Front Page
Monday morning’s newspapers have extensive coverage of the tragic blasts that ripped through Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday — all other news gets second billing.
Times of India’s first two pages turn into a special on the massacre, “Blood, Body Parts Were Strewn All Over”, reads its graphic lead story on the blast at Zion Church in Batticaloa. This follows the story of Father Kumaran, who was to lead church that day. “’Twenty-eight people were killed, among them 12 children. Two are critical,’ said Fr Kumaran, sounding distressed,” reports TOI.
The Indian Express is morbid in its headline, “Easter Mass Murder” but Hindustan Times and The Hindu are less descriptive. In “Over 200 dead as blasts rock churches, hotels in Sri Lanka”, HT writes, “The powerful blasts – six in quick succession and then two more hours later – wrought devastation, including at Colombo’s well-known St Anthony’s Shrine, a historic Catholic Church.”
The Hindu mentions the salient fact that “no group has claimed responsibility for the blasts. Investigating authorities in Sri Lanka are yet to disclose the names of the suspects or the alleged perpetrators.” All newspapers agree that the attacks are among the “worst” (HT), and “deadliest” (Hindu) to hit the island since the civil war ended 10 years ago.
“Easter terror day puts the clock back by a decade”, writes TOI, adding that “the fear of terrorism has come back to stay”.
They disagree somewhat on the numbers of those killed. HT, whose lead story is a wire copy, says 30 foreigners were killed. The Hindu, which has carries its own correspondent’s report from Colombo, writes, “At least eight foreign nationals were confirmed dead…while 27 others who were found dead, were “believed to be foreigners”. TOI counts 35 foreigners in its report, four Indian.
In ‘Explained’, the Express says “India passed on specific intelligence to Sri Lankan authorities that a terrorist attack was imminent there”, suspecting the National Towheeth Jamaath, a group which “preaches a puritanical form of Islam”.
“Sri Lanka’s guard was clearly down, with the country shut down since April 12 for the Sinhala-Tamil new year, Good Friday and Easter. It speaks of how much Sri Lanka has got used to its peace of the last decade that the warnings were not considered actionable by the security apparatus,” it writes.
CJI Gogoi
In a follow-up to allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Express prominently reports Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s opinion of the matter on page 1. In “Jaitley backs CJI Gogoi, slams complaint and ‘institution disruptors’”, it calls this a “surprising intervention”, given the government’s silence over the press conference held by four judges last year — including Gogoi — fearing the judiciary had been compromised by then sitting CJI Dipak Misra.
HT chooses to focus on the “Busy week for SC in shadow of sexual harassment cloud” — making it seem like the allegations are a minor blip in the face of “a series of important cases” it will hear this week. TOI confines Jaitley’s comments to a small corner of the paper’s front page (“Harassment charge: Jaitley backs CJI Gogoi”) – while The Hindu banishes it to page 7.
BJP candidates
TOI, instead, gives space to the four candidates nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Delhi, “Even as uncertainty loomed on whether Congress will ally with AAP or contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Delhi on its own.”
The four are Harsh Vardhan from Chandni Chowk, Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi, former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma’s son Pravesh from West Delhi and Gujjar leader Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi parliamentary constituency.
Opinion
The terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka receive condemnation in TOI and Economic Times while Hindu and Express comment on the controversy over allegations of sexual misconduct by CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
Hindu’s “In his own cause” assails the CJI for his response to the complaint. It says the open court hearing, Saturday, by a special bench headed by Gogoi was “questionable” — this is a “textbook example of how not to deal with such a complaint”. Such complaints require “institutional responses” and the SC has its internal sub-committee on sexual harassment as well as a separate “in house procedure” to deal with complaints against judges. Hindu terms the “onslaught on the complainant’s credibility” at the hearing “deplorable” and calls for due process to be followed by SC even now.
In “Your Honour”, Express reminds us that more is at stake than “an individual accusing an individual” of misconduct: the complaint “tests the integrity” of the Supreme Court. Express recalls that Gogoi was one of the four judges who last year held a press conference warning against “attempts to undermine the independence of the judiciary”. The SC has been in the glare of the spotlight ever since.
It terms Gogoi’s response as “hurried” and asked for clarity on his allegations of plot by “bigger force” to undermine the CJI. It says the SC has over the years laid down laws to empower women, and for “their protection at work and at home”. It asks for the complaint to be investigated in a manner best decided by the Supreme Court itself.
Prime Time
The suicide bombings in Sri Lanka were headline news across television news channels.
Zee News termed the attacks as the “biggest news of the day…” It said “post 8 terror blasts, Sri Lanka is in shock”.
CNN News 18: Anchor Zakka Jacob observed that even at the height of the civil war, Sri Lanka had not witnessed “this kind of coordinated attacks”. He added that this was “the first time a particular religion was targeted and there has been such a big death toll”.
However, despite the gravity and enormity of the tragedy, news channels concentrated on election issues as Sadhvi Pragya remained the cynosure of most eyes during the day and in prime time debates.
India Today anchor Gaurav Sawant wondered if BJP leaders had unleashed a “loose cannon” in Pragya. This was prompted by Pragya’s remark Saturday, that she climbed atop Babri Masjid and helped demolish it. She had earlier criticised Hemant Karkare, the police officer killed in the line of duty during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
On Sawant’s show, BJP leader R.P. Singh played interpreter of Pragya’s latest comments. “She never used the word Babri Masjid but instead used the word “dhacha (structure)”. She can be talking about any disputed structure,” he explained. “As far as Babri Masjid is considered we will obey the Supreme Court’s verdict.”
Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh dismissed such quibbles: “It is the BJP top leadership which cursed Hemant Karkare’s martyrdom. Now she (Pragya) is supporting Babri Masjid’s demolition — is this the BJP’s way of “sab ka saath-sab ka vikas?”
Times Now also took on Sadhvi Pragya. “After insulting Martyr Karkare, BJP’s Pragya spews communal hate, ‘Proud of demolishing Babri’. Opposition slams ‘polarisation’. Pragya undermining ‘Sabka Saath’ was how it framed its debate.
BJP spokesperson Tuhin Sinha tried to defend his party: “PM has explained why she was fielded from Bhopal. Her statement has nothing to do with the view of the party.” However, journalist Sanjeev Srivastava thought, “Sadhvi Pragya has become a major embarrassment for the BJP.”
Republic TV’s anchor Arnab Goswami’s Sunday Debate dealt with the Pragya candidacy too– had the 2019 elections turned into a “dharm yudh”?
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said, “It’s time to bust the bogie of terrorism. Sadhvi Pragya was the right candidate because she has suffered false and politically motivated prosecution.”
Islamic scholar Dr. Faheem Baig replied, “You came in with ‘sabka saath sabka vikas’ and then you divided Hindu and Muslims.”
Tweets of the day
Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019
श्रीलंका में हुए आतंकवादी हमले की भारत कड़ी निंदा करता है और श्रीलंका के लोगों तथा सरकार को अपनी संवेदना प्रेषित करता है। निर्दोष लोगों के साथ की गई ऐसी क्रूर हिंसा का, सभ्य समाज में कोई स्थान नहीं है। हम, संकट की इस घड़ी में पूरी दृढ़ता से श्रीलंका के साथ हैं —राष्ट्रपति कोविन्द
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) April 21, 2019
With inputs from Shailaja Bajpai.