New Delhi: Prime time news on Tuesday was all over the place. Times Now’s Padmaja Joshi turned her attention to gangster-turned social activist Lakha Sidhana and his public appearance, NDTV India’s Ravish Kumar focussed on Disha Ravi’s bail in the ‘toolkit’ case and Republic Bharat commented on the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections.
On NDTV India, anchor Ravish Kumar was angry. Speaking about Disha Ravi being granted bail in the ‘toolkit’ case by a Delhi Court Tuesday, he thundered: “The pride of the government in power cornered a 22-year old. This pride has been shattered by the court order. She was hounded by police officers, and an army of godi media, but she fought them bravely…”
Kumar then appealed to his viewers to read Judge Dharmendra Rana’s bail order. “If and when this government goes after your own daughters in a fake case, then you’ll remember this judgment. It will only help you if something like this happens to your own family,” he said.
Kumar then went on to the ‘Pagdi Sambhaal Jatta’ programme that was held at the farmers’ protest sites Tuesday, which commemorated former farmer leaders like Ajit Singh and Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. Farmers have borrowed the name ‘Pagdi Sambhal Jatta’ from a 1907 movement led by revolutionary farmer leader Ajit Singh against anti-farmer laws introduced by the then British government.
“Remembering leaders like Swami Sahajahanand Saraswati isn’t commonplace. This shows that farmers leaders are aware that the protests will go on for a while…” Kumar added.
On Republic Bharat’s ‘Poochta Hai Bharat’, political analyst Vinay Singh gave his verdict on the West Bengal elections.
“Elections are usually the report card of one government, but these Bengal elections will judge not only the 10 year-Mamata rule but also the atrocities of the Left government that ruled the state for 35 years,” claimed Singh.
The CBI investigation into the coal scam case in which Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Bannerjee’s wife Rujira was questioned also came up for debate. The channel seemed to side with the BJP’s claim that TMC shouldn’t look at this investigation as anything political if it has nothing to hide.
Times Now’s Padmaja Joshi declared that it was a ‘dark day’ for India. “Dark day for us as a country because today we saw a rioter, an absconder, proclaimed offender holding a rally in the heart of Punjab. The police or the government there didn’t bat an eyelid,” she lamented.
Joshi explained that Lakha Sidhana, who has been accused of triggering violence in Delhi on Republic Day and has been charged with sedition, was addressing a farmers’ gathering in Bathinda.
“Far from getting arrested, he threatened the police, daring it to arrest him,” Joshi said.
CNBC TV18’s Shireen Bhan focussed on the Indian start-up ‘eco-system’. “After the disruptions in operational cycles due to the Covid-19 outbreak, reports indicate that green shoots have appeared,” she said.
Citing a NASSCOM report for 2021, Bhan said the sector saw an addition of at least 1,600 start-ups in the last year.
“The Indian tech start-up base is seeing a growth at a scale of 8 to 10 per cent year on year,” she explained.
“Tech start-ups facing losses were down three times since May 2020 with over 50 per cent expecting revenues to reach pre-Covid levels by April of this year.”
