New Delhi: From the Ambani house bomb scare case to a potential ‘second wave’ of Covid cases in Maharashtra, prime time debates Sunday were spoilt for choice.
“One death, a police inspector, a bomb scare outside business magnate Mukesh Ambani’s house — this is like a thriller,” said Aaj Tak in its usual racy tone and equally dramatic music as the report sought to reveal the “biggest twist” in the Ambani bomb scare saga.
The report was on a show titled ‘Khabardaar’, hosted by Saeed Ansari. It focused on Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze’s alleged involvement in the bomb scare case.
“I suspect more police personnel are involved in this (the placing of bomb near Ambani’s house). I want to ask Uddhav Thackeray’s government why it didn’t take any action against Sachin Waze,” said Kirit Somaiya, a BJP leader.
The report tried to untangle the various characters that have emerged in the story and explained names like Sachin Waze and Mansukh Hiren and their part in the story. Hiren was the reported owner of the explosives-laden Scorpio car found outside the Ambani residence. He was found dead in a creek days after the Scorpio was discovered.
The Aak Tak report, quite soberly, informed the viewer about this increasingly complicated case — it was one of those sober nights we want more and more of from news channels!
Times Now’s Swati Joshi looked at the surge in Covid-19 cases in India, with over 20,000 registered in the last 24 hours.
Speaking of the situation in Maharashtra, Joshi asked, “Is this really because of the mutant strain of coronavirus? Is this because Covid protocols are not being followed anymore or there are negligent behaviour that is being reported?”
Maharashtra Covid-19 task force member Dr Shashank Joshi said it was due to “multiple factors” and that the most critical was negligent behaviour. “Probably we are already in the second wave, as far as Maharashtra is concerned… (the) possibility of a home-grown mutant strain cannot be ruled out.”
Dr Ravi Malik, former secretary of the Indian Medical Association, said, “After the coming of the vaccine, probably people have become little more careless.” He reminded that the vaccine is “protective in only 70 per cent of cases” and that India’s herd immunity has not increased to such a level “that we should become careless”.
On NDTV India, anchor Tabish Hussain discussed the 63 candidates declared by the Bharatiya Janata Party for the West Bengal state elections. He noted that several sitting members of Parliament are being fielded. The channel interviewed one of the candidates, Locket Chatterjee, on her apparent downgrade from an MP to an MLA candidate. But Chatterjee was unaffected: “This is the party directive. I had contested in 2016 too, and was defeated. In 2019, I fought from the Hooghly seat… but whatever the party wants I’ll do it.”
Hussain then took us to Assam, and Home Minister Amit Shah’s rally in Assam’s Shiv Sagar, where he said a vote for the Congress is a vote for Badruddin Ajmal, a popular Muslim leader in the state. Votes for him would fill Assam with “invaders”, Shah said at the rally, according to Hussain.
Mirror Now’s Afrida Rahman Ali discussed the Election Commission’s latest report that concluded there was no premeditated attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram.
“Why was the TMC in such a hurry to project this as an attack on Mamata Banerjee?” Ali asked.
TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta, instead of answering the question, pointed to the EC’s decision to remove certain police officers. It suggests there’s “a massive lack of security”, he claimed.
Ali retorted: “Now you’re saying its a lapse of security. At that time you said there was a conspiracy?”
Dutta said, “Yes, but it’s the EC’s responsibility. And obviously they will not say it’s an attack because they have to satisfy their top bosses at the Centre.”
BJP spokesperson Priyanka Tibrewal said the incident won’t affect voters in the upcoming assembly polls and that “defaming” the people of Nandigram will, eventually, work against Mamata.
Journalist Gautam Mukherjee said, “For her [Banerjee] to hype this into a conspiracy is a very defensive act and it doesn’t really add any lustre to her street fighter tactics because in earlier days, she was on the street, she was truly beaten up… here, not even a bone broke.”
