Front Page
The high drama of P. Chidambaram’s arrest steals the headlines and the spotlight in print and on news channels. Also making news today is US President Donald Trump’s latest offer of mediation on Kashmir.
Chidambaram arrest: Front page photographs have been chosen with decorum to show a smiling Chidambaram in the car with CBI officials after his arrest, not the CBI’s “scaling of walls” seen on live TV, Wednesday evening.
Underlining the ‘high drama’, Hindustan Times and The Hindu have almost the same headline: “Chidambaram arrested by CBI amid high drama” (HT), “Chidambaram arrested in INX Media case after high drama’’ (Hindu). The Indian Express is more dramatic, “P Chidambaram is arrested, appeals to court’s conscience”. The Times of India keeps with its preference for sensational headlines: “PC arrested amid high drama, 90 min after he emerges to address media”.
In a “dramatic turn of events”, personnel of the CBI “scaled the boundary walls” of the New Delhi residence of senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram “and arrested him, in full media glare” in connection with its “probe into alleged charges of corruption in the INX Media case”, writes Express.
Chidambaram, “capping a day of dramatic developments” had been “missing since Tuesday afternoon” when the Delhi High Court “ended his interim bail” in the INX Media case, added TOI. He “dramatically appeared at the Congress headquarters” Wednesday evening “claiming he had been planning his legal defence and was ready to face the law”, it says.
HT chooses to be location specific: “arrest came at the end of around 90 minutes of sheer drama” in “Lutyens Delhi – from the Congress HQ on Akbar Road, to the CBI HQ, to Chidambaram’s house”.
The Hindu gives weight to his observations at the Congress press conference: “in the INX Media case, I have not been accused of any offence. Nothing can be farther from the truth. These are lies spread by pathological liars”.
Trump on Kashmir: This is TOI’s lead on one of its flaps with the headline, “Trump again offers to mediate in a very explosive situation”. The daily quotes Trump as saying: “Kashmir’s a very complicated place. You have the Hindus, and you have the Muslims, and I wouldn’t say they get along so great. And that’s what you have right now”.
Express notes that this is the “third time in a month” Trump has offered mediation. It describes in its ‘Explained’ box how the US “needs Pakistan’s help to keep the Taliban on the talks table for it to exit Afghanistan. At the same time, it sees India as a key strategic partner in the region to counter China’s influence”.
Hindu is a little more sarcastic about Trump’s comments: “The US President’s comments on Kashmir also included his version of a history of the region,’’ it writes, and quotes him at length –“Well, they’ve been having this—these talks for hundreds of years, even under different names.”
Protests over demolished temple: “Dalit protest turns violent in the Capital”, writes Hindu as a protest by Dalit organisation “against the demolition of a Guru Ravidas Temple in Tughlakabad forest area turned violent in south-east Delhi’s Govindpuri”.
The protestors “claimed that the police started the lathi charge to stop their march”. Keeping up the drama, TOI calls it a “battlefield”, where “thousands of Dalit activists’’, went on the “rampage in residential colonies and clashed with residents, passersby and cops.”
TOI highlights that “20 vehicles, including TOI’s official car were vandalised”, and that the “TOI reporter covering the protest was also attacked.”
HT, alone, is concerned with the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest. It reports that there has been an “83% surge in fires”.
Express leads with its own `Excellence in Governance Awards’ that leaves just enough room for Chidambaram as second lead.
Opinion
Hindustan Times: In “Follow the law, avoid vendetta”, HT talks about the “political subtext” of the case against senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram for his alleged involvement in the INX Media scandal. While tackling political corruption is “laudable”, the Modi government has been accused by the opposition of using a crackdown to “target political rivals” and allowing leaders who have chosen to join the BJP to escape the same fate. Cracking down on one of the Indian system’s main “infirmity” is laudable, “but it must always be within due process”. There are concerns that CBI, ED and Income Tax department are being used in this process, and it would be advisable for the Centre to “ensure that its actions remain above suspicion”.
The Hindu: In “Content Management”, Hindu addresses the Supreme Court’s nod, on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government, to linking Aadhaar numbers with social media profiles of registered users. The move is meant to identify the originators’offensive content like “inflammatory posts on social media” and other cyber crimes. Intermediaries and service providers have been asked to provide a “back door” to help with traceability, it writes. This sparks concerns and “understandable misgivings” given the widespread suspicion about online surveillance and data sharing. The Hindu suggests that there should be a balance between protecting citizens’ privacy and giving the state adequate means to curb online crime.
Prime Time
It took an arrest to knock Kashmir off the news cycle after reigning there for a fortnight. P. Chidambaram’s arrest Wednesday night captured on live telecasts across all channels had reporters and TV news anchors breathless with excitement. Nobody could speak of anything else.
Earlier in the evening, as the former Union minister appeared at a Congress press conference, Times Now, Mirror Now, India Today as well as NDTV 24×7 covered the press conference and then debated the day’s events.
Missing for 24 hours, Chidambaram made a dramatic entry to the Congress press conference and denied all the allegations against him and his family.
On his “disappearance”, he said, “I was working alongside my lawyers all night… I was engaged in the pursuit of justice.”
CNN News18: On “#TheRightStand” with Anand Narasimhan, the panel discussed the breaking news.
BJP spokesperson Tuhin A. Sinha commented on the delay in the case. CBI registered the case in 2017 over irregularities committed in 2007 when Chidambaram was finance minister. “Sometimes, cases take 34 years. The anti-Sikh riots have (still) not been resolved,” Sinha said.
Lawyer Desh Ratan Nigam, who often speaks for the government, wasn’t buying Chidambaram’s explanation for his disappearance: “He dumped his driver and switched off his phone. These clearly give out the signal that he was trying to hide,” he said.
Republic TV: #ChidambaramArrested was the running hashtag on anchor Arnab Goswami’s show.
“Prima facie evidence says Chidambaram is a criminal and he has to follow the process of law. There will be no discrimination meted out,” insisted Supreme Court lawyer Ashwani Dubey.
Political analyst and professor Sangeet Ragi said, “The same judiciary has given Chidambaram bail 20 times — at that time it was fine?”
Panelists like professor D.K. Giri and political commentator Surendra Chauhan who tried to argue on Chidambaram’s behalf were routinely interrupted and the expected shouting match followed.
Hindi channels also debated the Chidambaram case.
Aaj Tak: On “Dangal”, BJP’s Sambit Patra attacked Congress saying that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi are supporting Chidambaram because they are from the same clan — every Congress leader is sitting in the same ‘bailgadi’, he observed.
Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla defended Chidambaram: “BJP is operating out of vindictiveness. The right to remain silent is a fundamental right and an investigative agency cannot arrest him because of evasive responses.”
Political activist and former AAP member Ashutosh brought up an interesting angle to the case: “The judgment was reserved for seven months, implying that the case was not urgent. Why did the judge have to give the judgment two days before his retirement?”
India TV: Political analyst Shubhransh Rai dismissed the allegations against Chidambaram saying, “How can a media house be related to a Finance Minister? Chidambaram was not among the board of directors. Indrani Mukerjea, a murderer, should not be trusted.”
Satish Prakash, political commentator, also brought in another dimension: “I agree that he should face investigations, but one should not forget that Chidambaram was Home Minister when Amit Shah was jailed for sometime in the Sohrabuddin case.”
Sangeet Ragi, who appeared on this channel too, again defended the CBI’s action: “Despite being the former Finance Minister he should be subjected to due process for the investigation.”
With inputs from Shailaja Bajpai.
Also read: Media joins ED and CBI on hunt for `missing’ P Chidambaram, Hindi news pursues Pakistan