Front Page
The national dailies are on different pages Friday with no dominant news story for the day.
Hindustan Times runs an exclusive interview with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. It wastes no time getting to the issue that has drawn much criticism and anxiety: “Ideally, the peak income-tax rate of 42.7% should come down over time”, it writes, quoting Sitharaman, who was “repeating and stressing the word ‘ideally’”.
She adds that higher tax rates are “driven by the need to part-raise resources for important and essential government expenditure”. She remains convinced that “enough has been down to attract private investment”, adds HT. The interview gets an entire page in an inside page, with topics ranging from GST to the interim budget.
For The Indian Express, “Boy’s body floats to India from PoK, borders melt as soldiers, officials cross minefield for handover” is the big exclusive of the day – no mention of it in other newspapers. In this “rare story of heart and heartbreak”, the body of seven year old Aabid Sheikh floated down a river from Pakistan and was recovered by Indian forces, who had to preserve the body with blocks of ice and finally walk “through a minefield maze” to the Line of Control.
Times of India’s lead is “SC to hear Ayodhya pleas from July 25 if talks nixed”. It writes that the SC “would begin day-to-day hearing” if, on 18 July, it finds that “continuing the four-month-old SC-appointed mediation panel’s search for a negotiated solution may not be fruitful”.
“The order came after Hindu parties joined hands to demand an end to the mediation process which has been favoured by the Muslim side,” it reports. The Hindu and Hindustan Times give this lower billing.
Karnataka drama
Hindu and the Express continue with the turmoil in Karnataka as their other leads – this has been the story of the entire week, across the media.
In today’s chapter, the Speaker says he “can’t be pushed into a decision” regarding the mass resignations within the JD(S)-Congress coalition. With this, the “Suspense over the fate of Karnataka’s wobbling ruling coalition continued”, says HT.
Hindu writes that speaker Ramesh Kumar “insisted that he had a responsibility to understand whether the resignations were genuine and voluntary, as prescribed in the Constitution”. This comes “hours after” the Supreme Court ordered him to make a snappy decision, says Express.
In ‘Explained’, Express argues that “if the resignations of 16 rebel MLAs are accepted by the speaker, it is curtains for the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition. The BJP, which wants to stake claim, has indicated it will wait for word from the Supreme Court”.
The second hearing is due today.
CBI raid on Indira Jaising
“CBI carries out raids on lawyers Grover, Jaising and their NGO” is also making news as TOI’s second lead. The raid was conducted in Mumbai and Delhi on charges of fraud, “during which, sources said, certain “incriminating documents” were seized”, writes TOI.
“…senior advocate Indira Jaising said she and Mr. Grover were being targeted for the human rights work they had been doing for the past several years,” reports The Hindu.
MLA’s daughter
The other human interest story of the day, covered by Express and HT is on Sakshi Mishra, daughter of BJP MLA Rajesh Kumar Mishra and her allegation that she and her Dalit husband were in danger after they married. A video by her posted on social media, was “chilling”, says Express. HT reports that Mishra denied the allegations saying that he is “busy with party work”.
Others
With India out of the race, The Hindu is the only one to put cricket-related news on page 1 (“England dethrones Australia, roars into the final”). HT, meanwhile, runs an unusual foreign-related piece on its front page: “French face of the right-to-die campaign is dead”. It writes that “A Frenchman at the centre of a bitter right-to-die legal feud” which “divided the country and his family” died Thursday.
Opinion
In “A poor show”, Express traces the crisis of the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka which is on the verge of collapse. Even though the Speaker has found discrepancies with the resignation of 10 MLAs, it will be hard “to restore the credibility of the government”.
Both the Congress and JD(S) fell far short of the majority mark in 2018 and “stitched” together a shaky coalition “to keep out the common foe” – BJP. For its part, instead of analysing the loss in southern states, the BJP waited to “fish in troubled waters”. The various developments in this crisis only point out that it is a “murky affair where money brazenly outstrips political principle”.
In “Free fall”, TOI warns that while BJP might have gained from the crisis in Karnataka and Goa, it might not be a permanent win. The defections from Congress highlight the “dwindling fortunes of the grand old party”. Congress made several mistakes in both Karnataka and Goa — giving the post of chief minister to a “rank junior party” in the former and failing to form a government in 2017 despite being the single largest party in the latter.
The resignations by Congress MLAs reveal “how lightly they value their Congress membership and their prospects in the party that is plumbing historic depths”. The party needs to be alert in the few states it is still ruling, especially Madhya Pradesh. In the BJP, not many RSS trained leaders will be happy with this Congress influx to “plum positions”, and it might break the “tight, corporate entity” of Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narnedra Modi.
Prime Time
As the video of 23-year-old Sakshi Mishra — who married a Dalit and is accusing her father, a BJP MLA in Uttar Pradesh, of threatening her for doing so — goes viral, TV news took up her case, aggressively.
Aaj Tak: Anchor Anjana Om Kashyap asked if Mishra will get the protection she is seeking from the government.
BJP spokesperson Shaina N.C. said, “In a country like India, in the 21st century, no one chooses their life partners on the basis of caste or class. This couple will get full protection from the UP government.”
Lawyer Abha Singh said, “This is not just a matter between a father and his daughter. It is about the freedom of choosing your own life partner. Between 2014 and 206, 356 people were killed in the name of honour.”
Mirror Now: Anchor Faye D’Souza discussed honour killings in view of Mishra’s case.
Activist John Dayal said, “Murder can never be a family, community or a caste matter. There should be counseling (in such cases).”
D’Souza asked BJP’s Ritu Rawat about its stand on the MLA, Rajesh Mishra. Rawat evaded the question by saying, “It’s a family matter. That girl is an adult and she married of her own free will.”
Republic TV: Here, the discussion considered if Ayodhya talks have hit a deadlock 125 days after mediation was ordered.
“Good news from Supreme Court”, said BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on the apex court’s announcement of daily hearings later this month if mediation fails.
Atiq-ur-Rehman, researcher in Islamic studies, was optimistic and said that the mediation process had made progress — “we do not have the details and that is what the SC has asked for”.
CNN News 18: The Supreme Court ordered the Karnataka Speaker to decide on the resignations of rebel MLAs by Thursday evening and place it before the bench Friday morning. Anchor Zakka Jacob brought up the issue for debate.
BJP spokesperson S Prakash said, “It was expected that Mr. Ramesh Kumar (the Speaker) will not accept the resignation of the legislators today. He will delay the inevitable and try to buy time.”
Jacob observed that the Speaker met all the MLAs at a meeting recorded on camera.
Lawyer Vikas Gupta said, “The Speaker is only calling the MLAs for a personal meeting.”
Meanwhile, a whip has been issued to all legislators who submitted their resignation. If they fail to be present tomorrow, it would attract the anti-defection law.
Surabhi Hodigere, contributor to Swarajya, said there was a technical flaw in issuing a whip — “The resignations have already been submitted and acknowledged… there is no question of defection or disqualification at all.”
With inputs from Kairvy Grewal and Rachel John.