance. Conceding a Rajya Sabha seat to the LJP is not a big ask for the political optics.”
The Express leads with an investigation that finds that the suicide rate in government sponsored Navodaya schools is higher than the national average, at 5.5. Of the 49 students who have committed suicide in the last 5 years, half are Dalit and tribal.
“For every one lakh students studying in these schools, almost six students committed suicide in 2017. This is slightly higher than the national suicide rate for a similar age group in 2015 — roughly 3 suicides per lakh population aged 6 to 17 years,” says the report.
“The causes of suicides in JNVs are disparate and range from unrequited love, family problems, corporal punishment or humiliation by teachers, academic pressure, depression, and fight between friends. Of these, the first three are cited most often as reasons behind suicides,” adds the report.
The Times of India’s biggest story of the day is the government’s “last mile push for Ayodhya resolution in SC”. Within, it writes, “The forceful stance will reflect the state government’s, as also the Modi government’s, empathy for the urgency with which VHP with the strong backing of RSS — has taken up its long pending demand for a Ram temple in Ayodhya in recent weeks.”
The BJP hasn’t conceded to demands for an ordinance on the matter, “but the anticipated thrust in the Supreme Court can well be the last opportunity to get a verdict ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” writes TOI.
Also making headlines is the government’s decision to monitor online content more closely. In “Govt moves to access and trace all ‘unlawful’ content online”, The Indian Express reports that amendments to the Information Technology Act could “make it mandatory for online platforms to “proactively” deploy technology, which would enable a ferreting of content seen as “unlawful”. They also require end-to-end encryption to be broken so that the origin of messages can be traced.”
The report follows orders by the Union government last week, giving ten intelligence agencies the green signal to “intercept, monitor and decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer.”
TOI is not pleased and says so in its editorial. “This needs to be tested against the recent nine-judge bench judgment of the Supreme Court, which ruled the right to privacy was integral to the fundamental right to life,” it writes. “At the very least, circumstances permitting such surveillance must be very clearly and narrowly defined. Moreover, a measure of judicial oversight can be brought in as well. In the US, security agencies require a court order to read unopened emails. India should consider similar safeguards,” it said.
The acquittal of all those accused in the Sohrabuddin encounter case finds place in The Hindu’s lengthy editorial, calling it the “failure of justice”. “It is the prosecution’s duty to ensure the safety of witnesses and give them the confidence and courage to speak the truth under oath. While it is perhaps not surprising that witnesses in the police did not support the prosecution, it is disappointing that others could not be encouraged to do so.”
Prime Time
India Today
India Today anchor Pooja Shali discussed whether the BJP-led Union government is targeting Congress-ruled states. Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are believed to be facing issues on the agriculture front in the middle of the rabi season due to shortage of urea in several districts.
Congress spokesperson Vinayak Dalmiya said that BJP is trying to punish the farmers while party spokesperson Aman Sinha commented that charges made against BJP government is baseless.
Dalmiya said, “This is completely against the principle of cooperative federalism, as BJP has lost in these states due to agrarian crisis they want to punish the farmers.”
Sinha said, “Why are only the Congress governed states facing money shortage? They are making baseless acquisitions.”
Republic TV
On his show, Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami asked who has a bigger role in saving democracy — the government or the opposition.
Goswami said, “The pseudo-liberal media remained completely kept quiet when Calcutta High Court did not allow BJP to carry out rath yatra in West Bengal.”
Writer Saira Shah Halim pointed out that there is terrorism taking place in the name of cow in the country, while BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam said that pseudo-liberal media does not want to talk about development work done in the last four and a half years.
Halim said, “It’s about time we rephrase our verbiage. There’s no such thing as cow vigilantism, it’s cow terrorism.”
Islam said, “You don’t want to talk about all the good work we have done in four and a half years. Hence, they talk about cow vigilantism.”
Aaj Tak
Aaj Tak anchor Sweta Singh interviewed Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on the show Seedhi Baat.
Singh asked Pilot if Congress would form a coalition to defeat the BJP-led NDA in the upcoming 2019 general elections.
Pilot replied, “A rainbow coalition is being made in the country. Very soon you will see all the opposition parties of the country uniting.”
He also pointed out that only Congress can confront BJP at the national stage. As regional parties are also important these days, Congress is willing to “give and take”.
When asked if Congress would be able to secure majority in the general elections, Pilot replied, “No matter what, do remember that BJP is not going to form the government.”
News it’s just kinda cool to know
The New York Times’s Jim Rutenberg makes a list of “The Top 18 Media Grinches of 2018” on Christmas eve. Making it to the list are Amazon and Netflix along with American news organisations like Fox. Perhaps India needs something similar.