Front Page
The front pages of most mainstream dailies are divided on their choice of lead stories Wednesday. The Indian Express and The Hindu lead with Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir will ease in the next 20 to 25 days.
The Times of India and Hindustan Times like Economic Times and Business Standard report the Sensex crash.
TOI’s big lead story in the Delhi edition, however, is an “ice-cream outing to Rajpath” turning a “grim tragedy for a family” when an “out of control dumper truck crashed into the India Gate lawns, killing a 41 year old stockbroker and his eight year old daughter”.
Amit Shah on J&K: In “J&K team meets Shah, says he assured curbs to be eased in 25 days”, Express writes that “nearly 100 people, including members of village panchayats, sarpanchs, apple growers and representatives of people displaced during Partition” met Home Minister Amit Shah. The minister “reassured them that restrictions on communication in Kashmir may be lifted in less than a month’s time” and that the “next Chief Minister will be from among them”, reports Express.
Hindu’s focus is on a different angle — this is “the first time since August 5 decision” that Shah said “only government land would be used to establish industries, hospitals and educational institutions”. It adds that on 5 August, Shah had said “no industry could be set up and tourism could not develop in the State because of restrictions on land purchase due to Articles 370 and 35A”.
Market crash: The more powerful headlines come from the pink papers: The Economic Times says “Stocks sink the most in a year on flood of bad news”; Business Standard writes, “Growth blues make markets see red”. TOI observes that, “Poor economic data unnerves markets, Sensex tanks 770 pts”; HT highlights, “Sensex crashes 770 pts on slowing GDP growth”; while the Hindu outlines “Growth blues pull down stocks, rupee”.
Surprisingly, Express doesn’t find space on Page 1 for this major economic story.
India’s capital and “currency markets reacted strongly to Gross Domestic Product data” that put “economic growth at a six-year low,” reports HT. It mentions, “investors lost around Rs 2.55 lakh crore on Tuesday”.
TOI says “domestic factors”, especially “weak economic data, weighed on investor sentiment” Tuesday “to pull the Sensex down by 770 points or 2% to 36,563 points”. It notes that this was “the year’s biggest fall in percentage terms. The rupee too plunged 98 paise to close at 72.39 against the dollar, its lowest level this year.”
Mudra jobs: Instead of Sensex, Express offers an exclusive report: “Just 1 in 5 Mudra beneficiaries started new business, half of extra jobs were self employment: Govt survey.” It writes the government’s “constant refrain has been that its flagship Mudra scheme is an engine for entrepreneurship and employment.”
Using data from a Labour Ministry survey “yet to be made public”, its says the draft report found that “1.12 crore additional jobs were created during April 2015-December 2017, of this 51.06 lakh were self-employed or working owners”.
HT and TOI carry photographs of a blazing fire at the ONGC plant in Uran. HT reports “four people died in a massive fire that broke out at a gas processing plant run by the state-run company in Uran after a suspected gas leak”.
Opinion
The Times of India: In “The Roti Lesson”, TOI censures the Uttar Pradesh government for the way it responds to dissent and allows “political influence” to subvert law and order. This is evident in cases like the Unnao rape and the missing law student from Shahjahanpur, which were transferred by the Supreme Court from Lucknow to Delhi, it explains. The FIR against journalist Pawan Jaiswal is the latest example of state authorities “silencing critics” – it implies that citizens must “swallow their complaints – no matter how grave”. Jaiswal, whose viral video exposing roti and salt as a school’s midday meal, should have been “commended rather than booked” and prompted the UP government to focus on improving meal schemes rather than “shooting the messenger”.
The Hindu: The newspaper identifies “big, bold structural reforms” as the only solution to the current economic slowdown. In “On the edge”, it points out fault lines in the economy that have pushed it to “verge of stalling”. Demand slumped to an 18-quarter low, GDP slid to 5 per cent and investment activity grew at 4 per cent, less than a third of the growth posted in theperiod one year ago. The Modi government has responded to concerns via a “slew of policy announcements” like tweaking foreign direct investment (FDI) norms and merging public banks. However, these will take time and “time is a luxury” that the Indian economy can’t afford. Even the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s four rate cuts have made little difference. The daily recommends the Modi government consult the Opposition on larger structural economic reforms and then implement them to “reinvigorate demand and investment”.
Prime Time
Karnataka Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar’s arrest interrupted news debates, Tuesday, on India Today, Republic TV,Times Now and NDTV. It had stiff competition from P. Chidambaram’s “5%” comment earlier outside the Supreme Court.
Times Now and Republic TV trained their guns on the two Congressmen and the “fake news brigade” (Times Now) that spread stories, they said, of protests in Kashmir.
Meanwhile, Mirror Now, ET Now and NDTV 24×7 drew attention to the tumbling Sensex, while CNN News18 asked, “No Congress beyond the Gandhis?” as rumours suggested Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would be the next Uttar Pradesh chief.
India Today: D.K. Shivakumar’s prompted anchor Rajdeep Sardesai to ask Congress’ Brijesh Kalappa, “Have the chickens come home to roost for DK Shivakumar, who for a long time was under the scanner of the ED?”
“He only came under the scanner of the ED when he was sheltering the Gujarat Congress MLAs (during the Rajya Sabha polls). This is when the raids were conducted,” Kalappa replied.
BJPs Sambit Patra said, “Have you ever seen anyone who was caught red-handed come out and say I was the thief, I am the corrupt one? Vendetta politics is their first excuse.”
Sardesai asked Patra why no NDA leader had been arrested in the last five years to which Patra said B.S. Yediyurappa had been arrested in the past.
Republic TV: Anchor Arnab Goswami also discussed Shivakumar’s arrest. The channel coined a new name for its latest target, moving from “Tukde tukde gang” and “Khan Market gang” to “Dhamki Gang”.
“Silly old fools,” Goswami called Shivakumar and Chidambaram, “silly old fools”.
“Let the truth come out, cash was even found with the BJP leaders during elections,” said political commentator Sundar Balakrishnan.
Political analyst and lawyer M.R. Venkatesh wondered if Shivakumar would be able to “explain the source of money” found in his house.
Senior journalist Sanjeev Srivastava raised the same question Sardesai had asked: “…why are politicians of only one political party being arrested?”
NDTV India and ABP News discussed the FIR against journalist Pawan Jaiswal for recording children being served salt androti in a mid-day school meal by the Mirzapur administration.
APB: On “Samvidhan ki Shapath”, political commentator Ashutosh remarked, “The question is not about the irregularities of mid-day meal or the action by the administration — the question is whether the journalists can fearlessly bring out the truth.”
Delhi University professor Sangit Ragi suggested that “‘sabji’ was not available that day…” He added matter-of-factly, “In (Uttar Pradesh) villages, a lot of kids are used to eating salt with roti”.
NDTV India: On “Prime Time with Nidhi Kulpati”, senior journalist Sharat Pradhan said, “The FIR against the journalist shows that there is no respect for democratic institutions.”
Political analyst Shantanu Gupta defended the government: “In UP alone, more than 2 lakh schools are functional. If the government starts monitoring every school, the required budget… would be higher than the budget allocated for the meals itself.”