Front Page
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ‘challenge’ to the Opposition on Article 370 is the lead story on the front pages of Indian Express, The Hindu and Hindustan Times. Interestingly, The Times of India differs and leads with the government’s decision to decriminalise two-thirds of the Companies Act.
PM Modi on Article 370: Express and Hindu highlight PM Modi’s challenge in their headlines, “Modi dares Opp to bring back 370: Won’t take even 4 months for normalcy in J&K,” and “Modi dares Oppn. on Art 370,” respectively. HT chooses to underline Modi’s promise, “We’ll fix J&K’s 40-yr-old problem in 4 months: PM.”
PM Modi “challenged Opposition parties to declare in their poll manifestos that they would ‘bring back Article 370 and 35A’,” writes Express.
HT notes that Modi accused “the Opposition of ‘politicising’ the central government’s decision” to revoke Article 370. It adds that he also asked “the Congress and NCP to clear their stand on the issue that has triggered an intense debate.”
Modi also claimed that “both men and women from the Muslim community were looking to a bright future because” the BJP government “had made good with its promise to do away with the archaic practise of triple talaq,” reports Hindu.
World Bank: The World Bank “slashed its economic growth forecast for India to 6% for the current fiscal from its April projection of 7.5%,” citing a “broad-based and severe cyclical slowdown,” reports HT. This news finds a boxed mention in TOI and under fold in HT. Express doesn’t mention this on Page 1.
In its page 1 report, Hindu adds, “while industrial output growth increased to 6.9% owing to an uptick in manufacturing and construction, the growth in agriculture and services moderated to 2.9 and 7.5%, respectively.”
China-Nepal: “Ignoring pressure” from the US and European countries, Nepal “pledged to sign an extradition treaty with China soon,” reports Express. In its Explained box, it says “while China has promised huge aid to Nepal, India may not be able to match Beijing’s financial prowess, dollar by dollar.”
TOI writes, Nepal “seeks to end Indian dominance over its trade routes by increasing connectivity with Beijing.” It adds that, a “70-km rail link will connect Gyiron in Tibet with Kathmandu.” Hindu and HT don’t carry this story on their front pages.
Air Quality: Delhi’s air quality is, sadly, making headlines: Hindu writes that “Ahead of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP),” CM Kejriwal said that “all the gains achieved so far to combat pollution would be nullified if neighbouring states do not stop crop burning”. It adds that “several monitoring stations” across New Delhi “showed the Air Quality Index (AQI) as ‘very poor’.” HT reports that AQI continued “its plunge into the ‘poor’ category.”
Others: TOI’s lead says, the government “is set to decriminalise two-thirds of the Companies Act as it looks to do away with jail term in over 40 sections out of 66.”
J&K: “Close to 4,500 students” from J&K have “reported at colleges across the country to pursue undergraduate studies under the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) – the highest in six years,” writes Express.
The Indian Army has “deployed more troops” in order to “deal with an unusual spike in infiltration by Pakistan-backed terrorists looking to stir trouble” in J&K, writes HT.
Express also reports, Mahatma Gandhi Anatrrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidhyalaya in Wardha “revoked” the expulsion of six students over a dharna and a letter to the PM against article 370.
Opinion
Hindu: In ‘Chennai Connect’, the newspaper writes, PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at their second informal summit in Chennai established a “high-level economic and trade dialogue mechanism” with the “three-pronged objective of enhancing trade volumes, bridging the massive bilateral trade deficit” and “increasing mutual investment in sectors agreed upon.” Hindu observes that India often “sees China through the prism of its ties with Pakistan,” while China looks “constantly for an American role in Indian actions.” The newspaper maintains that it is necessary to “remove the worry of ‘third parties’ from the room,” if New Delhi and Beijing are to “move beyond laying the foundations of engagement and building atmospherics to actually resolving serious issues.”
HT: Ahead of Diwali, the newspaper claims that there is a “sense of disappointment and apprehension in the air.” For one, there is a lack of “green crackers in the market.” It notes that the government launched green crackers, “which will release 30% less particulate matter” into the atmosphere. HT writes that “this means the private sector is struggling to get on board.” The newspaper raises concerns by shopkeepers – they have a “limited range of green crackers” and this “cannot match the variety of conventional firecrackers”. However, HTexplains that these “teething problems are bound to arise.” It calls on the government to “lend a helping hand to industry in order to enable it to make this leap of faith as so many livelihoods are linked to the sector.”
Prime Time
Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections and the Modi-Xi summit dominated Sunday prime time.
Republic chose differently — it belatedly went after Rahul Gandhi on the meeting of his aides with UK Labour Party’s leader Jeremy Corbyn.
NDTV 24×7 discussed the TV show Bigg Boss with calls to ban it as it is allegedly “against Indian culture and (promotes) vulgarity”.
Times Now: On `Frankly Speaking’, anchor Navika Kumar interviewed Union Minister Prakash Javadekar who confidently said, “We are going to sweep the Maharashtra polls with over 200 seats.”
Kumar asked about Delhi where, next year, not a disintegrating Congress but AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal will face BJP.
Javadekar gave a similar response: “BJP will come to power in Delhi with a thumping majority…. The people have seen the hypocrisy of AAP’s establishment.”
“They’ve held power for five years, and that’s democracy. But now it is our turn.”
India Today: Ahead of the Maharashtra elections, anchor Pooja Shali debated, “Should the Opposition include the revocation (of Article 370) in their manifesto?”
This after, BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his campaign speech at Jalgaon, have brought up Article 370, Jammu and Kashmir.
Political analyst Ashutosh said, “Every political party has supported the abrogation. The issue in Jammu and Kashmir is not the abrogation of Article 370 but the way it has been done.”
He added, “What is fundamental is that how is Article 370 important for the Maharashtra elections. There are serious issues such as the government under a lot of debt and farmer suicides.”
BJP’s national secretary R.P. Singh linked Article 370 to terrorism: “When did the Bombay attacks happen? Were the jihadisnot responsible for that? Security is a big concern for Maharashtra.’’
Aaj Tak: The election in Haryana was the debating point on the channel.
Gourav Vallabh, Congress, attacked the ruling Khattar regime on unemployment. “An investment summit in Haryana was organized (recently), it was stated that MoUs worth Rs 6.5 crore were signed to provide employment opportunities but no employment was generated.”
Swaraj India’s Yogendra Yadav described Haryana’s political situation as “Nikammi sarkar- vipaksh bekaar” (the ruling party and the Opposition are worthless). “The incidents of rape have increased one and half times…earlier 21 crore liquor bottles used to sell in the state- now the number has increased to 32 crores. Haryana is number 1 in unemployment,” he said.
BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivdedi defended the Khattar government: “Sex ratio was 831 per 1,000 boys, now it has improved to 913 girls per 1,000 boys.”
NDTV India: Anchor Nagma discussed the significance of Modi-Xi summit in Mamallapuram on `Hum Log’.
Retired diplomat Rajeev Dogra praised the Modi government’s ‘Atithi devo bhavah’ approach. He said, “This warm hospitality certainly had some effect. Earlier President Xi used to look very grim… This time he was occasionally smiling.”
Alok Bansal, JNU Professor and India Foundation president, also noticed a change in Xi’s statements about Article 370: “Earlier, China said that the decision to abrogate Article 370 was an infringement on China’s sovereignty and now they are saying that the relevant parties can solve their dispute through personal dialogue…”