Many newspapers did not make an appearance this morning as Holi was a Holi for them. Those that were in business focussed on the big story of yesterday — a festive occasion for the BJP as Jyotiraditya Scindia is set to join the party and a day of mourning for Congress as the senior Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh quit the party after 18 years.
Telegraph calls Jyotiraditya’s decision to quit — “coronation virus”.
The financial press — The Economic Times and Business Standard — concentrate on the Yes Bank crisis.
No surprises that the lead story in TOI is former Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia’s resignation from the party on Holi. He is reportedly set to join the BJP.
TOI writes: “Jyotiraditya Scindia made it an unhappy Holi for Congress, quitting the party early Tuesday, which triggered 22 MLA resignations and pushed the Kamal Nath government to the brink. Seventeen of the 22 MLAs who have resigned are from the Scindia faction and two were allegedly incommunicado.”
As the newspaper notes, this is the biggest “BJP to Congress defection” yet.
Also on the front page is news about five new coronavirus cases in Maharashtra which rose the total number of cases to 62 in India. Kerala was also put on high alert after eight new cases were reported.
The Hindu’s fondness for understatement is a bit of a joke. Note its headline regarding the entire Scindia exit — “Scindia meets Modi, quits Congress”. Well, yes, but there is more to the story than this.
Saying the crisis has deepened, The Hindu also explained that at least 22 Congress MLAs resigned Tuesday. If the resignations are accepted, then the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh would lose its majority.
It explains the crisis in detail with the photograph of a party worker breaking Scindia’s name plate at the Congress headquarters in Bhopal. Oops.
Depend on The Telegraph to juice up news. It calls Scindia’s departure from the Congress and potential entry to BJP a “Coronation Virus”. The Telegraph noted rather wisely: “The world, including some Indian states, is battling a pandemic and a potential economic crisis but we are celebrating a coronation virus.”
The paper goes on to ask certain questions of the BJP and Congress: Whether “elections have become a meaningless and complete joke?” and if the “anti-defection law is a toothless wonder.”
NIE displayed a curious way of connecting the dots between Holi festivities and the ongoing political drama in Madhya Pradesh: “On a day revellers celebrated Holi, colour drained from the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government”, the lead story began colorfully.
The report ‘Scindia Quits Cong, Nath Govt Totters’ also quotes a source as saying that “the deal for Scindia, according to sources, is a BJP Rajya Sabha ticket and a Cabinet berth at the Centre”.
It enumerates the scenarios that might play out now, notably that even with the “support of seven allied MLAs” the Congress is five short of the 104 MLA in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly.
The other main story adds to the Congress’ woes — none of the party’s leaders in Karnataka, where the “plot to pull down the Kamal Nath government was taking final shape…showed any interest to jump into action”.
According to the report ‘K’taka leaders lukewarm to Delhi appeal’, AICC general secretary-in-charge K.C. Venugopal “called former chief minister Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao, former deputy chief minister G Parameshwara and former minister D.K. Shivakumar” but to no avail.
On a lighter note, the anchor report tells the story of a Chennai-based realtor who “found himself waking up to a flurry of calls with weird requests” asking for actress Vani Bhojan. The report says that the realtor’s number “was allegedly used in the recently released Tamil movie, ‘Oh my Kadavule’“.
Mumbai Mirror brings some relief to Mumbaikars in its lead about the state Transport Department’s decision to introduce a cap on the prices of Ola and Uber taxis. “This means, Ola and Uber’s minimum surge fare will not be allowed to exceed Rs 44.55 per km”, the report states.
The drivers of these taxis will also get a makeover as the committee chaired by retired IAS officer B.C. Khatua has proposed “a uniform like their counterparts driving kaali-peelis“.
And Congress receives a spanking from the tabloid in its headline ‘Clueless and Careless, Cong looses Scindia, Sinks Govt in MP’. “Scindia — to whom Rahul was Rahul without a ceremonial prefix or suffix and a Khan Market buddy — walked away from the Congress with 19 legislators,” the Page 1 report notes.
After Yes Bank, its Lakshmi Vilas Bank which is now staring at a crisis and has “knocked on RBI’s door“, according to The Economic Times’ lead story.
In an interview, the chief executive of the bank, S. Sunder, said they are willing to “give up the controlling stake to a long-term investor”.
The Yes Bank saga continues as RBI will now check if the bank’s “auditor BSR had raised any red flags“. According to the exclusive report, “the central bank will also likely question the auditor on the health of the bank and whether the SBI proposal (to rescue the lender) will have any ‘material impact'”.
There’s a small but interesting item about the spike in orders that online pharmacies are witnessing with more and more — and more — “Indians turn to ordering essentials online fearing the spread of COVID-19 infections”.
Business Standard’s lead is an exclusive report about the Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor’s attempts to “influence the lender to sanction large credits to several corporate entities even after his exit”.
The report is based on former chief executive officer Ravneet Gill’s statement to the Enforcement Directorate “during his questioning”.
“The probe agency has indicated that there are at least half a dozen firms that received large loans,” the report notes.
Also, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) “is likely to impose limits on debt mutual funds’ (MFs’) exposure to the additional tier-I (AT-1) bonds with the Yes Bank crisis putting the spotlight on equity-like risks”.