New Delhi: Primetime debates Tuesday ranged from questions on the British Parliament discussing the farm laws to the West Bengal assembly elections and Trivendra Singh Rawat relinquishing the post of Uttarakhand’s chief minister.
Times Now‘s Padmaja Joshi called TMC supremo Mamata Bannerjee’s visit to temples in Nandigram and reciting of Chandipath during a rally Tuesday an “overkill”. Aaj Tak termed it a do or die fight for Banerjee while News18 said this was just “competitive Hinduism” between the two parties—TMC and BJP.
NewsX‘s Uday Pratap Singh discussed India’s agricultural reforms being debated in the British Parliament that has sparked a row. India conveyed its strong opposition to the “unwarranted and tendentious” parliamentary discussion Tuesday.
Kuldeep S. Shekhawat, UK President of Overseas Friends of BJP, said, “…Britain has no right to interfere in India’s internal affairs.” He explained that the issue was raised on the floor of the British Parliament due to a petition that crossed the 100,000-signature threshold.
“This is quite condemnable, isn’t it?” Singh remarked.
Former diplomat Bhaswati Mukherjee said, “It is extremely unfortunate that a country that colonised us and left us impoverished to the level of destitution… should today take upon itself to interfere in the internal affairs of India. And to teach democracy to us. Where were they when Jallianwala Bagh took place?”
Singh asked: “What should India do?”
Professor M.D. Nalapat said, “The OCI [Overseas Citizenship of India] cards of all these people, including these members of parliament, should be cancelled.”
News18‘s Marya Shakil discussed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to Nandigram where she is locked in a bitter battle with former TMC leader Suvendu Adhikari, who is now the BJP candidate from there.
“This is set to be one of the biggest fights in Bengal because it is much bigger than the optics of the Nandigram fight,” she said. “The battleground serves as the epicentre of South Bengal which will decide if BJP can unseat the Trinamool Congress.”
Sanjay Kumar, Director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), said, “This is a masterstroke from Mamata Banerjee because BJP was alleging that she didn’t have the guts to contest in Nandigram against Suvendu Adhikari.”
Shakil also brought up “competitive Hinduism” between TMC and BJP, especially with Banerjee reciting Chandi mantras at a rally in Nandigram Tuesday.
TMC MP Aparupa Poddar said, “Mamata is a street fighter and has a broader outlook…Trinamool Congress is a very secular party.”
CPI leader Dinesh Varshney also chimed in saying the BJP are “the masters of appeasement politics”.
Aaj Tak‘s Shweta Singh called it a do or die fight for Mamata Banerjee. She noted that politics had come full circle for Mamata Banerjee.
“To save her reign, she’s fighting for that very Nandigram that had first thrust her into the seat of power,” she said.
Outlining the risks that Banerjee has taken in foregoing her old seat of Bhawanipore and going up against her former right-hand Suvendu Adhikari, Singh said, “The big message here is that BJP is challenging Mamata and she is not backing down. She’s is on the front foot, she has the image of a fighter neta and using this, she wants to respond to BJP’s gherabandi (siege).”
On Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s resignation, ABP‘s Rubika Liyaqat called to attention the C-Voter survey that in January had shown low approval ratings for Rawat.
“Apart from this, a recent decision he made also went against him: there are two mandals in Uttarakhand — Garwhal and Kumaon — that have been around since the formation of Uttar Pradesh,” Liyaqat noted.
She said Rawat’s move to make a third mandal had triggered a political storm.
But now the big question is who will be the next chief minister? “Ever since Uttarakhand was created, there have been eight chief ministers but only one finished his five-year term,” she observed.