New Delhi: Thursday’s prime time news was concerned with BJP’s distribution of election tickets in West Bengal. Noted intellectual Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s resignation from Ashoka University also made it to the debates.
NDTV 24×7’s Vishnu Som reported that following Mehta’s resignation, economist Arvind Subramanian, who is also a professor at Ashoka University, quit citing the institution’s inability to provide space for academic expression and freedom any longer.
Som asked a pertinent question: “What does it basically mean when two of India’s leading intellectuals say that there is just too much pressure and that they cannot continue to function effectively in a so-called independent centre of learning?”
Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Professor Amitabh Mattoo blamed the university’s founders: “It’s much more about the founders and promoters of Ashoka — if they don’t have the strength or character, the vision to back a university.”
“Ashoka was a mirage. It is run by people who thought that running a liberal university is a small thing… Ashoka’s founders need to introspect on the vision that they have for the future,” he added.
India Today’s Gaurav Sawant was diverted by something else: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat’s comment on women in ripped jeans.
Sawant said, “The newly appointed Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Tirath Singh Rawat is in the eye of a storm for his statement on sanskaar of a woman who was wearing ripped jeans.”
Soon after Rawat’s comment went viral online, people on social media — actors, activists — took to Twitter and posted photos of themselves in ripped jeans in defiance of the CM’s statement.
“Not just that, the Opposition has come out all guns blazing. The Congress party is insisting the Chief Minister should either apologise or be removed,” revealed Sawant.
On News 18 India, anchor Kishore Ajwani on his show ‘Sau baat ki ek baat’ discussed the dismay within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the distribution of election tickets in West Bengal because candidates who have recently joined the BJP from other parties have been given importance over existing party members.
Scenes of vandalism at BJP’s office by its workers over ticket distribution in Malda played out on the screen. BJP workers were also upset because Saujeet Sinha got a ticket from Jalpaiguri where workers put party posters on fire. Colonel Diptanshu, who was in Trinamool Congress earlier and now is the BJP candidate from Durgapur, also faced the wrath of disgruntled party workers, the channel reported.
Ajwani then broke down the drama for his audience. “Unhappiness among party workers if their leader doesn’t get a ticket is pretty common,” he said, adding, “There’s an abundance of leaders who have left TMC to join the BJP this year, so the list for ticket contenders is long. Which is why the BJP is experiencing so much drama.” However, Ajwani said such fist fights over election tickets is normal. “People fight over a party ticket so much only if it has high chances of winning.”
TV9 Bharatvarsh was busy dissecting and analysing how many seats the BJP can win in West Bengal on ‘Parwah Desh Ki’ with Nishant Chaturvedi. “The BJP is fighting for 145 seats, dominated 80 per cent by Hindus” noted the channel. “These 145 will be enough for the party to form a government in the state.”
However, the ticker, during this segment in the show, saw some odd messaging: “Gajon ke Muslim mann mein gadar hai, 2 May ko yahan kis naam ki kadar hai (Muslims have rebellion in their minds, whose name will be honored on 2 May?)” and “Bengal mein saamp sherni ka khela, Maulana boley abtak hai jhela? (the Maulana says we’ve tolerated snake-tiger dance in Bengal till now)”.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta is no iltellectual. He is a plain old fashioned anti-Hindu, anti-India, anti-Modi columnist. As regards women showing themselves off in ripped jeans, gift them a pair of decent jeans.