New Delhi: It’s not surprising that prime time news, on the weekend, focused on various aspects of the Covid-19 vaccine drive that India kickstarted on 16 January. This is, after all, what we’ve all been waiting for.
But as always politics got in the way: On India Today, anchor Nabila Jamal asked whether the Congress was right to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers to take a jab in order to instill confidence in the public.
BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal said, “As a mark of respect, no BJP politician will come forward to take the vaccine as we are giving precedence to frontline Covid-19 warriors.” He implied that with such a demand the Congress was questioning the scientific research behind the vaccines.
Congress leader, Dr. Ajoy Kumar had other things bothering him: “The issues are not limited to PM Modi taking the vaccine — the Congress has raised other points as well; The same vaccine is being sold for Rs 200 in India and at Rs 158 to the European Union (EU)”, he alleged. “Is EU poorer than India?”
On Mirror Now, anchor Afrida Rahman Ali discussed the side-effects arising from the Covid vaccines, in ‘The Urban Debate’. The anchor tread carefully as she introduced the topic: “Those who intend to take the vaccine want to know if the side-effects should deter them from taking it or not,” she said.
“I want to tell the viewers when you put foreign material in your body, your body will respond to it,” explained Virander Singh Chauhan, Emeritus Professor at International Centre For Genetic Engineering And Biotechnology, “The number of adverse effects being reported are very normal,” he added, reassuringly.
NDTV India decided to take look at things differently: on ‘Hum Log’, anchor Nagma Seher spoke about the largest vaccination drive in the world in India as 3 crore health and frontline workers were set to get the vaccine.
The anchor added that during the vaccine trial a few complained of feeling unwell and one person Deepak Marawi died although it is unclear why.
“His wife is sure that he died because of the vaccine dose”, explained Seher.
While the focus on the vaccine drive was to be expected, the TV news channels largely ignored what was arguably the biggest media story of the weekend: the leaked What’sapp chats between Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami and former BARC head Partho Dasgupta who has been arrested by the Mumbai Police in connection with the alleged TRP scam.
One channel did not shy away from the topic: Goswami’s former employer Times Now. Anchor Swati Joshi asked “Is Arnab Goswami only bragging about his clout and influence trying to impress Partho Dasgupta, or is there something more than meets the eye?” Hashtags like #ArnabChatGate occupied much space on the screen.
“He (Arnab Goswami) should not have had access to this information (of being aware of India’s ‘strike plan’ post the Pulwama terror strike)” argued Sumanth Raman, political analyst.
Journalist Rashid Kidwai saw things differently: “Having access to information is no grave crime. It is the way it was revealed to another person who wasn’t a journalist.”
On Zee News, anchor Aditi Tyagi was busy finding a Khalistani angle to the ongoing farmers’ protests. With the National Investigation Agency (NIA) filing a FIR against farm leaders in order to probe the Khalistan funding angle to farm protests, Tyagi asked, “Who is stopping the farmers to resolve the issue—the Khalistani movement, the movement’s funding?”
Farm leader, Pushpendra Chaudhary disagreed vehemently: “The government is trying to put a stop to the protest, and in order to break it they’re disrespecting the movement by giving it the label of ‘Khalistani’”. He added that this claim of calling the protest a ‘Khalistani’ movement should be investigated first.
BJP’s Iqbal Singh Lalpura, responded: “NIA is a premium agency and they have not arrested anyone yet, the people summoned should cooperate with the agency.”
Inputs by Revathi Krishnan