New Delhi: As reports came of tensions rising at the Ghazipur border, news channels shifted their focus to the development taking place at the Delhi-UP border, especially with farm leader Rakesh Tikait being reduced to tears. However with the upcoming budget just around the corner (on 1 February), news channels also focussed on what to expect from the first post-Covid budget.
After the Republic Day tractor parade turned violent at some sites, Republic Bharat’s Aishwarya Kapoor asked BJP MP, Manoj Tiwari “Tirange ka apmaan kyun sahe Hindustan?”
Tiwari spoke for ‘the nation’ and said, “The nation is deeply disturbed yet angry after seeing what happened during the farmers’ tractor parade.”
He added, “The farm leaders have cheated the system, the responsibility of the chaos, the disrespect, and the hooliganism that constituted the tractor rally on 26 January falls upon no one but the farm leaders themselves.”
“Watching those videos of various police officers being manhandled at the Red Fort makes India’s heart ache,” he emphasised.
As reports came of a notice being given to farmers at the Ghazipur border to clear the protest site, India Today‘s Shiv Aroor wondered if there would be a ‘border showdown’ at Ghazipur, which is in Uttar Pradesh.
On the debate, BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma said, “Mr. Tikait’s statements show desperation when he says ‘hume goli maaro’”. Sharma went on, “All the hooliganism Mr. Tikait is complaining of is actually coming from his own microphone.”
Supriya Shrinate, Congress said, “At no level we should endorse the violence that happened on Republic Day… but when you say the law is catching up now, I really wish it catches up with the likes of Deep Sidhu, because he is still at large, for the Red Fort incident.”
Times Now closely tracked developments at the Ghazipur border, with the hashtag #IndiaVsAnarchists. Reporter Priyank Tripathi spoke to the Superintendent of Police (City) of Ghaziabad, Nipun Agarwal, at Ghazipur and asked if the UP Police had been told to remove farmers from the protest site. On camera, the SP said, “I don’t where this is coming from. I am hearing it from you.”
At NDTV India, Ravish Kumar also spoke about the developments at the Ghazipur border: “Will Tikait’s tears draw farmers back to the protest or is the protest headed towards more chaos?” he asked.
Correspondent Ravish Ranjan Shukla told Kumar — “The protest site doesn’t have electricity, the police have turned off all CCTV’s, and Naresh Tikait has hinted that the protest should be shifted but his brother (Rakesh Tikait) seems rather adamant to not leave.”
Kumar added, “The situation at Ghazipur border seems unpredictable, things can turn violent in a split second but as of now the Delhi Police and the Ghaziabad administration are patiently handling the situation.”
Focussing on the budget was NewsX, anchor Megha Sharma and Businessworld Editor-in-Chief Anurag Batra who co-hosted a debate asking industry experts in the travel industry what they expected from the upcoming budget.
“So far, in budget after budget, schemes are announced and these projects are taken, which are massive in nature. But somewhere there seems to be a limitation with regards to tourism, travel and hospitality,” said Sharma, before asking why these “hiccups” exist.
Former Secretary for the Ministry of Tourism Vinod Zutshi said there are no “hiccups” as such. He added that since 2014, the government has been deliberating on giving hotel projects over Rs 50 crore an “infrastructure status” which would lower the threshold limit from the current Rs 200 crore for hotel projects to qualify for priority lending.
Jyoti Mayal, President Travel Agents Association of India, said, “Budget 2021 should actually focus on enabling the development of MSMEs as most of the industry falls in this category”.
(Inputs by Revathi Krishnan. Saumya Sharma is an intern at ThePrint)