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US secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s visit to India dominates lead headlines today. The Times of India and Hindustan Times are optimistic about the meet. TOI quotes Pompeo from an ‘exclusive’ interview for its headline, saying, “Only Modi, Trump can make India-US relationship work.”
“He held wide-ranging conversations covering Pakistan, 5G and data localisation, Iran and Afghanistan in the backdrop of differences on trade and energy”, it writes.
According to a source at the HT, “Pompeo’s meetings with Modi and Jaishankar were very constructive, very progressive and very problem-solving.”
The Hindu says differences between the two countries has “led to an impasse on trade issues” and that the two will now resolve to “work through” them.
The Indian Express, who gives the story lower footing, thinks talks were “playing down divergences in the US-Indo economic relationship” and “while both publically acknowledged that the economic relationship is under stress, both tried to calm frayed diplomatic nerves.”
“Though there were no concrete announcements on the issues of divergence”, writes HT, the visit “set the stage for a bilateral meeting between Modi and US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka.”
Jharkhand lynching
PM Modi expressing sadness for Tabrez Ansari, the Muslim man who was lynched in Jharkhand, makes headlines across newspapers. The Express makes it the lead: “Saddened, guilty must be punished” – reads part of its banner headline.
“Breaking his silence” (The Hindu), Modi said all instances of violence “should be treated with the same yardstick and law should take its course”. TOI hastily adds that he did so “while also stressing that it would be unfair to label the state a hub of mob violence as the law applied equally to incidents in all states.”
The Hindu reminds: “Jharkhand will go to the polls later this year.”
HT notes that “Modi also spoke — for the first time — about the deaths of children caused by encephalitis in Bihar”, an angle other papers forgot to highlight.
R&AW, IB
“Balakot strike planner to head R&AW, Kashmir expert is IB chief” (HT) only makes news in Hindustan Times and TOI, both of which give it column space, surprisingly.
Samant Kumar Goel, who played “a key role” in the Balakot strikes will head the former, and the latter will be led by Arvind Kumar.
“Both are Indian Police Service (IPS) officers of the 1984 batch with Goel belonging to the Punjab cadre and Kumar to the Assam-Meghalaya cadre” informs HT.
Hindustan Times: ‘States must improve their health spending’
In this piece, HT highlights massive disparities in the NITI Aayog’s State Health Index report. “The overall health index score of India’s best-performing state (Kerala) is two-and-a-half times that of the worst (UP).” The neonatal mortality rate in Kerala is at par with Brazil while in Odisha it is close to the poorest countries such as Sierra Leone.
There is a need to “design targeted interventions” in specific areas to improve the overall score. Focus is needed on “improving sex ratio at birth” and “24×7 primary health centres”, among others. All states also need to raise their public health spending to eight per cent of the GDP to reach the NHP 2017 goal – of raising national public health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of the GDP by 2025.
The Indian Express: ‘No mobocracy’
In ‘No Mobocracy’, Express draws attention to “urgent need for the PM’s message [of sabka vishwas] to be heeded and enforced. Since 2016, atleast 18 people have been killed by mob in Jharkhand, and the conviction rate in these cases is extremely low. While mob violence occurs across India, the idea that “the ruling party condones mob justice,” especially in cases of minority attacks has “empowered vigilante groups in BJP-ruled states.”
The Supreme Court had directed Parliament to introduce a separate law against lynching but little progress has been made there. Express states that existing laws are “sufficient to tackle mob violence and vigilantism — if the executive has the political will to do so.”
The Economic Times: ‘Onward to stronger ties, amidst tensions’
‘Onward to stronger ties, amidst tensions’ views Mike Pompeo’s visit to India ahead of the G20 meet as a sign of “importance that US assigns to India in its overall strategic vision of the world.” India is considered a counter-weight to China “where economic and political freedoms go hand in hand.”
While India and US do have differences in many related issues, they “may not be a dealbreaker in improving ties.” The two sore points between the countries are defence purchases from Russia and trade tariffs. “India is making large arms purchases from the US” while it also expects US’ cooperation since IT from India is vital to America.
Prime Time
The prime minister’s speech in the Rajya Sabha and colour of the Indian cricket team’s jersey for its match against England were popular topics discussed at prime time.
ABP News: Taking up the point about Muslim backwardness made in the PM’s speech, anchor Rubika Liyaquat hinted that Congress was responsible for backwardness of Muslim community when she asked: “Who is responsible for converting the Muslim community into a vote bank and not fulfilling its promises?”
Drawing flak for his letter to only Muslim MPs proposing hunger strike, political analyst Farooq Khan defended himself: “I have written to all Muslim MPs and will also write to many Hindi MPs to come together in front of the Parliament until promises are fulfilled.”
Political commentator Shehzad Poonawala sarcastically said that Modi alone is a great reformer for Muslims now: “Everyone in the Muslim community should start saying Modi hai toh mumkin hai.”
Doctor and Islamic Studies expert Fahim Beg said, “It has been proven that governments are made and broken on Muslim votes. However, Muslims don’t get anything in this country.”
Aaj Tak: Anchor Anjana Om Kashyap said the PM gave an answer to critics who had questioned his silence on the Jharkhand mob lynching by condemning the act.
AIMIM’s Waris Pathan alleged that the PM says something and does the opposite: “The prime minister says that Muslims have been living in the gutter, but what schemes has he launched to uplift them?”
NDTV 24×7: Anchor Ankita Mukherji brought up the incident of BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya’s son assaulting a civic official. “Can anything justify VVIP ‘goondaism’?”, she asked.
Advocate Avni Bansal said that this was not an isolated incident. Many such incidents involved BJP ministers and MLAs. We must ask ourselves – what gives them the right to take the law into their own hands? “Just because they have a majority means they take the law into their own hands?”
Political analyst and RSS ideologue Desh Ratan Nigam said he didn’t think the incidents were restricted to the BJP or to Madhya Pradesh. He, however, added: “I’m not here to defend what is indefensible”.
Congress supporter Tehseen Poonawalla hit back: “The question that needs to be asked is, why has mob violence increased since BJP came to power?”
CNN News 18: Anchor Maha Siddiqui turned to cricket and politics: the Indian cricket team normally wears blue but for the match against England it will be wearing orange jerseys. This has raised protests from the Congress: “Should we be politicising the jersey?” asked Siddiqui.
Sports columnist Ayaz Memon explained that “the decision is taken by BCCI. They will still be called the men in blue. Some matches are designated as away matches where they wear a different jersey.”
Agreeing with Memon, BJP spokesperson Pratyush Kanth said this is the “most hollow politics Congress can practice. Only host countries can retain their jerseys’’.
Republic: Anchor Arnab Goswami wanted to know “what’s wrong with orange?” in the jersey. It is a colour in the national flag – “Is our national flag also communal?”, he asked.
Kishore Bhimani, sports journalist said, “It is an established rule if the away team, which is India, goes to play the home team (England), the away team is supposed to have a different colour.”
With inputs from Taran Deol, Harshit Mansukhani and Triya Gulati.