New Delhi: Prime time debates Thursday varied across different channels. India TV and Aaj Tak were concerned about coronavirus cases, while Times Now was still stuck on the day-old debate on alcohol sales. And Zee News was on a completely different tangent because anchor Sudhir Chaudhary was booked for his ‘zameen jihad’ chart.
India TV’s Rajat Sharma featured some videos from hospitals across the country on his show — “Hospital ke corona ward mein ek mareez ki lash bed par padi dikhayi degi, aur uske aas paas mareez lete hai,” (You can see coronavirus patients lying around a dead body in the coronavirus ward of a hospital).
Sharma informed, “Iss laash ko uthane koi nahi aaya,” (No one came to pick up this body).
He wondered whether someone would do this purposely and in anguish declared, “Lekin mera dil maan ne ko tayaar nahi hai ki jaan kar yeh laaparvahi karwayi gayi hai,” (My heart isn’t ready to accept that someone would do this purposely).
Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhary was angry — “Aap se guzaarish hai ki agle ek ghante chod kar humare saath baithiye aur tae kijiye ki aage iss desh ki dasha aur disha kya rahegi,” (You’re requested to hear us out for the next one hour and decide where the country is heading).
Chaudhary added, “Today, we’ll find out if the laws of this country are equal for everyone. I am telling you this because we showed you the news on Zameen Jihad a month back. This ‘tukde tukde’ gang hated the word ‘jihad’ so much that they decided to shut me up”.
“Kerala mein mere upar FIR darj ki gayi hai… dhamki di hai ki jihad ki baat karoge toh jail jaaoge,” (Someone has filed an FIR against me in Kerala… I have been threatened that if we speak about Jihad we will be sent to jail) he said.
Aaj Tak’s Anjana Om Kashyap had news that scared everyone, “Abhi asli leher aana baaki hai, toh har koi darr jaata hai aur sehem jaata hai.” (The next wave of coronavirus cases is yet to come. Anyone who hears this gets scared and overwhelmed).
However, Kashyap was confused about the news herself, “Lekin AIIMS ke director aisa kyun kahenge…. Dilli mein kahan tak jaayega corona ka meter?” (Why would AIIMS director say this…. How many cases will be reported from Delhi).
NDTV 24×7 anchor Vishnu Som was in conversation with Ajay Singh, Chairman and MD of Spicejet. Som asked, “How much are fares likely to increase? It is my understanding that even without social distancing given the fact that demand is lower, to be remotely viable the prices of tickets will have to go up. What are your estimations?”
Singh replied, “There will be demand initially because people would want to go back home etc. But that demand is expected to drop…. Remember, oil prices have come down significantly so costs are lower. Hopefully that should mean that fares don’t need to go up a lot.”
India Today’s Preeti Choudhry was in conversation with environmentalist Sunita Narian about the gas leak in Visakhapatnam that left 11 dead.
“A month ago you said that many plants and factories are possibly not well-maintained and could face gas risks. What do you think were the lapses in this incident?” she asked.
Narian explained, “What we have found is that this accident happened when the factory reopened. There were some maintenance problems in the factory, the storage tanks weren’t maintained at the right temperature.”
She added, “The detector wasn’t working so the gas leaked…Although, this gas should not kill people. Styrene isn’t so lethal that it can kill people. But that means the exposure was so high that it did.”
Times Now anchor Padmaja Joshi was still judging alcohol sales, “It’s been four days since the revenue-starved states have opened liquor shops but an overwhelmingly high turnout and zero concern for social distancing has resulted in a massive headache for authorities.”
Joshi added, “It is a catch-22 for states. Walking a tightrope between public and financial health.”
Where is Arnab goswami?