New Delhi: From the politicisation of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s petition against West Bengal top police officer Rajeev Kumar to an appeal to ‘Unite Don’t Divide’, prime time debate Sunday went where it usually doesn’t go.
Times Now focused on the CBI petition against Rajeev Kumar, which the Trinamool Congress has labelled a “motivated case”.
TMC MP Santanu Sen, a panelist on the show said, “It is not at all surprising that BJP is using agencies (CBI), that they run themselves for bringing charges of corruption in West Bengal.”
BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi retorted by saying that the CBI moving the Supreme Court “has nothing to do with the upcoming West Bengal election”. “CBI is trying to question Rajiv Kumar from past one and a half years,” she said.
Appearing on India Today as well, Sen once again said, “So far as the election is knocking on the door, they (BJP) will be leaving no stone unturned in using all agencies that are existing in India currently.”
Sourav Sikdar of the BJP fired back by asking, “If Rajeev Kumar is innocent, why did he run away from the investigation?”
Meanwhile, Republic TV went all patriotic with the hashtag ‘Unite Don’t Divide’. Anchor Arnab Goswami explained: “For far too long, vested internal interests have tried to puppeteer the cause of our nation. But now in this new India the message is clear. There is no place for division, no place for those who divide.”
BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “If the PM decided all should have a bank account; if he decided women should have gas connections; if people should have free grains, we’ve not thought about caste/creed in this.”
Political analyst Monojit Mandal, however, disagreed. “If we consider the poem of Tagore that PM quoted, the idea of a pluralistic India is clear; but what has the government wanted with CAA?”
On NDTV India’s `Hum Log’, anchor Naghma Sahar discussed the talks that are set to take place between the farmers and the Narendra Modi government on 29 December. She said it had been over a month since the farmers began protesting against the three new farm laws at Singhu border. She highlighted the fact that in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address to the nation Sunday, PM Modi did not mention the farmers and their demands. She said, “The big question is whether the talks on 29 December will lead to any breakthrough?”
Asked what was different this time in the farmers protest, farm leader Rakesh Tikait said, “This time, every farmer is involved in these protests. Even the government has a report, that this time the farmer is farming at a loss. After being completely destroyed, farmers are moving to Delhi.”
Prakash Chandra Sharma, part of BJP’s Kisan Morcha said, “These reforms were long due in the agricultural field.” Sharma added that the smaller farmers supported these laws and were awaiting their implementation and even wrote to the government in support of this.
On Zee News, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju had the #FitIndiaDialogue with former Indian footballer Bhaichung Bhutia, actor Anil Kapoor, cricketer Mithali Raj, former sprinter Milkha Singh and former badminton champion and coach Pullela Gopichand.
Kapoor said, “If we exercise/workout everyday, I see it as taking care of your body. Thus, aim to take care of myself and exercise every day. And most importantly, I completely agree with Milkha ji that each illness begins from the gut… Thus believe that control over food is important and one should eat in a manner where they are constantly hungry.”
Rijiju then turned to Bhutia and said, “Like me Bhaichung comes from a mountainous region. I come from Arunachal Pradesh and Baichung from Sikkim. Even after retiring how did you ensure that you remained fit?”
Bhutia said, “After retiring, obviously I don’t do the same training now. After retiring, I have been focussing a lot on cycling and mountain biking, since Sikkim is a great place for mountain biking. And definitely control over food is very important.”
Great to see Bollywood biggies have time for social causes championed by his excellency’s courtiers. One hopes they are also doing the weekly utensil banging as well to help in nations fight from go corona go, to no Corona no.