New Delhi: If there’s one thing special about Sunday prime time, it’s that there are fewer prime time debates.
Instead there were two interviews this Sunday with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after her Saturday budget — one on ‘Frankly Speaking’ with anchor Navika Kumar (Times Now) at 8 pm, followed by CNN News18’s group editor Rahul Joshi chitchat at 11 pm — why would anyone schedule a major interview that late?
When Kumar said that the new income tax regime with lower rates and fewer exemptions had confused people, the FM didn’t reply directly: she said the tax cuts were “deep” for lower and middle classes and the government aimed for “reasonably low” (taxes) “simple for compliance”.
On ‘The FM interview’ (CNN News18), Joshi asked, “Do you see that the economy has bottomed out? When do you think it will start reflecting in a turnaround?”
Sitharaman eyed him sternly and said, “Even though some of the data being released and comments you hear from international observers and the Indian industry themselves are clearly indicating the negativity with which they spoke about India after the July budget, they must have their reasons and I am not faulting them for it — the sentiment they were referring to has now gone away. I am not hearing such sentiments anymore.”
The budget was also on India Today’s mind and anchor Rahul Kanwal’s show. Kanwal observed that there was nothing to “look at negatively” in the budget for either the common man or for industry. Confederation of India Industries (CII) president Vikram Kirloskar was happy to agree: the FM’s speech was “very long” but it addressed all “concerns” articulated at the PM-industry meeting last month. And, the budget had reset the “trust deficit”, he added.
Shaheen Bagh and Delhi polls
With Delhi’s elections just a week away, can Shaheen Bagh be far away? Aaj Tak asked a pertinent question, “Dilli chunaav mein boli, goli aur bawal, kya yahi hai chunaavi chaal? (Delhi polls all about talk, guns and controversy, is this an election move?)”
ABP News’ Rubika Liyaquat interviewed Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and asked: “What does Nitin Gadkari think of Shaheen Bagh?” Gadkari, in a rather rehearsed manner replied, “No one needs to worry. This government will not force anyone to be sent out of the country.”
To which Liyaquat cockily said, “Sir, if your answer is broadcast on two or three channels, then a lot of people’s agenda will be broken.”
CNN News18 called Shaheen Bagh “the epicentre” of the elections; India Today asked, is the “shadow” of Shaheen Bagh falling across the elections? Zee News said Shaheen Bagh was the “biggest” poll issue in the Delhi elections.
On the India Today debate, BJP’s Tuhin Sinha described Shaheen Bagh as “shoddy winter carnival” where the worst Islamist slogans were raised. When AAP’s Ajoy Kumar asked why the BJP government did not get the Delhi police to disperse the Shaheen Bagh protest, Sinha made a startling revelation: BJP didn’t stop the protest because it wanted the Islamist slogans “exposed”. AAP’s Kumar pounced on his words triumphantly — “They want it (the protest) to continue…” to “communalise and consolidate” Hindu vote.
Times Now went with “#Shaheen Bagh StandOff” where there was much debate over Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s allegation that AAP was serving “biryani” in Shaheen Bagh. The anchor said that now the time had come to end the protests, “a lot of us sympathised” with the women’s vulnerabilities, but they were being “exploited” by politicians on all sides. Thereafter, pandemonium broke out with the anchor vainly pleading, “Don’t talk over each other…”
Arnab Goswami at Republic TV found himself in a similar situation: all hell broke loose during “#ShaheenBaghWorry” after one Muslim panelist said it was time to talk. Goswami had to stand up, go up to each panelist ask them, “Please don’t speak”. But guess what? For several minutes nobody listened to him.
He also announced rather pompously, “It is impossible for us to remain mute spectators to the possibility of someone being shot and being killed in Shaheen Bagh”.
Not that anyone asked but Goswami continued, “I blame the Shaheen Bagh organisers… There are madmen and communal bigots on both sides and we condone none of them”.
Others
CNN News18’s ‘The Week That Wasn’t’ luckily never takes the news seriously so it laughed with host Cyrus Broacha at the proposed sale of Air India: the government will sell “the whole damn thing”, he said profanely, “including the plates and cutlery”.
Finally, News Nation lit up the screen with an extraordinary item on a Japanese girl, Mari Fujiwara, who has discovered a bulb — the “break up” bulb that lights up when a couple breaks up… The story was covered before Christmas on other news portals. News Nation needs to see the light, for sure.
