Front Page
“The stage is set”, announces The Indian Express’s banner headline above an evocative photograph of Rashtrapati Bhavan lit up in different colours as it announces, “Prime Minister Modi, his council of ministers take oath today”.
Hindustan Times carries a similar photograph for its lead, “NDA II take oath today, all eyes on Modi’s new team”. HT gives details of those who will attend the swearing-in ceremony this evening and emphasises that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh, will represent Congress while West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee “in a volte-face” recused herself after families of 54 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists allegedly slain in political violence in the state were also invited.
In its lead, Express highlights the “hectic parleys” on cabinet formation and consultations with coalition partners on how many seats each party will get.
Times of India, in a box item, peeks into the evening’s itinerary and lists some of the delicacies the VIPs will be served, including, it says Raisina Dal.
Arun Jaitley: For Times of India, The Hindu, Economic Times and Business Standard, the lead report is finance minister Arun Jaitley. For once, all newspapers agree in the wording of their headlines: “Jaitley opts out of new cabinet,” says HT.
Express and Hindu are almost identical: “Citing ill health, Arun Jaitley opts out of ministerial position” (Hindu), “Citing ill health, Arun Jaitley opts out, PM calls on him” (Express). Only TOI gives the development a twist, with “Jaitley opts out, creates new dynamics for berth allocation”.
This follows the outgoing FM’s letter Wednesday to the PM on his decision not to “join” Modi’s “second cabinet” for health reasons. TOI adds that Modi visited Jaitley “his friend and colleague for decades at the latter’s residence” later on Wednesday.
All newspapers quote extensively from Jaitley’s letter and trace his political career — “the voice of the BJP and its governments for almost three decades” (Express).
BS says Jaitley could become “a cabinet minister without portfolio” and speculates that Piyush Goyal or Nirmala Sitharaman could be the new finance minister.
Hindu carries a separate piece on, “Amit Shah to get on board Modi Cabinet?” Most media speculation has centred on the berth he would occupy in the cabinet but Hindu says Shah is “keen on retaining the top party post, with several Assembly elections ahead” — Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana. Therefore, BJP’s “one man, one post” rule may need “tweaking”, it adds.
Currency List: The second lead in ET, “US removes India from Currency Manipulator List”, is echoed in Express’s “US take India off currency list”. “The US government has removed India from its monitoring list for currency manipulation, clearing doubts over India’s foreign exchange policies…” writes ET.
Express in ‘Explained’ suggests this may “signal a possible de-escalation on India-US trade tension”.
HT special: HT, after warning of an imminent heatwave in “Brace for a hot week”, carries a special report on “Superseded navy officer earned 2 adverse reports”.
Based on “a senior government official who did not want to be named”, the story claims that “two defence ministers expressed reservations about Vice Admiral Bimal Verma…who was recently overlooked for the post of the Chief of Navy Staff”.
Verma has moved the Armed Forces Tribunal even as the government appointed Admiral Karambir Singh the next chief. However, the names of the ministers in the HT report are revealed only on Page 6: A.K. Antony and the late Manohar Parrikar both placed on record their “reservations” about the promotion process in Verma’s case, says HT.
Postscript?: Here’s a curiosity: on the Opinion pages of the Express, Abhishek Lodha writes on 2019 general elections with the headline, “An election of trust”. The piece talks at length about how 2019 election is an election of hope and makes suggestions on what it can do for India’s future.
Interestingly, Lodha adds a postscript: “This writer’s views are biased — he grew up in an RSS family and his grandfather and father are elected representatives of the BJP. His bias is compounded by the fact that he is managing director of one of India’s largest real estate companies. Before this job, he also worked for McKinsey & Co and was educated in the US — all of which make his views too right wing, capitalist and unrepresentative of real India’’.
Now, what’s this all about?
Prime Time
Arun Jaitley’s decision to opt out of the upcoming cabinet was discussed at length on both Hindi and English news channels. Mamata Banerjee’s refusal to attend the swearing-in ceremony also caught the media’s attention.
Zee News: Anchor Sudhir Chaudhary said Banerjee is not prepared to admit that the Trinamool Congress is responsible for the murder of BJP “karyakartas” in West Bengal.
CNN News18 was in the mood to discuss sports as ICC World Cup 2019, set to begin today.
Anchor Anand Narasimhan discussed the prospects of an Indian victory in English conditions. Narasimhan mentioned how the number four position in the team can play an “important knock” in building up the innings.
In the past several months, the Indian team has experimented several times in finding an able number four batsman.
India TV: Anchor Rajat Sharma said that Arun Jaitley not being a part of the next cabinet is the “biggest news of the day”. Sharma also said that post-election violence has increased in West Bengal.
He added, “TMC MLA’s leaving the party and joining BJP has been a major headache for Mamata Banerjee. On 29 May, two TMC MLA’s left the party in order to join BJP.”
Times Now: Anchor Navika Kumar contemplated the options before the PM for his cabinet and who would be the next finance minister after Arun Jaitley stepped down.
Senior journalist R. Rajagopalan said, first commended outgoing FM, Arun Jaitley: “While Jaitley held the post of the FM, India successfully carried out GST and demonetisation.”
Senior journalist Neerja Chowdhury remarked, “There are possibilities that Jaitley could become a minister without any portfolio.”
NDTV India: Anchor Ravish Kumar said that if the urban class ignores Dalit and tribal rights then no one in the system can prevent cases like the suicide of Payal Tadvi.
Kumar stated, “If a report on 11 million people is lost due to all the noise around, do you really think the TV set you are sitting in front is showing you real thing?”
Aaj Tak: Anchor Rohit Sardana on the show ‘Dangal’ discussed the “anti-Gehlot wave”, which originated within the Congress party, in Rajasthan.
BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya said his party “is not responsible for the khalbali in the opposition”.
“The conflicts in the alliances of opposition are now coming out clearly. For example, in Karnataka, Congress did not have majority of seats, we had –but they formed an alliance with JDS and formed their government,” said Malviya.
Senior journalist Alok Mehta said, “When any political party faces back-to-back defeat then such infighting, which already existed in the party, tend to come out in such ways. The Opposition had not expected that their calculations would fall flat in such a way.”
‘TIME’ cover pages
And please note how Time magazine has changed its tune. Compare the Time covers of before and after Modi’s emphatic win in the general elections.
(With inputs from Shailaja Bajpai, Harshit Mansukhani and Triya Gulati)