Front Page
“Enjoy being on bail, this is not Emergency,” (The Times of India) “Cong rose so high, unable to see ground, lost roots,” (The Indian Express) and “Help fulfil the dream of a safe, modern, inclusive nation” (The Hindu): These are a few things Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Parliament Tuesday which the different newspapers chose to highlight on their front pages.
In “Modi slams Cong, lays out govt agenda in LS”, Hindustan Times notes that it was his “first major speech to the 17th Lok Sabha”. He spoke of “the need for a collective will to realise his vision of a New India by 2022”. TOI, more diplomatic, says he stressed the need to “converge on an agenda of development and called for the revival of the post-Independence spirit”.
The Hindu says Modi “called upon all parties to move forward together to fulfil the dream of a safe, modern and inclusive country, a call reflected, he said, in the positive mandate that his government received in the last election”.
More “uncharacteristically”, he “quoted Jawaharlal Nehru, saying he understood the dream of India’s first PM” (HT).
“Modi also reminded the Congress of the Emergency, imposed by Indira Gandhi on this day in 1975, saying it is a blot on democracy that will never fade”, writes the Express in its report.
Mehul Choksi: The billionaire on the run gets varying coverage today. Express calls it a “new twist”, TOI “bad news” for Choksi, and HT a positive development: The news is that there is a possibility his citizenship in Antigua will be revoked.
“If the extradition comes through, the return of the diamond merchant…will be a shot in the arm for the Modi government which has been pursuing the case,” says TOI.
HT reports, “People familiar with the matter in India said that Antigua and Barbuda is apparently uncomfortable with the attention Choksi’s case has been receiving in the international media”.
Hindu soberly reminds: “According to a source in the Ministry of External Affairs, nothing has been conveyed officially to New Delhi by the Antiguan government on the issue”.
Mike Pompeo
Also making big news is US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to India. Oddly, he doesn’t make it to the front pages of TOI and The Hindu.
Express gives it second lead status and writes, “New Delhi will stay firm on the S-400 deal with Russia and seek waiver under the US law”.
HT’s report writes that the “S-400 deal, threatened with sanctions by the US, is expected to figure” in today’s talks with Pompeo.
In its ‘Explained’ section, Express says this is foreign affairs minister S. Jaishankar’s “first test”, and “the fact that he will accompany the PM on the Japan visit signals the trust he has earned”.
Others
HT publishes the findings of a survey by NITI Aayog on the state of healthcare in the country. There are no surprises here: “Niti report reflects UP, Bihar health care woes” it reports. In its all India index, “Bihar figured in the bottom three — second only to Uttar Pradesh”, it grimly states.
Opinion
In “A city gone dry”, The Hindu asks Tamil Nadu chief minister K. Palaniswami to stop “business-as-usual” and come up with long-term solutions for the Chennai water crisis. It suggests a plan that will augment resources in Greater Chennai. A white paper with “a full assessment of these wetlands and their storage potential” should be a priority along with deepening storage capacities.
These measures can “harvest the bulk of the rain in a good year, and prove superior to the fire-fighting approach of installing expensive desalination plants”.
In “Still lynching”, TOI lambasts the “abominable state of law and order” in Jharkhand evidenced by the delayed action in the lynching of Shams Tabrez Ansari. The police booked Ansari under theft charges after he was attacked by a mob and was in an unconscious state without “taking cognisance of the attack”.
In recent times, Jharkhand has seen a “rise in vigilantism”, the apathy of the police force coupled with a resource crunch and prioritising keeping netas happy has “emboldened people to take the law into their own hands”. TOI calls for police reforms across the country “to equip and incentivise the force to serve citizens competently”.
Prime Time
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to President’s vote of thanks in the Parliament grabbed prime time debates.
It became an opportunity for some TV channels to pursue their favourite sport: Congress bashing. Some channels took up what the PM said about the Emergency imposed by the former prime minister Indira Gandhi, on 25 June 1975, 44 years ago, as the peg to their discussions.
Republic Bharat: Anchor Arnab Goswami alleged that during the Emergency, Congress had committed many crimes, including imprisoning people: “When would Congress accept its Emergency crimes?”
Referring to Modi’s tenure, political analyst Ravi Srivastava claimed that former prime minister Indira Gandhi had announced the Emergency: “(today) there is an unannounced Emergency where minorities, doctors are forced to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’.”
BJP spokesperson Prem Shukla replied, “In Bengal, an opposition party is not allowed to speak its ideology.”
News 24 India: #RashtraKiBaat discussed West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s comment calling the PM’s tenure a “Super Emergency”.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra dismissed the idea: “The country does not feel ‘super emergency’ exists; it is only certain ministers in Opposition that feel so because their black business is being revealed.”
Lawyer Tehseen Poonawala challenged this, saying an unsaid emergency exists due to the breakdown in law and order: “PM Modi and government have slapped cases on the opposition and certain media people but have done nothing on Shivraj Chauhan in Vyapam scam.”
Moreover, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik claimed that there is a state of fear in the country. “People have been forced to read ‘Modi Chalisa’ in the country.”
ET Now: On the ‘India Development Debate’, host Tamana Inamdar discussed mob lynching in light of the recent incident in Jharkhand of Tabrez Ansari.
T.K Arun, editor at The Economics Times, said, “It is the responsibility of the leadership on two fronts — first, to enforce laws and get the law enforcement agency to curb violence… and second, at the level of political messaging, if the message goes out from the top that we will not tolerate this kind of behaviour then it will have greater impact on all sections of people.”
M.N Singh, former Mumbai police commissioner, was critical of how the Tabrez case was handled. “Everyone involved in the case had a very casual approach, even the judiciary,” he said. But he was wary of conclusions like “there is hatred” or “a deliberate attempt to harm minorities” through these incidents. “We need to be a bit circumspect and careful,” he added.
CNN News 18: On ‘Face Off’, anchor Maha Siddiqui asked who was to blame for Chennai’s worst water crisis in 30 years?
Political analyst S. Murlidharan said that ideas like desilting were great provided the monsoons fill up the Wayanad reservoirs “but if it (does) not then what’s the point of desilting? Instead the rainwater harvesting would have been a sensible move”.
With inputs from Harshit Mansukhani, Triya Gulati, and Rachel John.