New Delhi: Sunday’s prime time debates were busy with multiple topics — the Kanpur shootout that left eight policemen dead, India-China tensions, the Hong Kong extradition law and Baba Ramdev’s message on Guru Purnima.
Also, if the tukde tukde gang wasn’t enough, Republic TV just coined a new term for the alleged naysayers — the `China gang’.
Zee News’ Aditi Tyagi was determined to get to the bottom of the Vikas Dubey fiasco. Dubey, a wanted criminal in Uttar Pradesh, ambushed and killed the policemen as they attempted to arrest him Thursday. He has successfully evaded the police ever since. Recent reports suggest that he was tipped off about the raid by a mole at the local police station.
Tyagi wondered, “What kind of saajish is this? He hides weapons in walls? How did he get to know about this raid?”
Tyagi reprimanded Mohit Agarwal, IG, Kanpur, on the status of his investigation. Agarwal, in a rather droning voice, explained, “We have identified 21 people who fired at the police. Out of these, 2 died in a tussle with the police. One criminal got injured and was arrested, his interrogation is ongoing.”
Tyagi wasn’t satisfied: “There are many theories floating around in relation to the main accused. It is being said that someone called him from the police station.”
She added,”Kisi ne toh kiya hai vishvaghat” (Someone has betrayed this trust).
On News18 India, Amish Devgan was still quite taken by the PM’s message from his Ladakh visit, “Kya sandesh tha yeh 56 inch wala?”—referring to Modi’s chest statistics.
Retired Lt Gen Shankar Prasad, explained, “In the Army we call the commander ‘Tiger’. This time the PM has proven that he is also a tiger.”
Prasad was then reminded of a saying, “There is a saying, ‘if there are one thousand sheep led by a tiger, it is better than an army of thousand tigers being led by a sheep.” Right.
This won BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra’s heart – and he applauded him once Prasad had completed his comments.
Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami introduced a new word to the prime time dictionary: “China gang” — the lobby, apparently, defending China and calling PM Modi’s visit to Ladakh a “photo-op”.
Goswami put Tanveer Ahmed, national spokesperson of JD(S) in the hot seat. “This anti-national action is the culmination of all that you people did for the last two months… You have been disloyal to your own country,’’ he alleged.
Ahmed retorted, “We need to really question the honourable Prime Minister and his gang — what have they done?”
Goswami immediately asked, “Gang? Who is the prime minister’s gang? I know of the China gang but who is this gang? I object to the phrase ‘prime minister’s gang’!”
On NewsX, Vineet Malhotra discussed Canada suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong after the new Chinese national security legislation in the island country. This move could increase immigration from Hong Kong to Canada.
Malhotra criticised Hong Kong’s “draconian” extradition law so far as to suggest it will create a refugee crisis.
When Malhotra asked whether China will consider rolling back the extradition law, former diplomat, AMB Pradeep Kapur said, “China is using its own internal paradigms for the whole world…That won’t work if the whole world gets united and starts asking questions”.
Meanwhile, Times Now’s Athar Khan debated Congress leader Manish Tewari’s tweet that quoted a report from The Guardian, claiming China had seized Indian territory.
Chinese Structures at Finger 4 Pangsang Tso Lake.@PMOIndia WHEN WILL CHINA VACATE OUR LAND ?
PHOTO @guardian https://t.co/bmEGveO0nR pic.twitter.com/e1JjW3qnnT
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) July 5, 2020
Khan attacked the credibility of the report. He said, “Manish Tewari and other Congress leaders quoted an article by a foreign newspaper. An image was published by that newspaper without giving any antecedents of where they got it from or what the source really was.”
Concurring, political commentator Rajat Sethi replied, “Connecting the dots between Rahul Gandhi putting out that video a couple of days back and this follow-up from Manish Tewari, is they want to undermine India’s united voice,’’ he declared.
India TV’s Sushant Sinha and Minakshi Joshi in their usual Sunday feature were in conversation with yoga guru Baba Ramdev. However, today was a rather special day.
Sinha revealed, “Today is Guru Purnima and this is the day when we worship our Gurus.”
He proceeded with some gyaan, “Whatever we are today its because of our gurus and their teachings.”
Joshi also joined the bandwagon of imparting some uncalled pearls of wisdom, “Gurus teach us the difference between right or wrong. They break down difficult issues and explain it to us in a simple manner.”
As if right on cue, the scene shifted to Baba Ramdev sitting on his usual stage, chanting.