New Delhi: News channels Tuesday discussed the politicisation of the Delhi riots, with many anchors like ABP News’ Rubika Liyaquat and India Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai losing their cool with politicians on their shows.
Prime debates also covered the deferred execution of the 16 December gangrape-murder convicts, with Zee News featuring an exclusive interview with the victim’s mother, Asha Devi.
Devi said that justice and the hanging will eventually happen, but the deferring revealed the failures of the system. She pointed out that the justice system was full of “loopholes” and this needed to be fixed at the earliest to save the face of the judiciary.
On ‘Seedha Sawal’ in ABP, Liyaquat described the show as one in which the “sawal” (question) was always “seedha” (straight), but the “jawab” (answer) was always “lacchedar” and “jalebi” — essentially convoluted and not so simple.
She asked BJP’s Nalin Kohli what actions could be taken so that politicians from parties, “especially your party” she added, could put a “lock” on their mouths.
Kohli responded by saying that everyone in the country right now needed to lock their mouths and not speak on the riots, as many narratives and counter-narratives were flying about. Exasperatedly, Liyaquat pointed out that Kohli had dodged her very specific question about the BJP’s role in the matter.
She then turned her attention to AAP’s Deepak Vajpayee, chiding him by saying that his party members also deserved a “gold medal” for the way they were instigating people.
“Give me one bayan of khoon kharaba nafrat (one statement inciting hate) from an AAP leader,” he said.
“Amantullah Khan”, she was quick to offer, adding that he was the man who said that “they” [Muslims] had ruled the country for thousands of years, “but now were in such a dire state”.
“Play the clip of this”, Vajpayee challenged defiantly. “I’ll just play it”, Liyaquat said defensively, but then added she needed some time. They engaged in this back and forth banter for a while, but the clip was never played.
On CNN News 18, Anand Narasimhan, with a sore-throat, requested his panel to stay civil and not make him exert his voice. He asserted that the violence in the Delhi riots was not one-sided.
“If madrasas have been burned, Muslim houses attacked, Hindu houses attacked, public schools and petrol pumps torched, why is Mamata Banerjee coming out and saying it’s a genocide?,” he asked.
Jadavpur University Professor Manojit Mandal interjected and said that it was the very definition of genocide as it involved “mass killing”.
“No no no,” disagreed Narasimhan, saying that the nomenclature was very important.
“Any kind of mass murder, especially when state machinery is silently watching is called a genocide, even if both communities are affected,” concluded Mandal.
Shots were fired between anchor and panelist on Aaj Tak as well,on ‘Dangal with Rohit Sardana’, the anchor pointedly asked BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra — “Istifa le ke aaye hain kya?” (Have come for the resignations). He was, of course, referring to the hue and cry in Parliament over Home Minister Amit Shah’s resignation.
Without skipping a beat, Patra quipped — “Sonia ji ka? How will I have Sonia Gandhi’s resignation?”. Sardana reminded him that the Home Minister’s resignation was in question, to which Patra cheekily said, “I thought you were asking about those who had instigated violence”.
India Today, too, discussed Shah’s resignation. A furious Sanjay Jha, Congress national spokesperson, said that images of Amit Shah grinning to cameras was the “worst moral turpitude” one could expect from a leader under whose watch a city had been set on fire. He added that Shah was “thick-skinned” and “absolutely shameless”.
Anchor Rajdeep Sardesai was then quick to point out to Jha that in the riots of 1984 when there was a Sikh massacre, the Congress’ Home Minister later went on to become Prime Minister. “Is it fair to ask for resignation or do you want justice for individuals?” asked Sardesai. Jha simply answered saying, “Justice includes resignation of Shah because he’s responsible.”
On NDTV’s ‘Left Right and Centre’, senior advocate Akhil Sibal discussed the 26 February Delhi High Court order that expressed “anguish” at the fact that there was a delay of justice and no FIRs registered against those who incited the riots. He said that this attitude of deferral had spilled into Parliament, adding that while there were already talks that “normalcy” had returned, things would never be normal for a mother who has lost her child.
Anchor Nidhi Razdan then asked senior journalist Pragya Tiwari if it was indeed important for Parliament to discuss the issue, but Tiwari cynically answered saying “We are well past that”, and that it would only be “putting a band-aid to a wound that is already fatal”.
Republic TV was only concerned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that he was contemplating quitting social media. Goswami lauded the decision as being a “strong statement” against the “editorial choices” of Twitter and Facebook, and that Modi’s move was like showing a “Gandhian mirror” to the platforms that were being misused and communalised.
However, political analyst Sundar Balakrishnan pointed out that calling the move Gandhian was a stretch, considering the number of fake-news peddlers and vitriolic Twitter accounts the PM followed.
