Prime Time
Interviews galore across channels, I-T raids on ‘friends’ of the Congress on Republic, Times Now, NDTV 24×7, ABP shared prime time with a repeat telecast of PM Modi’s Latur speech on Hindi news channels like India TV, Zee Hindustan, India News.
The biggest interview was PM Modi with CNN News 18’s Rahul Joshi. This was Joshi’s second interview in five years with PM and Modi’s third Q&A with news channels in less than a fortnight following Republic’s (March 29) and ABP News (April 7).
On the Rafale deal, the PM said, “One individual kept repeating the same lie and these lies were rejected everywhere, whether in Supreme Court or by the CAG. Some neutral journalists also raised the issue of the money trails in Bofors. But here that individual spoke without any basis. How long could that have lasted?”
When asked if BJP would win this election, Modi commented, “BJP is riding a wave across the nation, BJP will win from Kutch to North East.”
The Prime Minister was withering on the Congress manifesto: “Removing AFSPA from Jammu and Kashmir is the same as sending our soldiers to the gallows.’’
He was equally severe on Maywati asking Muslims to vote for SP-BSP: “It is unsurprising that Mayawati is making such statements as she is facing defeat… This is a matter for the Election Commission to look into. I am more worried about the secular brigade. Why are they silent? Had someone made such an appeal to Hindus, they would have expressed outrage. The ‘award wapsi’ gang would have returned their awards and a signature campaign would have started. The biggest threat to India are these people who hide behind the mask of secularism”.
On India Today, National Conference chief Omar Abdullah told anchor Rajdeep Sardesai, that if Article 370 and 35 A were nullified, Kashmir could not be part of India `based on the terms of accession’’ which could not be changed.
On Tiranga TV, senior journalist Karan Thapar was in a combative interview with author Arundhati Roy. What did she think of Modi’s five year rule? “It is on script’’, she replied, but what had “surprised me was the devastation of the economy’’. She drew a parallel with Adolf Hitler who built Germany into a big economic power during the 1930s.
Thapar asked about Modi’s “honesty” – there were no scams like 2G, CWG, etc in his cupboard. “Clean is a very dangerous word’’, countered Roy, “…what about moral cleanliness… corruption is not just about money…’’ She said she was very worried by the “depths’’ of RSS mobilization across the country.
India Today’s Abhishek Kumar interviewed Yogi Adityanath who was dismissive of the mahagathbandhan: “Mahagatbandhan has failed before the general elections….We have seen the government of Mahagatbandhan parties as well as that of Congress and I know the public will not support them.”
When asked about the polarisation of politics, Yogi replied, “If Muslim polarisation takes place then no one can stop Hindu polarisation.”
#LokSabhaElections2019
People in Amethi have lost faith in Rahul Gandhi, says Uttar Pradesh CM @myogiadityanath. Listen in to this exclusive conversation with India Today's @abhishek6164. #ITVideohttps://t.co/NounxnP7mg pic.twitter.com/5LevfxKhxx
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) April 9, 2019
Aaj Tak’s Anjana Om Kashyap in Lucknow discussed if voting in UP would be on the basis of religion—recently, Mayawati had asked Muslim voters not to split their votes and last year, during the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath had said that he is ready for “Ali vs Bajrangbali.”
Why does BJP need Bajrangbali when Narendra Modi is there, Anjana asked BJP’s Rajiv Agarwal. “Every individual in this country needs Bajrangbali, what is wrong in taking the name of Bajrangbali?” he countered.
Samajwadi Party’s Anurag Bhadauria was caustic: “We have seen what happens when BJP use the Bajrangbali card– they used it for the first time and they lost Gorakhpur bypolls, they used it again during Hindi heartland elections and lost by lakhs of votes. This is how Bajrangbali punishes BJP.”
Times Now with Padmaja Jha debated the Naxal attack in which BJP MLA Bheema Mandavi and four police personne were killed. Joshi called this an “attack on democracy”.
RSS member Sandeep Mahapatra found a Congress hand in the incident: “… Congress supports Maoists, Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Raj Babbar has described them as revolutionaries. These kinds of statements embolden Maoists.”
Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla scoffed at this: “Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rightly (identified) Naxalism as the greatest threat to our country …Narendra Modi is in talks with Nagaland insurgents.”
Front Page
First an advertisement: issued by “India’s leading newspapers” — The Hindu, Times of India, Dainik Bhaskar, Hindustan Times, it extols the virtues of print media: `Print is proof’ and indirectly attacks fake news: `If we don’t have the facts, we don’t print the news’ it claims loftily.
Wednesday’s newspapers’ lead is the Maoist attack in Bastar which killed a BJP MLA and 4 security personnel. Times of India calls it “one of the worst cases of poll violence by Maoists”. The Indian Express adds it occurred “minutes before campaigning ended in Bastar for the Lok Sabha polls on April 11”.
The Hindu, however, reports that despite the attack, “The Election Commission said the first phase of polling in the state would be conducted as per schedule.”
Hindustan Times writes that “Director-general of police DM Awasthi said Mandavi (deceased BJP MLA) had been warned of a possible Maoist attack on Tuesday, but he decided to go ahead with the journey” (‘BJP MLA among 5 killed in Maoist attack in Bastar’).
The death of an RSS worker in Jammu and Kashmir is reported alongside the Bastar attack: Chanderkant Sharma was killed by “suspected terrorists” (TOI), “unidentified militants” (Express), or “unidentified assailants” (HT) in Kishtwar…”, notes HT.
Modi campaign
PM Narendra Modi’s poll pitch, asking first time voters to “Dedicate your first vote to armed forces” emblazons Page 1 – it’s the lead in TOI which adds that “after getting complaints from opposition parties’’, EC asked Maharashtra chief electoral officer for a report.
HT identifies CPI(M) as the complainant in ‘PM asks voters to dedicate ballot to Balakot; Rahul keeps up attack’.
The lengthy and meandering report alternates between the PM and Rahul’s rally speeches. Rahul’s ‘attack’ has nothing to do with the PM’s remarks on Balakot, instead “Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused him of running away from a debate on corruption” in Assam.
EC and I-T raids
Reports on the EC and I-T meeting Tuesday, are most confused. HT’s headline, ‘EC meets revenue secy, CBDT chief over MP I-T’ doesn’t reveal the content of the meeting, TOI says, ‘Inform us once raids begin, EC tells agencies’ which Express amplifies into ‘Keep us in the loop: EC and I-T tell each other’.
HT then says, the revenue department told EC that “prior information on raids” cannot be provided. Express says it told EC advised tell its officers “to curb use of illicit money…”
Tellingly, Express’s exclusive, “What govt calls neutral: 6 months, 15 raids against Oppn”, reveals in the last six months “at least 15 searches by the Income Tax department have been carried out against Opposition leaders and their associates” across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Andhra Pradesh.
The I-T’s “action against Opposition leaders does not support” assertions of “neutrality’’, it writes in ‘Explained’.
Opinion
The Election Commission’s response to several controversies in the current Lok Sabha election campaign has The Indian Express worried.
In ‘Election Omission’, it bemoans that the once “formidable force… as poll monitor, is now being heard less and less or only for its feeble interventions’’. From Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s remark on “Modi ji ki sena” and Niti Aayog chairperson criticism of Congress’s NYAY scheme to the PM’s “communally charged” speeches, appeals to the “Hindu” voters and BSP’s Mayawati appeal to “Muslim” voters, such “interventions’’ have challenged and even flouted the Model Code of Conduct.
Express writes EC has been “muted” in these cases “when it has not been silent’’. The EC “reprimand is losing its power to chasten”, and this “depletion” of the EC’s “stature’’ is “troubling and must be reversed’’, it concludes.
Tweet of the day
Most welcome @MehboobaMufti Ma’am, happy to be blocked by a callous individual. By the way, at the time of writing this tweet there are 1,365,386,456 Indians. How will you block them?
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) April 9, 2019
With inputs from Shailaja Bajpai