Prime Time
As the inauguration of the Kartarpur Corridor nears, tension rose in the TV newsroom.
Following the video released by the Pakistan government featuring Sikh separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Republic TV threatened #PakDon’tYouDare.
On India Today, anchor Gaurav Sawant saw a “#Pak’s Kartarpur Conspiracy” taking advantage of Indians bickering among themselves: “This needs to stop,” he commanded.
On CNN News18, Marya Shakil continued the “#PoliceVsLawyers” debate after CCTV video showed a female police officer being heckled and molested by lawyers at Tis Hazari on 2 November.
Elsewhere, TV anchors were exasperated with “Kissa Kursi Ka”. As government formation was postponed yet again in Maharashtra, Rahul Shivshankar asked on Times Now, “How is it that (BJP chief) Amit Shah got involved in Haryana and not in Maharashtra?” He entered the fray in Haryana, “what is happening here?’’ asked the anchor.
At 9 pm, anchor Navika Kumar was enraged by the “brazen power games” of BJP and Shiv Sena which held the state “hostage”. While farmers’ suicides continue, the two parties are “haggling… shamelessly bargaining’’ for the chief minister’s post and “the moolah that comes with it”.
NDTV 24×7 wondered if BJP would execute “Operation Kamal” by poaching Shiv Sena MLAs? And anchor Sreenivasan Jain also wanted to know, “Why is Amit Shah silent?”
Senior journalist Neerja Choudhary was equally bewildered: “In Haryana the central BJP went for the kill in 24 hours, they didn’t have a majority but a government was in place. Here, they have a majority and the high command has not moved for two long weeks. So something is wrong.”
Asked if Shiv Sena was worried about losing MLAs, party spokesperson Sanjay Gupta said, “Since 1966 till now, whichever government has been formed in Maharashtra, it was Congress and NCP. We have barely ruled for 5-10 years. If our MLAs didn’t leave us then, why will they leave us now?”
Aaj Tak: As the Ayodhya verdict draws near, anchor Rohit Sardana wondered if both sides would accept the decision, and live peacefully on a debate titled, “Om Shanti Om”. He mentioned the prime minister’s call for peace.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Vijay Shankar Tiwari claimed that there was no chaos earlier, and there won’t be any in the future as well.
Communist Party of India’s Ameer Haider Zaidi had his doubts about PM Narendra Modi’s appeal. “The important thing is that his own people from RSS and BJP should not act opposite to what he said. When he appealed to end mob lynchings, it increased.”
Political analyst Satish Prakash drew attention to the violence against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh and alleged that the Ram temple issue is just a tactic to avoid real problems. “The poison that survives the ‘Samudra Manthan‘ (churn) of mandir-masjid will be left for the Dalits,” he said.
Republic Bharat: Anchor Arnab Goswami called out the “drama” in Maharashtra as “press conference politics”.
Shiv Sena’s Shailesh Pandey insisted that before elections, BJP had said that the government would be equally shared between the two parties. He added, “BJP is a party of Lord Ram…then why are they not fulfilling their promise.”
BJP’s Abhishek Mishra said that if (former Sena chief) Bal Thackeray was alive today, he would have thrown people “like you” out of the party.
Front Page
Friday wakes up to the Supreme Court’s busy upcoming week: “Land, faith, politics: Big SC rulings up next week” (Hindustan Times); “4,000 security forces sent to Ayodhya” (The Hindu), “Kartarpur opening tomorrow, Pak Army overrules Imran Khan: Passport needed” (The Indian Express) and a The Times of India reports that the Rs-25,000 crore “Spl fund for completion only for houses up to 2,150 sq ft”.
Maharashtra’s political saga continues to receive page 1 coverage as does the revocation of author and journalist Aatish Taseer’s Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card first reported by ThePrint.
SC rulings: HT reports that the second half of next week will be “one of the most significant in the history of the Supreme Court”. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi will deliver “at least four important and much-awaited judgements: on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, on review petitions over the purchase of Rafale jets from France, the entry of female worshippers between the ages of 10 and 50 into the Sabarimala temple, and on whether the CJI’s office falls within the sweep of Right to Information Act”.
Kartarpur: Express reports on Pakistan’s “doublespeak” over the Kartarpur corridor. It writes that “barely 48 hours” before the first batch of pilgrims access the corridor “conflicting statements emerged from Pakistan’s government and Army over a key requirement – a passport”. HT chose not to carry the report on the front page.
In its ‘Explained’ box, it adds that these conflicting statements “expose the faultlines” between Pakistan’s government and Army.
Floor cap on housing fund: “Apartments and villas with a carpet area of up to 200 square metres, or around 2,150 square feet, will be eligible for funding from the Rs 25,000-crore fund to revive real estate projects,” reports TOI. It adds that the floor ceiling will “benefit low and middle-income projects”.
There is also a cap on the investment fund, the exposure will be capped at Rs 400 crore. The amount of assistance that can be provided to a builder will also be limited, writes TOI.
Maharashtra: As the 9-November end of the previous assembly’s term nears, HT writes that “resort politics” begins in the state as “Shiv Sena moved its legislators to a Mumbai hotel amid deadlocked negotiations”. Express says the same thing differently: “To keep its flock together… the Shiv Sena herded all its legislators into Rang Sharda, a three-star hotel.”
In “Uddhav gives BJP some hope”, TOI focuses on party chief Uddhav Thackeray’s statement that he did not wish to break ties with the BJP. It adds that BJP state chief Chandrakant Patil met Governor B.S. Koshyari Thursday but “didn’t stake claim to form government”. The Hindu also focuses on Thackeray’s statement but mentions that Shiv Sena still wants the chief minister’s post for half of the term.
Aatish Taseer: The Indian government accused Aatish Taseer of concealing the information that “his father, Salman Taseer was of Pakistani origin”, writes Hindu. Express mentions that Taseer had “published an article critical of Prime Minister Modi in Time magazine in May this year, calling him the ‘Divider-in-Chief’”. According to TOI, the Home Ministry denied that the Time article had anything to do with its action.
Opinion
The Hindu: At first glance, the Rs-25,000 crore Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) announced by the Cabinet to bail out stalled real estate projects looks “well-designed”. The scheme will also apply to projects declared as non-performing assets by banks, and will aid real estate promoters, lenders, finance companies and banks whose funds are locked up in these projects.
The real estate sector is one of the biggest job providers in the country, and has a huge multiplier effect on the economy, writes Hindu. The AIF is a “good idea”, but must be implemented “without glitches”. “Genuine projects in need of support” should be identified without bias, and more investors need to be attracted to the AIF. The government and the Reserve Bank of India have “set the stage” with successive rate cuts. The real estate industry “now has to do its part”, writes Hindu.
The Indian Express: In “God’s Own Sena”, Express discusses the Catholic Church in Kerala’s decision to have its own private force — the Gabriel Sena — for “crowd control”. The Church plans on enlisting retired military and paramilitary men to serve as the “guardians of faith and warrior of ideals”. But many have raised questions over the gravity of these “threats” to faith and ideals. Could the Church be feeling “under siege by the faithful themselves?” asks Express.
Sixty years ago, the Catholic Church had raised another private force called the Christopher Sena which tried to protect the Church’s interests from the then Communist government. In 1959, their one lakh members led the ‘Liberation Struggle’, resulting in the CPI government’s dismissal by the Centre. But today the clergy’s hold over the laity, which has been protesting against the Church for its “deviation from Christian ideals”, has weakened. Public criticism led to cancellation of a Sena meeting scheduled for next week. Evidently, “Gabriel is no Christopher”, concludes Express.