Front Page
Newspapers are more or less in agreement of what deserves front page space, Tuesday morning. Leads, however, are split between the deaths due to encephalitis in Bihar, and the doctor’s strike in Kolkata.
For The Times of India, it’s the former. In “Bihar fever death toll crosses 100, no quick solution in sight”, it writes that the health crisis has only “continued to worsen” with a toll of 103.
“The cause itself has eluded researchers, but experts say a deadly cocktail of heatwave, malnourishment and binging on litchis on an empty stomach is to be blamed for the high death toll this year,” it observes.
Even as it cites reasons for the encephalitis outbreak, TOI is groping in the dark when it comes to why it has occurred — “….even as the number of patients grew, experts and doctors were unsure what could be at the heart of the disease”, and, “Experts have also connected intense heatwave in the country to the disease, although what role it plays is not clear”.
It is also the only newspaper to bring up litchees as a legitimate reason for the crisis: “When sugar levels drop, the body starts to metabolise fatty acids to produce glucose. But in malnourished kids exposed to toxins such as methylene cyclopropylglycine (MCPG) found in litchis, glucose synthesis is impaired, leading to dangerously low blood sugar and brain inflammation,” it reports.
The Indian Express blames “lack of nutrition programmes, effective awareness campaigns, and a full fledged health facility” — but no litchees. On heat, the Express offers, “experts cite studies to point out that excessive heat, with no rains between, has fuelled AES”.
Hindustan Times writes that “Bihar’s already fragile health care system has been further hit by a doctors’ protest” in solidarity with the doctors in Kolkata, who have been subject to abuse by deceased patients’ families. It’s a claim no other newspaper makes.
The Hindu doesn’t deem the health crisis as page 1 material, and leaves it for its inside pages.
Doctors’ strike
The Hindu does, however, give top billing to “West Bengal doctors withdraw strike”. It writes that “the truce” comes after a “seven-day standoff” with the Mamata Banerjee administration over the safety of doctors practicing in medical institutes.
HT calls it a “breakthrough in the crisis”, which saw protests “of (an) unprecedented scale”. Mamata has agreed to their demands and told them, according to TOI, “Please withdraw your strike like good boys,” adding, “The CM’s “gentleness”, however, came with the message that she could not be bullied”.
Express carries a second report , alongside its main report on the strike — “Draft law seeks 10 yr jail, fine of Rs 5 lakh for attacks on doctors”.
Anantnag and Pulwama
Also making news is “Major killed, car bomb hits Army vehicle in Valley” (Express), in Kashmir’s Anantnag district. HT adds that it comes “less than a week after another terror attack in the town that claimed the lives of six CRPF troopers”.
“… at least nine Army soldiers were injured in an IED blast that targeted a security vehicle of 44 RR at Aarihal village in Pulwama,” TOI writes grimly.
The Hindu’s “10 injured as militants trigger IED blast again in Pulwama”, says the attack happened “27 km from the area” of the 14 February Pulwama attack.
Others
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tells the Opposition “Your words matter, not numbers” — a quote HT and TOI go with in their headlines. The Hindu reports, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the Opposition to speak out on issues and not bother about their numbers.”
Express is the only one to note on the front page that the “BJP gets a working chief”. It carries a photograph and gives the news caption space, saying “JP Nadda, named working president”.
Opinion
Mainstream newspapers, barring Express, comment on the 100 plus deaths due to encephalitis in Bihar.
HT: “Bihar must learn from this tragedy” says that while the state authorities blame hypoglycaemia, heat wave and inadequate ICU facilities for the deaths, they “conveniently” ignore the administration’s failure to respond to the annual outbreak of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in 11 districts of Bihar, including Muzaffarpur where the deaths have occurred.
AES and Japanese encephalitis (JE) outbreaks have been linked to “young, malnourished children eating unripe lychee fruit”. However, India has in place a containment procedure which “mandates” local health workers to conduct household surveys for AES or JE — “these measures have clearly not been implemented in Bihar,” says HT and contrasts it with Uttar Pradesh’s successful “dastak” (‘knock at the door’) scheme. If children with fever are administered glucose in time, it would save “many young lives”.
Economic Times: “Simultaneous polls: Plenty of positives” sees many advantages in PM Modi’s idea of holding all elections “at one go”. These include, less “distraction” from governance, a reduction in poll expenditure, and “hard decisions” not being postponed till after important polls.
All elections used to be simultaneous till the mid-term collapse of governments. Citing several instances of governments that collapsed, including in 1977 and 1996-98 at the Centre, ET says the crucial question to answer is: is the mid-term collapse of elected governments “a flaw in democracy” or “integral” to it?
Prime Time
Encephalitis in Bihar and the doctors’ strike in Bengal and other cities led the news cycle Monday. Many news channels tracked both stories and debated them at prime time.
Aaj Tak, however, ignored them to focus on PM Modi asking the Opposition to speak its mind, before the new session of Parliament that began Monday.
JDU leader Sunil Singh said, “PM Modi spoke like s a statesman”. Ideological battles were for elections, he added, “when one has to run a country, and ensure development, you must let this go”.
BSP leader Satish Prakash responded, tartly, “The first person to question the PM is going to be Nitish Kumar.”
NDTV 24×7: On the doctors’ strike in West Bengal, political analyst Geeta Bhatt said, “The steps Mamata took today, she should have taken on the very first day. I hope she can undo the damage that has already been done, considering she’s the one who tried to politicise it.”
TMC supporter Garga Chatterjee hit back: “Hindu-Muslim are two words the BJP cannot survive without. The BJP IT cell has been trying to create this narrative but it is not true.”
Tiranga TV: On the doctors’ strike, Dr. R.V. Ashokan said, “IMA (Indian Medical Association) is looking for security…”
Dr. Harsh Mahajan stressed that doctors “never” want to strike. “The very fact that they have to resort to a strike must mean that things were totally wrong and there was no other resort.”
Republic Bharat turned to the outbreak of encephalitis in Bihar. “The outbreak… is a recurrent problem and it needs long term as well as short term solutions,” said Priya Sharma, BJP representative.
“The insensitivity of the government and the health department has caused this havoc,” said RJD leader Shoaib Jamaisab.
On Times Now, the debate was “Is this the ease of living that was promised the NDA government?”
Political analyst Nishant Varma pointed out that there had been no apology by the state or central government — that was “shameful” he said.
JDU spokesperson G.M. Shaheen tried to defend Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar: “We are in great shock because of these deaths. Bihar government is doing its best to handle the situation.”
Republic TV: Anchor Arnab Goswami blamed Kumar for the poor condition of the state’s health management.
“When 100 children were dying, Nitish was holding meetings in Patna; He was attending NITI Aayog meetings.”
Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research, said the “irresponsible behavior” of Kumar’s government is “very clear”.
BJP’s representative was on the back foot: “The smallest coffins are the heaviest to carry, we stand responsible. We stand in solidarity with grieving families,” said Charu Pragya.
Tweet of the day
This is one of the most powerful batting performances I have seen from Bangladesh. And I have been watching them for a while.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) June 17, 2019
With inputs from Shailaja Bajpai and Harshit Mansukhani.