New Delhi: The death of Uttar Pradesh gangster Vikas Dubey Friday is already the only news story on TV this morning but Thursday prime time was consumed with his arrest in Ujjain.
Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhury, however, chose to discuss Nepal’s ban on Indian news channels and it seemed like he took the news rather personally.
Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami was only interested in Vikas Dubey’s ‘diary’ of political contacts.
“I need to know from UP Police whether they got his diary. Otherwise, what’s the point of getting him without his diary? Maybe you will kill the evidence…” he said, without naming anyone. In this case, you have to say Goswami was prescient.
Throughout the debate, political analyst Abhishek Mishra reiterated, “Vikas Dubey himself in a video has confessed that he is from Mayawati’s Party. His wife has been elected with an SP ticket”.
However, JD(S) spokesperson Tanveer Ahmed countered, “Vikas Dubey said this in 2001. Now, Yogi Adityanath is the protector, promoter, propagator of all criminals like these. What was Dubey doing for the last 3 years?”
But Goswami was least interested in the BJP v/s BSP debate – he had his own theory on the matter — “The reason the Vikas Dubey case is so interesting is because all political parties are blaming each other. The reality is Vikas Dubey has cohabitated with all parties.”
India Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai was in conversation with Congress’ Digvijaya Singh who declared that Dubey’s arrest was fake and it was a ‘sponsored surrender’.
“The fact is that he surrendered without a fight, without a weapon and said ‘Haan mein Vikas Dubey, Kanpurwala hun’,” said Singh.
Sardesai grilled him further. “Sir, you had suggested that the Madhya Pradesh Home Minister had something to do with this. You are making a very serious charge.”
But Singh, cool as a cucumber, said, “No, I don’t have any proof of that but at the same time, I haven’t named him either.”
He later suggested that a “special investigative team consisting of the people with the highest integrity in the police system”, headed by a Supreme Court judge, should be set up to look into the case.
On News Nation, Deepak Chaurasia kickstarted the debate with an important question with a pun for good measure — “In Uttar Pradesh who promoted the ‘vikas’ (development) of criminality/ criminal behaviour?”
He went on to question whether Dubey was arrested in the ‘correct manner’. Not sure what that is.
Chaurasia also featured some viewers on his show and asked Bhuvnesh Pandey from Prayagraj what he thought of Dubey’s arrest.
Pandey replied, “The way the arrest took place and how a criminal from Uttar Pradesh managed to reach Madhya Pradesh like this, this has never happened in the state before. At least, not in the cities. Earlier we used to hear such instances among dacoits, naxals, etc.”
Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhury sounded rather sad as he announced that cable operators in Nepal had stopped airing Indian news channels on their networks, citing anti-Nepal propaganda.
“This means that now throughout Nepal, no Indian news channels will be telecast and only Doordarshan will play there,” lamented Chaudhury.
He also claimed that the reason behind the step was primarily because Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli did not like seeing news against him which is why he took the drastic step.
“In response to this we say, in today’s time you cannot curtail freedom of the press, you cannot stop anyone from speaking, especially the media,” declared Choudhury.
He then, unsurprisingly, blamed China for everything. He said, “Today Nepal is taking orders from China and is under its influence. Now all of Nepal’s decisions are not being taken by the country but by China.”
Don’t tell me The Print has employed journalists- isn’t one of them your specialist covering serious medical issues – to simply take a peek at what TV channels are saying or not saying and to deride them simply because they don’t agree with your view?!