New Delhi: Prime time Wednesday was all about Bihar, from the police firing at Durga devotees in Munger to the RJD’s poll promises of jobs. ABP News and India Today focused on how Bihar’s politics has, once again, begun to revolve around jungle raj.
India Today‘s Rahul Kanwal asked “Will ‘jungle raj‘ attack against RJD work for NDA?” Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the RJD’s ‘jungle raj‘ in his poll speech, Wednesday.
“The level of anti-incumbency against Nitish Kumar is higher than we have seen in other state elections,” remarked Kanwal.
Sanjay Kumar, director at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, said, “But the NDA is still ahead by about 6 per cent vote against the RJD. I think it’s only because this one factor — anti-incumbency — is largely against Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister… The work of the government has been appreciated.”
In an earlier debate on the Bihar Assembly polls, the channel’s anchor Rajdeep Sardesai asked BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli whether PM Modi is “running away from the failure to provide jobs.”
Kohli responded by attacking the Yadavs’ “dynastic rule” and accused them of only ever seeking “employment opportunities for themselves”.
NewsX‘s Rishabh Gulati discussed the Munger firing amid the Bihar elections and criticised the role of the police. “For some reason, a very deleterious call was made by the police to open fire. You don’t open fire in a free country without taking it very, very seriously,” he said.
But the BJP spokesperson Guru Prakash said the RJD is “out of issues” and therefore used the incident for “political advantage”.
Congress spokesperson Anand Madhab repeatedly asked, “Who has given the order to fire?” Gulati responded that it was IPS officer Lipi Singh, who is now being referred to as “General Dyer”, the infamous British officer who ordered firing on a peaceful gathering at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919.
Gulati wondered if the incident had been instigated and cited the Bengaluru and Delhi riots of earlier this year as similar cases. But political scientist Desh Ratan Nigam said he shouldn’t “pre-judge” the incident as it is currently being investigated.
On Zee News, Sudhir Chudhary highlighted the killing of Nikita Tomar, a 21-year-old student who was shot dead outside her college in Haryana’s Ballabhgarh. “The accused, Tauseef, is from a particular religion and our leaders do not dare to take action against people from “that religion”, said Chaudhary.
Chaudhary questioned the leaders who reached Hathras within a day, and said that they are now sitting in their lavish bungalows. “Nikita’s home is just 30 to 40 kilometres away, but why are they not visiting her family?”
Republic TV‘s Arnab Goswami returned to the issue of the TRP scam, this time insisting that BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya has “exposed” Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh
Pragya alleged that during the 2008 Malegaon blast case investigation, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad tortured her and Singh hit her with a belt. “They made me accused No. 1, they called me a mastermind. I was tortured to say what they wanted, but I did not,” she alleged.
When Goswami opened the debate to a panel, R.V.S. Mani, former Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, defended the Bhopal MP: “Justice is taking its own time. I don’t know why. NIA wanted the closure of the case in 2016.”
Former Additional DGP of Maharashtra, P.K. Jain said, “Every police action is answerable in court. You can’t only blame the police.”
Meanwhile, NDTV India‘s Ravish Kumar focused on irregularity and delays in appointments for government jobs. he even read out a letter from an unemployed youth who had been selected for a job in the railways but was yet to formally join.
“Elections are being conducted, but appointments are being delayed by giving the excuse of the lockdown. Is this not a fundamental right of the students to get the appointment letter after cracking the exam?”
