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HomePlugged InNewspapers talk about Congress 'crisis', Republic finds Rahul Gandhi at the movies

Newspapers talk about Congress ‘crisis’, Republic finds Rahul Gandhi at the movies

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Headlines Monday talk about the crisis in the Congress after events in Karnataka over the weekend and resignations of key party leaders from their posts.

The Indian Express and The Hindu give detailed reports on Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s “huddle” with the Congress and JD(S). Kumaraswamy returned to Bengaluru Sunday night after a trip to the US and “began holding a series of meetings from the airport itself” in an attempt to “rescue the coalition government”, reports the Express, laying an emphasis on the urgency of the situation.

Even as Hindu says the government is “on the brink of collapse”, Hindustan Times writes: “The coalition leaders struck a conciliatory tone and expressed confidence that some of the rebels will relent.” The rebels, determined to stay with the BJP, have, meanwhile, been “camping at a luxury hotel in Mumbai” as chaos grips Karnataka, informs Hindu.

The Times of India highlights the government’s frantic efforts to reach out to the rebels, “offering to make most of them ministers and promising generous funds to their constituencies. The rebels rejected the offer. One of the rebels, Prathap Gouda Patil, said that the future course was clear, all 13 MLAs would join the BJP.”

Meanwhile, Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Milind Deora also chose to step down from their posts in the Congress. Hindu makes the news its second lead and highlights the chaos succinctly: “The resignations come smack in the middle of the Karnataka crisis and at a time when the party leadership is coping with the resignation of its president Rahul Gandhi.”

Express says this puts the “young vs. old battle” within the Congress “out in the open” and that the resignations will “mount pressure on the elders to follow suit.”

While Scindia resigned as the AICC general secretary, Deoria “said he was looking forward to playing a role at the national level to help stabilise the party,” reports Hindu.

Cricket World Cup: TOI and HT can’t contain their excitement for the cricket World Cup semi-finals where India will play against New Zealand. TOI’s graphic of the four teams in the race — the other two being England and Australia — is given pride of place on the page 1 and presents a detailed SWOT analysis.

On New Zealand, HT says, “It was only their net run rate that earned them a semi-final berth” while India will “go into the match strong.”

Driving test: HT chooses to make “Half of applicants fail driving tests in automated format” its lead this morning, and reports that “the introduction of fully automated driving test tracks at three motor licensing centres in Delhi has led to a sharp rise in the rate of applicants failing permanent driving licence.” Before the automated test, only 16.2 per cent of applicants failed.

Automatic driving tests are supposedly “a “foolproof” way to ensure that unsafe drivers don’t get driving licences”, it reports.

Dalit woman ‘gangraped’: Express publishes a follow up on the murder of rationalist M.M. Kalburgi, and finds that “just days” before he was killed, “a final training camp was allegedly held for the suspected killers on the rubble estate of a businessman from the Mangalore region.”

Express also puts a horrifying instance of caste violence on page 1: “Assaulted, wife ‘abducted, raped,’ Dalit says went to UP police, was tortured.” After his wife was allegedly abducted by three men, the man went to the police who accused him of “foul play” and beat him up. Five hours later, the woman also made her way to the police station and alleged gangrape, it writes.

Opinion

TOI: In ‘Agriculture can’t wait’, TOI highlights how the “reformist and socialist” budget was marked by cautious incrementalism in agriculture “despite a plethora of pro-farmer rhetoric.” The interim budget presented in February signaled a shift to “income support” through the PM Kisan scheme. However, while there has been a “near fourfold rise in allocation from Rs 20,000 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 75,000 crore this fiscal,” it hasn’t been accompanied with structural reforms.

TOI lists out the various ways the budget could have offered incentives to improve the agricultural sector, including investment in GM crops which, famers believe, will increase productivity. It calls for “political boldness” from this government instead of a “quixotic” mention if zero-budget farming.

Express: In ‘Crisis and Opportunity’, Express appreciates Rahul Gandhi’s decision to resign and not succumb to party pressure to continue as president. It also identifies this as an opportunity for the Congress to emerge from “its overdependence on the Gandhis,” which “has destroyed internal democracy and undermined the principle of merit within the party.”

Congress has lost touch at the grassroots level and it is time to go back to its own history of “membership drives and holding elections for party posts.” It suggests holding elections to the “the Pradesh Congress Committees, All India Congress Committee and Congress Working Committee.” Either way, it needs to “quickly set its house in order if it does not want to risk an implosion.”

Prime time

A hotel in Mumbai was the focus of news coverage Sunday across channels, besides the resignations of Congress and JD(S) MLAs in Karnataka.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman remained the person of most interest after her Friday budget presentation – she was interviewed on Times Now and ET Now.

Republic Bharat found Rahul Gandhi at the movies – it played a video of the former Congress president at a theatre in Delhi, “unconcerned” by the crisis unfolding in the Congress: the anchor cited leaders such as Milind Deora and Jyotiraditya Scindia resigning from their party posts, and resignations of Congress MLAs in Karnataka — “who will run the party?’’, she asked indignantly.

Zee News: Anchor Aditi Tyagi discussed the Karnataka crisis. She wondered if Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah was “behind the MLA exodus to become Karnataka chief minister.

Ashutosh Mishra, political analyst, said, “It’s all a game of money. BJP has lost the local elections while Congress and JD(S) have performed well. This is all orchestrated by the BJP.”

BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain refuted this: “Congress can’t handle its own house. They are a headless party.”

ABP News: Anchor Dibang interviewed Ram Madhav, BJP national general secretary, who is also in-charge of Kashmir. They discussed Article 370 and 35A that give Jammu and Kashmir special status —BJP wants to remove both.

Madhav said, “It is a historical truth that when Article 370 was introduced in Parliament, there was a lot of debate. Nehru ji himself said that this is a temporary provision.”

Dibang asked if it could be scrapped.

“It should be removed, that is our ideological position,’’ replied Madhav. “Article 370 is a major hindrance in the emotional integration of the people of Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country. It has to go.”

Republic: On “Who instigates religious friction in this country?’, anchor Arnab Goswami claimed that all sections of society were happy with Friday’s budget. However, one section – namely Congress – remains unhappy as it is falling apart. He accused the Congress of creating an environment of religious intolerance to remain relevant until the next general elections.

Zafar Sareshwala, chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, said, “Overall, if you see in the country, the kind of bonhomie between the Hindu and Muslims you see today was not there before.”

Refuting Sareshwala, Waris Pathan, AIMIM legislator, asked, “In Parliament… if a Muslim MP comes to take the oath and slogans like ‘Jai Shri Ram’ are raised, what will happen in the country?”

Danish Qureshi, political analyst, also challenged Goswami’s formulation: “Has the BJP made any law against lynching? Is it not the responsibility of the central government?”

With inputs from Rachel John and Taran Deol.

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