Hindi
12 August, 2019: Amar Ujala expresses concern over increasing incidents of flood across the country — from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to Odisha, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
It says these heavy downpours over a short span of time raised the river levels, leading to increased threat of flooding in central India. Environmentalists claim it is a result of climate change and the policy-makers will have a new challenge to combat.
Kerala had faced floods last year too and environmentalists had blamed indiscriminate construction for it. Assam and Bihar face floods every year and India still doesn’t have a roadmap to deal with it.
Dainik Jagran talks about Sonia Gandhi taking over the helm of Congress after her son, Rahul. It says this has shown that the Congress finds it so difficult to accept any non-Gandhi at the helm. The way the party remained rudderless for the last two-and-half months and then looked to Sonia to salvage it, shows how weak it has become. The party has to decide if it can move forward without the family support. It is strange that the Gandhi name that the party feels is its strength is also its weakness.
13 August: Dainik Bhaskar says that Sonia Gandhi being made the interim Congress president at 72 might seem a tired decision, but there couldn’t have been a better decision. There arose an issue of young versus old in the 130-year-old party that is slowly losing its significance in the political landscape. What has been the reason for this — lack of policies, being directionless, the leadership or society turning conservative? Congress needs to analyse all these reasons and then decide on its leadership. Right now, Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka need to infuse new life blood into the party and bring a fundamental change in its ideology so that it can change the way society thinks.
Dainik Jagran echoes the government’s position on Kashmir. It says the way Eid was celebrated peacefully by Kashmiris after abrogation of Article 370 is reassuring that things will get better. The important point is that people seem to be accepting their new reality.
The new reality of Kashmir needs to be accepted by Pakistan too. It is quite surprising that a section of foreign media has been influenced by Pakistan for decades. They are delusional. Kashmir has been and will be an integral part of India — with or without Article 370. The foreign media also needs to project the illegal occupation of a part of Kashmir by Pakistan.
14 August: Dainik Jagran agrees with the Supreme Court’s ruling on Kashmir, giving the administration time to retain curbs for security reasons and because of the sensitivity of the situation. It should give a strong reply to all those questioning restrictions imposed in Jammu and Kashmir after revocation of Article 370. It is obvious that the demand to remove restrictions is illogical. It is even more important that in a place like Kashmir, one takes extra caution with security situation.
Dainik Bhaskar says the government should not be criticised for the sake of criticism. It is the job of the opposition and media to criticise the government’s wrong policies. The media can highlight development work, etc, done by the government. But how can one expect Eid celebrations without a security cover in the shadow of guns, with Pakistan-backed militancy rife and when there are clear indications that militants are waiting to create trouble?
Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar objected to the presence of 35,000 more troops when there were already lakhs of them in Kashmir. He has even objected to Amarnath yatris and tourists being sent back. These kind of illogical arguments mean people will have less faith in politicians.
16 August: Dainik Jagran talks of the roadmap of the future which Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined in his Independence Day speech. The most significant thing that he said was the need to have small families. He talked of the challenges of a big population. Everyone has to think of what kind of future there will be for newborns in the country — how will a child’s needs be met?
He also reassured private industries that the government is with them as they would work for the development of the country and create jobs.
TAMIL
12 August: Dinamani criticises the Congress leadership for making Sonia Gandhi the interim president of the party. It says, “It is the Congress party which introduced the dynasty politics to India. It is only after seeing them that other state parties followed their footsteps,” it writes.
It adds that “at one point, these families become an octopus and swallow the whole party. Only if the Congress party gets rid of this family, will democracy survive. Without an opposition party, where will democracy be?”
13 August: Dinamani’s editorial criticises state parties in Tamil Nadu for blindly opposing central schemes. It says, “It is very funny to see that even the ruling party AIADMK is trying to stand against Centre just because the state opposition parties are against it”. Arguing that ‘One Nation One Ration card’ is a great scheme, it goes on to say, “It is wrong that politicians who want Tamil Nadu to be separated from the national mainstream narrative, are making the workers/common people pay the price.”
14 August: Dinamani tackles the vagaries of the monsoon. It says, “There is a significant reason for Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and parts of Tamil Nadu like Theni, Nilgiris being affected by this. The root cause is the increased encroachments in Western ghats.”
It goes on to list out some of the problems: “Unplanned and unending development; forest and water bodies being encroached; not having a proper water management system in place — when we very well know that these are the causal agents of flood and destruction in the four states, why blame the monsoon?”
15 August: Dinamani writes about Pakistan’s reaction to India’s move to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. It says, “In Pakistan’s national security council meeting, PM Imran Khan wanted to bring a war-like situation in India with serious ‘Pulwama-like’ attacks.”
It writes that External Affairs Minister Jaishankar has asked China to not interfere in India’s internal matters like India doesn’t meddle in the Hong Kong issue. It concludes by saying, “Pakistan encourages militants in Kashmir valley. What does it have to say about its own people protesting in PoK?”
16 August: Dinamani takes a critical stance on the surrogacy Bill passed by Parliament, recently. It says, “The government should have ensured that the surrogacy centres are equipped with proper technology, and also overseen the process for non-commercialisation and exploitation of parents and the surrogate mother. Instead, the government’s decision to put an end to surrogacy is unthoughtful. The law should have been amended for the benefit and safety of the surrogate mother. Banning surrogacy won’t solve this problem.”
It goes on to say: “With more cases of infertility, there is an immediate need for ‘surrogacy centres regulation bill’ and not ‘surrogate mother regulation bill’.”