New Delhi: Sunday’s prime time debates focused on former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the actor who played him in a biopic, Sushant Singh Rajput. Aaj Tak took up Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s question about freedom on Independence Day and ABP News had some thoughts on India-China border action.
On NewsX, Vineet Malhotra discussed the “unmatched legacy” of “Captain Cool”, MS Dhoni, who announced his retirement from international cricket on Saturday evening.
Cricket commentator Charu Sharma pointed out that many cricketers prolong their careers despite suffering grave injuries. He tried to decipher the reasons behind Dhoni’s departure by saying, “For playing the highest level of cricket, you need to be in peak fitness. And maybe he [Dhoni] realised there’s no point working that hard, day in and day out, and of course the postponement of the T20 World Cup might have had a bearing…”
Former cricketer Deep Dasgupta said, “He’s redefined what you’d call orthodox… You know, people like him, [Jasprit] Bumrah, [Lasith] Malinga — they’ve shown the world that there’s no one way of succeeding.”
NDTV India‘s anchor Naghma Sahar had former BCCI Selection Committee chairman Kiran More on her panel, who said, “Mahi has always given us a lot of surprises. His style has always been unique. He had surprised everyone when he decided to leave the captaincy in one-day as well as Test cricket”.
Mohammad Kaif, ex-batsman, said Dhoni is the emperor of ‘gut feeling’ as he had taken many decisions based purely on that and succeeded.
Republic TV‘s Arnab Goswami was more concerned with the reel-life Dhoni as he continued to argue about a CBI inquiry into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death: “With India’s middle class roaring for a CBI [inquiry] for Sushant, isn’t it absolutely clear that the guilty will have to pay?”
Actor Mukesh Khanna said the case involves the “image of Bollywood” and also raised the question of why there was no suicide note. While he spoke, visuals of the actor’s alleged ‘diary notes’ appeared on the side of the screen.
On the other hand, filmmaker Shoaib Choudhary argued, “He may have fallen prey to his failed aspirations. This happens with a lot of people.”
Times Now‘s Athar Khan took a different approach to the Rajput case, discussing how a “mystery healer” who treated Sushant told the channel on a voice call that actress Rhea Chakraborty revealed that Rajput was depressed. Huh?
Right off the bat, lawyer Swapnil Kothari called Rajput’s death a “pre-planned murder”. He said, “The people who orchestrated this have built up a narrative that he [Rajput] suffered from depression, diseases, hallucinations, bi-polar disorder…[they had] taken him to doctors so that they control his mind and siphon off money.”
Advocate Touseef Ahmed Khan tried to add some semblance of logic by saying nothing should be assumed in the case. “Indian criminal jurisprudence follows a ratio that says let hundreds of guilty people escape but not one innocent should go to jail,” he added.
Meanwhile, on Aaj Tak‘s ‘Halla Bol’, anchor Anjana Om Kashyap asked if Sonia Gandhi’s Independence Day statement questioning how much freedom Indian people actually have, is a genuine fear or if the Congress is merely playing victim.
The BJP’s spokesperson Sambit Patra commented, “Sonia Gandhi issued the statement… precisely because of this freedom of expression. Her son Rahul Gandhi keeps criticising the government through his tweets. The Congress has called the Army Chief ‘sadak ka gunda’ (roadside criminal), abused the Supreme Court. How else do they want to exercise their freedom?”
Political analyst Ashutosh, however, minced no words on how the media has become a major target of this curb on freedom of expression. “We all know who all have been kicked out of their jobs and how Ashok Lavasa asking questions led to charges on his family members. The media only sings praises for PM Modi,” he said.
And ABP News returned to India-China with a segment on whether India is planning “something big” across the LAC. Anchor Raj Kishore revealed that the Indian Army is working on “advance winter stocking” and equipment for the soldiers on the front.
