Front Page
With the government in place, newspapers look everywhere for stories and have different leads.
In The Times of India, it is “Govt probes I-T & GST mismatch in the crackdown against evaders”. The Modi government seeks to investigate tax evasion and money laundering by “helping detect thousands of overstated goods and services tax (GST) claims that don’t match up with income tax returns”.
“This is the first time the government is matching income tax and GST returns.”
For The Indian Express, the lead is “Food inflation shadow over RBI rate meeting”. While “most expect the RBI’s monetary policy committee to slash interest rates in its review meeting”, “…there’s an elephant in the room: food inflation”.
Since December 2018, the annual wholesale price inflation for food has risen, and the “underlying trend of food prices firming up after a long gap seems clear”.
In its first term, the Modi government “was proactive in controlling food inflation through ‘supply management’”, but “it may not be inclined to similar hawkishness now, particularly with the farm sector growth slowing to low-single digits even in nominal terms”.
What the Reserve Bank of India does next “will be known June 6”, it ominously states.
The Hindu is the only one to lead with the upheaval in Tamil Nadu over the draft education policy’s recommendation to teach Hindi and two other languages. Express has this on its front page too but concentrates on the policy’s “strong pitch for multi-lingualism in the classroom”. The report also terms English as the language of the “educated elite” — “the elite often use English…as a test for entry into the elite class and for the jobs that they control”.
Express’s report does not mention that Tamil Nadu is upset over the imposition of Hindi. “Centre in damage control mode over anti-Hindi protests,” reads the Hindu’s headline. “The draft policy will only be implemented after public hearings, said a tweet written in Tamil by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Centre would support the development of ancient Tamil, she added,” wrote the Hindu.
External Affairs minister S. Jaishankar put out a similar tweet, which the Hindu writes seems “to be part of the Centre’s effort to calm the storm provoked by the draft policy”.
Hindustan Times puts aside politics and governance to highlight “no respite from heat in sight any time soon”.
“Even though there will likely be a brief fall in temperature, from June 8 it would again shoot up to 44 degrees Celsius or more resulting in a heatwave, IMD officials said,” reports HT.
BJP and Bihar: TOI writes that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar expanded his cabinet “after BJP said it would not accept his offer of one berth for the moment”, in “Now, BJP says ‘later’ after Nitish offers it single berth”.
The Hindu frames it differently, saying “Mr. Kumar later said that the BJP was offered a berth but the party was not too keen”.
HT reports, “While there was speculation that the Bihar cabinet expansion signalled a rift between the JD(U) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both parties appeared to play down the issue.”
Pakistan and the Iftar party: Common across front pages is the Iftar celebration gone wrong in Islamabad that was thrown by the Indian envoy.
“India on Sunday “strongly protested” after guests at an Iftar event organised on Saturday by its mission in Islamabad complained of harassment by Pakistani security agencies,” reports the Hindu.
In its ‘Explained’ page, the Express writes that the “Pakistani security agencies’ action seems to be a tit-for-tat response to what India did during the March 23 Pakistani National Day event in New Delhi”.
Meanwhile, TOI is the only one to claim “ISI harasses guests at Indian mission’s Iftar in Islamabad”. It writes that “Many of the guests were turned away from the venue by ISI men, who also tried to snatch the cameras of Indian officials seeking to record the harassment of guests” — but no other newspaper reports this.
Opinion
TOI: “Nirmala’s Challenge”: Last Friday’s economic data showed a “marked economic slowdown in the backdrop of high levels of unemployment”. These, coupled with the US decision to end trade benefits to India, call for “bold decisions” from the new finance minister who will need to craft a budget that undertakes new welfare schemes in the context of the slowdown — GDP is at 6.8 per cent, the slowest in five years.
TOI says the finance ministry believes “the stress that non-banks finance companies (NBFCs) have been subjected to in the last nine months has caused the slowdown”. In view of this, growth can only come from public investment but with fiscal prudence. The way out is to “embark on a privatization programme”.
A marquee exercise like the sale of Air India, “can meet immediate challenges” while the government works to reform markets, it concludes.
HT: “Jaishankar’s entry marks the era of the expert”: The appointment of S. Jaishankar, a career diplomat to one of the “big four” ministries — external affairs signals Modi’s intention to shift from “political signaling” to “policy implementation”.
Few fields need expertise more than foreign policy, writes HT with the world order experiencing “tectonic shifts” as US becomes more “unilateral and unpredictable” even as it is more important to India “strategically” and “economically”. The current trade dispute between the two countries is the “immediate challenge” for India.
The other major challenge for India comes from China. “The practice of policy increasingly can no longer be divorced from the policy practitioner”, so India is now on the right track with Jaishankar’s appointment.
Prime Time
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet were sworn in the same day the cricket World Cup began —30 May. And so it is only natural that TV news has begun to dwell more on cricket with daily match reports and analysis.
India Today: Anchor Rajdeep Sardesai interviewed cricket experts from around the world on the show ‘Salaam Cricket’.
When West Indies legend Vivian Richards was asked to name a favourite for the Cup, he replied, “I think England is a side one needs to watch out for, their players are looking lethal — I think Jos Butler can be really dangerous. Also, in home conditions, England is always a tough side to beat.”
Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle fancied the chances of Australia, with the likes of opener David Warner who is “looking very hungry” and “has a point to make” after he was suspended for a year from international cricket for ball tampering in March 2018.
Former Australian batsman-captain Michael Clarke thought tackling spin would be an important factor in this tournament.
Republic TV: Anchor Arnab Goswami was stuck in the past — he wanted to discuss whether it was the Opposition which divided India and the PM who united a divided India.
Shahid Siddiqui, chief editor of Nai Duniya, said, “This election was the last election for Mandal politics. And parties which have depended on ‘parivar’, their time is over.”
Journalist Kanchan Gupta agreed with Siddiqui: “We are now in a situation where the country is deeply divided, one side is the vast majority that voted for Modi and the other side you have the rejectionists who live in denial.”
Goswami said in the middle, “The Opposition has failed, its caste based politics have failed, this is the first weekend after the government was sworn in and it is important to challenge those who divided the country.”
NDTV 24×7: Anchor Ankita Mukherjee on the ‘9oclock show felt that people must careful about their social media posts when they share thoughts on controversial topics like Nathuram Godse. Maharashtra IAS officer Nidhi Chaudhari landed in trouble after her tweet that appeared to question the celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary and “thank” Nathuram Godse.
Mukherjee remarked, “A civil servant should have shown more cautiousness while tweeting about Godse.”
“We are talking about a violent assassin, the ideology of Mahatma was of non-violence and love, Godse cannot be justified, people should show more discretion while tweeting or commenting,” journalist Neerja Choudhary said.
Mukherjee also said that politicians like Pragya Singh Thakur had “praised Godse and won elections”.
Zee News: Anchor Aditi Tyagi questioned whether Pakistan was worried about BIMSTEC after leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation had attended Modi’s swearing in ceremony, last week.
BJP leader Aman Sinha said it was not right to even “call them (Pakistan) a country any longer”. He said, “It is evident that they are disturbed and anxious with the support people of India have shown to PM Modi.”
On 2 June, guests invited to the Indian envoy’s Iftar party faced “unprecedented level of harassment” due to enhanced security checks by Pakistani officials.
Tweet of the day
Very impressive from Bangladesh. The batting looks powerful and they are well led. But South Africa have a lot of introspection to do. The bowling looked flat today and they need a dominant player in the middle order.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) June 2, 2019
(With inputs from Shailaja Bajpai, Harshit Mansukhani and Triya Gulati)