Front Page
The death of a policeman in mob violence Monday is the big story today.
The Indian Express carries a photograph of the charred remains of the police car. And make what you will of the accompanying story, “Son of a policeman, he had probed lynching of Dadri victim Akhlaq”. Mohd Akhlaq died in 2015, but the report says, “Trial is yet to begin in the Dadri lynching as the city court is still hearing arguments on charges against the 18 accused. All of them are out on bail.”
“The area remains tense following the violence that continued for nearly three hours,” reports The Times of India.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, in Telangana for an election rally, expressed “grief” (in several reports) over the incident. But the Express editorial chides him: “Adityanath could do himself a world of good if he uses these campaign trips to learn how states like Telangana have been successful in improving development indices like in education and health… there is more to governance than cow protection or erasing the contributions of non-Hindu rulers.”
COP24
Climate change coverage has shrunk across front pages. The COP24 conference sees only the Express with exclusive reports from Poland. Hindustan Times does a flap analysis on “India’s climate goals on track”.
PM on Hinduism
“No one can claim to have full knowledge of Hinduism: PM” reads a headline in The Hindu, as the war between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi persists. Speaking at an election rally in Jodhpur, HT reports, “Modi said ‘a naamdar (dynast)’ appeared to be claiming to know all about Hinduism when even saints don’t make such an argument because of the vast knowledge and heritage associated with Hinduism.”
Horlicks for strength
Hindustan Lever’s acquisition of Horlicks is the lead in Business Standard and The Economic Times. The popular drink of older generations gets ‘nostalgia’ remix in an inside BS page, explaining its popularity.
Interestingly, Qatar leaving OPEC, the international oil organisation, gets a look in on the front page of TOI, HT but barely glancing mention in the economic papers.
Priyanka photo op
And Delhi Times beats HT City for a spread of resplendent photos of when Priyanka Chopra wed Nick Jonas.
Prime Time
The violence in Bulandshahr in which 2 people, including a police officer were killed Monday, was the top news story on news channels but the juicier and controversial war of words between Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the Owaisis held sway in debates.
Times Now picked on All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s Akbaruddin Owaisi and his speech in Hyderabad with #OwaisiChaiAttack. The younger brother of Asaduddin Owaisi used the word ‘chai’ reportedly 19 times with reference to the PM: video excerpts from his speech played and replayed on TV all Monday. “Every time, you speak about chai, chai, and only chai,” he said. “[When asked about] demonetisation, you say hard tea, soft tea, tea kettle, tea water, tea stove….He was a tea-seller in the past,” Akbaruddin said, “but now he is the PM. Behave like a PM now.”
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Shazia Ilmi found the speech obnoxious. “(The) tone, tenor and manner in which a legislator like him is using (words) for the PM of the country… (is) third grade,” she concluded.
AIMIM MLA Imtiaz Jaleel said, “The PM freely calls himself a chaiwalla at rallies, so if Owaisi is calling him a chaiwalla in his own style, I don’t think that is derogatory.”
“How do you expect AIMIM to behave properly when Yogi Adityanath himself came to Telangana and threatened Owaisi that he will have to leave the state and go! What kind of language is that?” he added.
Ilmi shot back: “For years and years Owaisi talked only about Muslims, and Muslim identity politics alone ….and then the Telangana Congress talks only about Muslim schools, so if Yogi Adityanath is talking about Hindus, that is seen as offensive?”
In its debate The Right Stand with anchor Anand Narsimhan, CNN News 18 discussed “#YogiNizamJibe” with AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan and BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya.
Narasimhan asked if the PM’s “Sabka Saath” narrative had been replaced by the “Bajranbali v/s Ali narrative” — an earlier Adityanath jibe.
To this, Malviya said, “The Owaisi brothers have gotten away with bigotry and disgusting statements in the name of minority politics.”
Pathan replied, “Our politics is for the development and betterment of the minorities which have been left in the sidelines for years.”
India Today’s People’s Court looked into BJP president Amit Shah’s statement that Congress’s Telangana manifesto promised free electricity to only mosques and churches — the channel’s fact check refuted this.
Sandeep Shastri, a political scientist commented, “We are seeing a conscious selective amnesia, where you see and select what you want and try and project your opponent in a particular way.”
BJP’s Sanju Verma claimed Congress’s manifestos were mostly ‘biased’. “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that the Telangana Congress manifesto is made for appeasement politics of the Muslims. An IT contract for Muslims only, hospitals and schools only for the benefit of Muslim contractors means that it is for appeasement.”
This angered the anchor who repeatedly asked Verma, “Why are you giving misleading information on the manifesto?”
News it’s kinda cool to know
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has said that the global mean sea level between January and July 2018 was around 2 to 3 mm higher in comparison to the same period in 2017, reports DownToEarth.