Death of a Dravidian stalwart, and the maid breaking the net as a stand-up comic

Former DMK chief late M. Karunanidhi | @kalaignar89

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All major newspapers open today to an ending — Farewell, ‘Kalaignar’ Karunanidhi. 

Dravidian politics lost one of its tallest figures Tuesday as five-time Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi passed away at 6.10 pm at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai. He was 94 years old and had been battling age-related illnesses for 11 days. Wednesday, 8 August, the Tricolour will fly at half-mast in all state capitals, and a public holiday has been declared in Tamil Nadu in honour of the popular leader. From PM Modi to Rajinikanth, leaders across the political spectrum expressed their sorrow at his death.

To know why Karunanidhi left behind a lasting legacy that changed the face of national politics, read Aananth Daksnamurthy’s tribute to him.

Shortly after Karunanidhi’s death, a controversy erupted over where the DMK leader will be buried. The Tamil Nadu government refused to grant the DMK’s request for space near DMK founder C.N. Annadurai’s memorial at Marina beach, provoking the party to move the high court for permission. DMK lawyers landed at acting chief justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh’s house late Tuesday night for a hearing, The Hindu reports. But the matter was deferred to Wednesday morning.  

The country also awoke to the loss of an Army major and three soldiers while foiling an infiltration bid at the border. According to The Times of India, which allocates the the report the largest space of all dailies, there were eight infiltrators in total, four of whom fled to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. While two were shot dead, the remaining two were believed to be injured and hiding in the area, the report added.

Reports on the exploitation of minors and the vulnerable at shelters meant to protect them account for the other big headlines of the day:

Young girls were allegedly sexually abused, beaten up, and forcibly married to men twice their age at an illegally run women’s shelter in Deoria, UP. Eighteen girls who lived at the ‘shelter’ are believed to be missing, with Hindustan Times reporting front-page that Deoria additional district magistrate (ADM) Sitaram Gupta is still trying to ascertain the number of inmates at the shelter “to better identify the ones missing”. 

With two back-to-back cases of sexual abuse at shelters, the Centre has called for a social audit of all the 9,000 institutions in the country “for the children who are abandoned, orphaned or rescued”, The Indian Express reports. The audit reports are to submitted within the next 60 days. 

The Supreme Court asked the Bihar government a question: “Every six hours a girl is getting raped… what are you doing about it?” The apex court was shocked, as everyone was, that the Muzaffarpur shelter exposed for the alleged sexual abuse of 34 girls and women received funding from the Bihar government “without inspection”, Ritika Jain reports for ThePrint. 

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has pledged his support to women everywhere. On Tuesday, the Congress president promised to support the women’s reservation bill for Parliament if it is tabled, “even as he accused the Narendra Modi government of not paying any attention to the legislation”, Kumar Anshuman reports for ThePrint. “The Prime Minister doesn’t speak a word when girls are raped in Bihar and other states,” Rahul added.

News it’s just kinda cool to know

Deepika Mhatre, a former help who is now a comedian, is breaking the internet with her stand-up act. She uses the platform to “talk back” to those among India’s elite who seek to sustain their power through caste and class-based discrimination, The Guardian reports. “That’s fine. Go and hide your precious utensils that I am not allowed to use,” Mhatre said. “But whose hands made the chapattis you eat? And whose hands apply the balm when a tired madam needs a massage?” 

Not even three billboards outside Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bengaluru’s civic agency, has sought to ban all kinds of advertisement structures, including billboards, within its jurisdiction for one year starting Monday, The New Indian Express reports. Why? It wants to take “a firm step in the war on illegal hoardings and flexboards”. 

Business Class

The government Tuesday cleared the appointment of journalist S. Gurumurthy and co-operative movement crusader Satish Marathe as directors on the board of the RBI, reports The Economic Times. Both the appointments are for a period of four years. Gurumurthy and Marathe are both known to have close ties with the RSS.

In a letter to the chiefs of large banks, the Indian Bank Association has shared the contours of a plan to provide legal and financial help to current and former employees being probed by investigating agencies for “decisions seemingly taken in good faith”, reports The Economic Times.

Point of View

Remembering Karunanidhi: The Indian Express writes in an editorial, “His death brings an era to a close in Tamil Nadu. The imprint of the five-time chief minister and legislator for over six decades is visible on almost every aspect of Tamil public life — politics, public administration, cinema, literature.”

Karunanidhi’s death has left a void in Tamil politics that will be difficult to fill. In a column in The Hindu, former diplomat Gopalkrishna Gandhi pays tribute to the former chief minister: “He will be long remembered for three outstanding accomplishments — his passion for Tamil as a language and a metaphor for the dignity of its users; his refusal to be bullied by political hubris during the national emergency; and his uncompromising secularism.”

The GST council met for the second time in a fortnight last Saturday and the focus was on issues facing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The Hindu writes in its editorial, “Setting up a ministerial group to look into the problems faced by MSMEs since India moved to the GST regime last July is a signal that the government is not brushing aside the implementation issues that still trouble smaller players.”

Are some political parties constantly in search of an enemy to build a narrative to grab political power? Journalist Sagarika Ghose thinks so. In her column in The Times of India, she writes, “While politicians keep creating enemies to build frenzied political movements against these enemies in order to grab power, the real need for people is to build trust. Without trust, as Amartya Sen has reminded us, there can be no vikas.”

Prime Time

Karunanidhi at Marina beach

In the wake of M. Karunanidhi’s death, Bhupendra Chaubey of News 18 talked about the AIADMK government’s decision to not allow his burial at Marina beach. “Unless the government in Tamil Nadu has any political sense and knows how to control the crowd, I’m going to say that it will turn very ugly,” said political analyst Ajoy Bose. DMK’s Saravanan Annadurai said the AIADMK was doing petty politics over Karunanidhi’s burial.

During the discussion, Chaubey said Marina beach was a tourist spot. “We are here to seek a legal right we think we have,” responded Annadurai.

‘Stable, fragile’

NDTV’s Vishnu Som invited lawyer C. Rajasekharan and journalist Arati Jerath to discuss the controversy regarding Karunanidhi’s burial. “Eighty years as a writer, 60 as a politician, 50 as DMK chief, 13-time MLA, five-time chief minister, what more can a person do for a state?” asked Rajasekharan.

On Som’s question about the repercussions of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi’s death on the upcoming elections, Jerath said the DMK had “stability” while the AIADMK was pretty “fragile”.