New Delhi: Prime time debates turned almost detective shows as Aaj Tak, ABP News and India Today probed the political links of criminal Vikas Dubey, after eight policemen were gunned down in Kanpur Thursday during an attempt to arrest him.
China never left the building and it was discussed yet again, after reports of de-escalation emerged Monday, on News Nation and NDTV 24×7.
However, while other channels were preoccupied, Mirror Now tackled the latest coronavirus controversy — the ICMR asking Covaxin vaccine developers to fast-track the process so that it can be released by 15 August, which led to a raging controversy on the issue.
Anchor Tanvi Shukla on ‘The Urban Debate’ asked — “Is a stiff deadline scientifically unrealistic? Is setting a deadline in the development stage dangerous? What are the pitfalls in rushing through a vaccine?”
“You have to give ICMR the benefit of the doubt. They are trying to push this process at a very complex time. One should look at the larger vaccine ecosystem,” said Sudhir Krishna, professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences.
Epidemiologist Dr Tanmay Mahapatra added a few words of caution: “While developing a vaccine, several stages have to be followed. We have different kinds of techniques across the world, and the varying techniques are where we can cut down on time without compromising health and safety.”
On Aaj Tak, the topic of discussion was on Vikas Dubey’s old videos, where he talked about his alleged political links and a purported letter written by one of killed policemen. “Khadi, Khadi aur Gangster,” the headline screamed.
As if the headline wasn’t enough, anchor Anjana Om Kashyap, started the show by saying, “Aaj hum khadi khaki aur gangster ke khooni cocktail ke khilaaf halla bol karenge. (Today we will halla bol against the bloody cocktail of khadi, khaki and gangster).”
Kashyap was in a very investigative mode as she repeatedly asked Vaishnavi Mishra, daughter of CO Devendra Mishra, who was killed in the raid, if her father had told her anything before going on the raid.
Mishra retorted, “Which father will discuss these things with his daughter or family?”
Three days after the massacre of policemen in UP, gangster Vikas Dubey is still missing. On India Today, anchor Rajdeep Sardesai asked, “Were the police not given a free hand during the time of Mulayam Singh, Mayawati?” Singh and Mayawati are former chief ministers of UP.
Vikram Singh, Former DG, UP Police said, “I had a free hand. I arrested a minister, a sitting member of parliament. I never had any illegal instructions and I would be the last person to carry out those activities.”
However, UP’s Minority Welfare Minister Mohsin Raza soon pitched in, “The Yogi government’s message is clear — to provide security to everyone. The Opposition is always involved with gangsters like them. The minister who was killed was in our government and we only put Dubey in jail in 2001.”
Anchor Romana Isar Khan on ABP News asked, “Who is saving Vikas Dubey?” The channel played videos of Dubey where he talked about his links with BJP MLAs Bhagwati Prasad Sagar and Abhijeet Sanga.
Khan had one question to all of her five panelists, “Is Vikas Dubey out of reach? It’s been 83 hours since the police personnel were killed.”
BJP’s Anila Singh, however, rubbished Khan’s question and said, “You can’t say he is out of reach. Police are looking for him, it’s not like the earth has consumed him or he has flown across the skies.”
Singh also got annoyed and questioned Congress’ Surender Rajput as to why Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had visited the homes of anti-CAA rioteers and not the families of the police personnel killed in Uttar Pradesh. She added, “I am a police officer’s daughter, I feel the pain more than you.”
Khan then reminded her that the discussion was on Dubey.
“I will plan a discussion on CAA-NRC some other day,” Khan told the very angry Singh.
Onto our not-so-friendly neighbour. With senior level talks happening between India-China, the stand-off seems to be inching closer to its end after weeks of high-level tensions between the Indian Army and the PLA. As part of fresh disengagement, PLA soldiers reportedly moved back about 1.5-2 kms at various locations.
“It is a positive development but we have to treat it with cautious optimism,” said former army chief Gen. Bikram Singh on NDTV 24×7.
“It is very important to understand whether India’s multi-pronged approach with the help of its strategic partners, has pressurised China to take this step,” he added.
On the on-going talks between the two countries, Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director, Asia Program, The Wilson Center, said, “It is encouraging that a dialogue process is still in place.”
On News Nation, Deepak Chaurasia’s question of the hour was, “What does Congress have to say about China’s retreat.”
Chaurasia went on and on and even tried to force Congress’ Saif Khan to answer if the party would continue calling PM Modi, ‘Surender Modi’.
BJP’s Prem Shukla, on his part, listed out a series of allegations against the Congress party, which primarily included calling PM Modi as Surender Modi.
“Congress has no trust in the Indian media and the Indian Constitution, but they at least have trust on China , don’t they? They should now at least trust the Chinese Communist Party from whom they took charity!,” Shukla said.
Wondering where is NIA? Is gunning down of 9 policemen not a serious enough matter? When NIA can jump in on discovery of just an alleged letter planning violence, what’s taking so long now?