New Delhi: Prime time debates Thursday night went all over the place — from the fiery campaign for the upcoming elections in West Bengal, to the current status of India-China tensions. On News18 India, Amish Devgan hit out at Rahul Gandhi for his tweet which questioned the government “insulting” the sacrifice of the jawans.
Following a hectic day of campaigning in West Bengal, a war of words erupted between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Home Minister Amit Shah. Mirror Now discussed what transpired.
“BJP has done a lot of ‘parivartan’ in the last six and a half years,” said Suparno Moitra, Trinamool Congress, underlining how the party had converted hope into despair, running the economy into the ground.
Anchor Tanvi Shukla countered this by saying the TMC wanted to project these conversations in TV studios but on the ground, there’s a different narrative — even from TMC.
“In West Bengal, we are seeing a battle of two identitarian ideologies — Hindu and Bengali. Unfortunately, it is not being fought by either side on economic issues or public policy,” argued journalist Shoaib Daniyal.
Money9’s Avijit Ghosal added, “Two parallel strands are working in West Bengal – Hindus versus Muslim and Bengali versus non-Bengali. Developmental issues, employment, investment are taking a complete backseat, which are actual concerns.”
Predictably, BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewala said, “The wind of ‘Poriborton’ that is flowing is with BJP and that wind is hounding Mamata Banerjee.”
NewsX discussed the ongoing Twitter row with the Indian government demanding the social media giant abide by Indian laws. “The best way for any service provider would be compliance to the parameters of the Indian cyber law,” said Pavan Duggal, cyber security expert.
Tech expert Kunal Gupta pitched in, “Twitter was started as a platform for promoting free speech and people could just voice their opinions while they did not have to go through multiple other channels.”
“(It is) not acceptable that Twitter will be able to define what is right and wrong. This is above what the law says,” argued Devang Dave, BJP.
On NDTV 24×7’s ‘Left, Right and Centre’, anchor Vishnu Som spoke to Gautam Bambawale, former Indian ambassador to China, about the current status of India and China relations.
“I don’t really know why China decided to pull back now. Just as no one really knows why the tensions began in the first place. They violated all bilateral agreements but I can only say that one of the important elements that has factored into this decision, is the steely resolve and bravery of the Indian armed forces,” Bambawale said.
He added that the status quo ante has been restored, but on economic ties, “Things cannot be the same, there will be a new normal in India-China relations. We have shown them that this kind of intrusion is not possible and both countries need to sit down and talk.”
Amish Devgan on News18 India was more effusive in his praise for India’s pushback against China: “Today is a great day for India, it’s a matter of great pride. The Chinese, who were dreaming about capturing India, had to retreat out of fear.”
“India has tried to tear apart all of China’s conspiracies in these nine months but Congress has always asked questions…,” Devgan said, hitting out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his tweet — “Why is GOI insulting the sacrifice of our jawans & letting go of our territory?.
“Indian Army and the government’s resolve to push back China has resulted in this disengagement,” observed BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.
Congress’ Supriya Shrinate responded by asking, “Why this selective disengagement?”
“It was a white lie that nobody has entered Indian territory,” she said.
“Jai Hind” was anchor Deepak Chaurasia’s invocation at the start of his prime time debate on News Nation.
“Indian soldiers have destroyed China’s ego and pride. That’s why China had to go back from the area of the Pangong Tso lake,” Chaurasia said.
But Chaurasia was still disappointed: “On one hand, Rajnath Singh (provided information) about the present situation and on the other hand, the stalwarts of the opposition are attacking the government,” he lamented.