New Delhi: Prime time news Wednesday presented a mixed bag going from the Bihar elections to the turmoil in Pakistan — and the latest from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
First up, on Republic TV, Arnab Goswami moved from #TargetArnabPlot in the alleged TRP scam to the crisis in Pakistan’s Sindh with the hashtag ‘#EndgamePakistan’. In Sindh, top police officers staged an unprecedented revolt after the Inspector General of the region was ‘abducted’ by the country’s Army. IGP Mushtaq Mahar was allegedly forced to sign the arrest warrant of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law.
Goswami said, “There is a civil war-like situation in Pakistan. Police, lawyers, civilians have all launched an uprising against puppet-PM Imran Khan and the Army. And it seems that Pakistan is on the verge of a breakup.”
He asked Pakistani-Canadian author Tarek Fatah, “How much longer till Sindh disintegrates and breaks up from Pakistan?”
Fatah’s response was rather confusing, “One cannot predict that, but Sindh is part of your national anthem….Sindh became part of Pakistan with a single vote.. So Sindh never was in the movement to create Pakistan.”
Moving on to affairs closer home, anchor Sreenivasan Jain on NDTV 24×7 focused on the arrest of 83-year-old tribal rights activist and Jesuit priest Stan Swamy under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Jain explained that Swamy was booked in connection with the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence “…When an annual Dalit event turned violent after clashes with the upper caste. The police initially booked local right-wing leaders but later charged and arrested 16 people who they claimed were part of a Maoist plot to incite violence…Now bafflingly, two years later, they have arrested Swamy,” said Jain.
BJP leader Shant Prakash Jatav countered, “Stan Swamy misled the people from the Scheduled Caste community, took them to participate in the Bhima-Koregaon event.”
Renowned economist Jean Dreze said, “When I looked at the NIA chargesheet, he was accused, among other things, of having promoted enmity between different communities. That for me is enough to understand that this chargesheet is a morass of absurd accusations.”
On Zee News, anchor Aman Chopra attacked madrasas and asked why a common citizen was expected to pay for the “education of terrorists”. The discussion was in the context of the Assam government shutting down all government-run madrasas as part of its policy against religious education.
“Tax ki kamai, jihad ki padhai,” (Earning taxes, teaching jihad) said Chopra on madrasas.
BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma was quick to suggest that even the main accused of the Pulwama terror attack allegedly studied from a madrasa.
“Modi ji’s plan is to introduce skill education in these madrasas and to bring them into mainstream, that is why the government has increased 83 per cent budget allocation,” she claimed.
Islamic scholar Maulana Ali Qadri said the Muslim community will protest against the ban. “If there have been suspicious activities in one or two madrasa, then action should be taken against them and not all the madrasas.”
ABP anchor Rubika Liyaquat discussed Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with the family of journalist Siddiqui Kappan, who was arrested on his way to Hathras earlier this month, in Kerala.
The Uttar Pradesh Police has accused Kappan of instigating communal riots in Hathras and also alleged that he has links with the Popular Front of India — a Kerala-based radical outfit.
“Is Rahul Gandhi and his Congress sympathising with traitors,” asked Liyaquat.
Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh claimed that Kappan’s family came to meet Gandhi, and he did not go to them.
In response, BJP’s Prem Shukla said that the Congress party had a history of abetting rioters, terrorists and the PFI.