On Monday morning, the front pages are preoccupied with the contents of a dossier that was used to justify the detention of Jammu and Kashmir leaders Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah under the Public Safety Act (PSA)
AAP’s suspicions over the delay in the Election Commission’s release of Delhi voter turnout numbers is the other highlight. Meanwhile, the financial papers are worried about disruptions in Indian markets due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The Times of India has no flap today but is cramped for news space on account of a half-page Rolex ad. The lead on former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah highlights the reasons why this was done — a “combination of ‘radical methodology’ and ‘capacity to influence people’, reflected in his ability to draw voters to polling booths in defiance of terrorist diktats.” This was the recommendation by an advisory board.
Ahead of Delhi’s election results, TOI says AAP, “alleged a conspiracy over the ‘delay’ in the Election Commission’s announcement of the final voter turnout figures.” The poll body rubbished these claims. Read about a protest march by Delhi’s Gargi College students today, after “alleged sexual assaults by men who had broken into their campus on the third day of the college fest”. And all 73 Indians on board a luxury cruise liner off Hong Kong were “cleared to disembark”.
Like TOI, The Indian Express leads with Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. The report states, “Omar Abdullah’s ability to ‘convince his electorate to vote… ’ and Mufti being referred (to) as ‘Daddy’s Girl’ and ‘Kota Rani’ for ‘her dangerous and insidious machinations and usurping profile and nature’’’, were the reasons for their detention under the PSA.
The paper’s second lead is on the coronavirus and Prime Minister Modi’s offer to help China. In its ‘Explained’ box, Express notes, “The offer…is part of India’s diplomatic toolkit since it has robust experience in medical and pharmaceutical sectors.’’
A single column report from Mumbai says that at a DGP meet, new initiatives for a campus watch were introduced. The report names some: “From keeping a watch on universities where people may indulge in ‘activities threatening the country’s integrity’ to infiltrating their WhatsApp groups.”
The Hindu also leads with J&K but the report is not on Abdullah and Mufti. It’s an ironic lead story on “uninterrupted” Internet in the Valley for potential investors. The administration is “offering an incentive to IT companies to operate in three-shifts and to facilitate women working during the night by providing transportation and security.” While Hindu reports on Delhi’s voter turnout, it omits to mention AAP’s suspicions — odd.
The anchor story is a more positive story about the fight against the drug menace in Punjab by young people. “They (youth) run campaigns on single-use plastics, stubble burning, tree planting, road safety, and against drugs. The motto: ‘mera pind-mera maan’ (my village, my pride).”
Hindustan Times doesn’t give much importance to Abdullah and Mufti. Instead, it focuses on the rising coronavirus fatality count. It is also the only leading paper in Delhi to put Bangladesh’s victory against India in the U-19 Cricket World Cup final where it belongs — on the front page.
An interesting piece on military pensions reports, “Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs are in intensive discussions on reducing the burgeoning pension cost to the exchequer by gradually increasing the retirement age of some non-combatants.”
The Telegraph is very sober and reports on a show of solidarity from IIT Kanpur. The paper writes, “K.S. Venkatesh, a professor of electrical engineering exhorted students and fellow faculty members to salute their fraternity elsewhere who had taken beatings for democracy.”
Note its anchor story which reads, “Efforts are on by a section of Supreme Court registry officials to facilitate the return of two officials removed last year for allegedly tampering with a judicial order to exempt the presence of industrialist Anil Ambani in a contempt case.”
The New Indian Express leads with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palanaswami’s announcement that the Cauvery delta region would be declared as a Protected Special Agricultural Zone (PSAZ), a “long-pending demand of farmers’ associations and political parties”. There’s an exclusive on the massive outreach programme started by the National Commission of Minorities (NCM) to “convince Christians in India that CAA is a good move”. The story says the panel travelled to seven states and talked to several church leaders, “many of whom have already issued statements against the CAA”.
The anchor story takes a different look at why the PSA was slapped on Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. Sections of the PSA dossier, highlighted in the report, include the fact that they spoke “in favour of the revoked articles 370 and 35A” and Abdullah’s “considerable influence”. In Mufti’s case it was her “pro-separatist stance and comments against the revocation of J&K’s special status”. Also read the report about two babies rescued in Tiruchy district after they were sold by their birth parents.
Mumbai Mirror’s lead report is on Mahavitaran, a power distribution utility in Maharashtra, which duped the people and the government “by inflating consumption in the agriculture sector from 2014 to 2019.” Also, some good news for Mumbai strollers as “walkers can now enjoy a longer stroll on Bandra’s sea-side promenade Carter Road, with the demolition of a wall that stood between Joggers Park and Carter Road.”
The Tribune, like Express, leads with the dossier prepared against Abdullah and Mufti. Read the interesting story about the country’s first-ever arrest of “darknet” narcotics operative by the Narcotics Control Bureau. The operative would ship “psychotropic drug parcels abroad in the garb of sex stimulation medicines”. Also, the Punjab Kabaddi Association sent a team to Pakistan through the Wagah border without permissions from the Sports Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs.
On the Economic Times’ flap is the report about the likelihood of restrictions being imposed on exports of crucial antibiotics and vitamins from China in the wake of the lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. Page 1 carries a half-page advertisement, so there are fewer reports. It’s lead is on the Budget proposal to apply indirect transfer provisions to Category II foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) as the paper notes that it “could lead to the imposition of retrospective tax on certain transactions”.
Meanwhile, the banking sector continues to be “plagued by high slippages, especially from the corporate loan book” as top banks including State Bank of India, Axis Bank and Bank of India reported “sharp rise in slippages in the December quarter”.
Read the important anchor story about the government’s plans to introduce prepaid tax and customs on cross-border transactions, which “could make buying products from foreign e-commerce platforms costlier”.
Mint has grim news for the markets — “Imports to India set to be disrupted as rapid spread of coronavirus forces Chinese factories to extend shutdown”. The imports that are likely to take a hit as a result of the lockdown include electronic items, machinery, organic chemicals and plastic items.
More bad news, this time in India’s power sector which “may be in a worse state than earlier thought”. Mint highlights that the central government is “coming across instances of states failing to pay struggling distribution utilities for free power supplied to farms and unmetered consumers, though states claimed to have made substantive payments”. The anchor describes how on its road to recovery, the Punjab National Bank is trying to “get rid of Nirav Modi’s shadow”.
The paper focuses on the winners of the Business Standard Annual Awards 2019. The anchor highlights how the government’s move to allow multinational companies (MNCs) to enter into advance pricing agreements “will improve their compliance with Indian laws”. There’s also a small item of what seems to be an important story about India’s fiscal gap being one of the highest in emerging markets.