New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the farm laws in the Lok Sabha, Congress’ walkout and rising tensions between Twitter and the Indian government dominated prime time debates Wednesday.
CNN-News18’s Zakka Jacob focused on PM Modi’s “distinction” between “andalonkaris and andolanjeevis” and asked if the onus is now on farmers to return to the negotiating table.
India Today’s Preeti Choudhry discussed the Congress party’s walkout and PM Modi’s subsequent remarks, calling the party “divided” and “confused”.
When asked why Congress, after “repeatedly” asking for a debate on the farm laws chose to walk out, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, “The least one expected from the Prime Minister was a word of sympathy for over 200 farmers who have lost their lives, and the best case scenario would have been that the prime minister agrees to the demands of the farmers.”
He added: “When we saw nothing of this was happening, what is the point?”
Political analyst Manisha Priyam said the PM was able to identify the “fault lines” in the Congress party, and the latter needs a “deeper” political strategy.
Trinamool Congress spokesperson Riju Dutta asked what “pavitra andolan” means, a term used by Modi in his Lok Sabha speech, and asked if it meant a quiet protest where people “die in a corner without bothering the government”.
But when he started to speak about vandalism towards Reliance telecom towers, Choudhry said, “I can’t have you on this show defend arson and vandalism”.
BJP spokesperson Sanju Verma called Modi the “biggest reformer in post-independence history, not the Fabian socialist that Nehru was”.
On Republic Bharat, anchor Arnab Goswami noted that in his 92-minute-long speech in the Lok Sabha, the PM talked about farmers for 60 minutes. He also asked whether the Congress was concerned about farmers’ issues after it walked out in the middle of the PM’s address.
“I want to ask these urban naxals, Khalistanis and ‘tukde-tukde- gang — when will they stop spreading rumors in the name of protests?” Goswami went on to ask.
BJP’s Gaurav Bhatia targetted the Congress and called them ‘khandani chor’ (thieves), and warned farmers to not listen to them. “Priyanka Gandhi today was shouting in Saharanpur rally that ‘I am with farmers’. First, she should take care of her Gandhi family and make them stand on their own feet”, Bhatia commented.
Mirror Now’s Tanvi Shukla discussed rising tensions between tech giant Twitter and the Indian government after the former said it was ordered to block 1,178 accounts by the government, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, for allegedly spreading misinformation on the farmer protests.
Shukla asked, “Does it mean that we need to relook at Section 69A because the government says due process has been followed?”
Gurshabad Grover, senior researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society, concurred. He said the section is “by design, a really opaque censorship law.” He added: “There is a provision for intermediaries or content creators to get a hearing and the government has been bypassing that side of the procedure for a long while”.
Cyber expert Pavan Duggal suggested that a “lakshman rekha” be drawn around such service providers to ensure that the power of a platform does not authorise a platform “to sit on top of the Constitution of India”.
When asked if the BJP will start employing the new Koo app amidst the controversy, party spokesperson Shweta Shalini said, “Why not? I think we are promoting everything ‘Make In India'”.
On Zee News, anchor Sudhir Chaudhary explained how protests have become a raging phenomenon and claimed that even big event management companies are being hired to manage such protests.
“Now the issues of unemployment will vanish from the country because of such protests. Protests have become an enterprise in itself”, commented Chaudhary.
Chaudhary also referred to the tweets by international celebrities in support of the farmers’ protest, saying that “these people” play with emotions so well that those driving expensive SUVs are also seen as ‘annadatas’ (farmers).
“Earlier people used to do MBA, in future, the subjects of the degree will change. It is quite possible that there would be a degree in ‘protest administration’”, he said sarcastically.