New Delhi: Prime time debates Sunday covered a wide range of topics — Home Minister Amit Shah’s rally in Hyderabad, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s remarks on elections there, India’s Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan and the ongoing farmers’ protests at the Delhi-Haryana border.
Zee News continued to suggest that the protesting farmers were being misled. Anchor Sheerin Sherry wondered, “Kisaan aur sarkar ke beech kiski saajish? (Who is conspiring against the government and farmers?)”.
She explained that Home Minister Shah had requested the farmers to move their protest to Burari in North Delhi, after which the government would call them for discussions. Sherry said that at one point it seemed like the talks would have resolved the issue but farmers refused to move or talk to the government.
She asked, “The question to ask now is that the farmers who were earlier ready to speak to the government, what happened so suddenly that they aren’t ready to resume talks now?”
Aaj Tak’s Chitra Tripathi only had positive reviews about Shah’s rally in Hyderabad.
Tripathi noted that this was probably the first time that Hyderabad’s municipal elections had become this popular and a ‘baad’ (flood) of political leaders have come for campaigns.
She revealed that while Shah did a ‘mega road show’, AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi went on door-to-door campaigns.
Tripathi’s favourite was obvious: “The most action was seen in Amit Shah’s road show.”
On Times Now, Swati Joshi discussed PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti’s remark Sunday that elections were not the solution to the problem in Kashmir.
Joshi said Mufti had “undermined polls in Kashmir”, adding that “this comes just a day after Kashmir voted in large numbers despite threats from Pak[istan] proxies”.
Political analyst Iftikhar Misgar agreed with Mufti and accused the media and the BJP of “hyping poll percentage” in the recent District Development Council (DDC) elections.
Kashmiri activist Sushil Pandit said, “Mehbooba Mufti achieves the same thing for Pakistan what Lashkar[-e-Taiba], Jaish[-e-Mohammed], Hizbul [Mujahideen] achieve for Pakistan.”
Lawyer Ahmed Ayaz said that while elections are important for development and democratic processes, it would not solve “political issues” like the revocation of Article 370.
NewsX’s Vineet Malhotra discussed India’s Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan.
PM Modi had visited Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), partner of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, and interacted with its CEO Adar Poonawalla.
Sanjeev Bagai, Chairman of Nephron Clinic and former vice chairman of the Manipal Hospital Dwarka, New Delhi, said, “As far as the vaccine production, distribution and roll out is concerned, I would say we are just in the initiation of this long walk forward.”
When Malhotra asked about India’s preparedness in the storage of vaccines, former AIIMS director Dr. MC Misra responded, “We already have the infrastructure know-how and the manpower to deliver this. For a mass vaccination programme, you need special task forces constituted, which have to be trained.”
Sarah Jacob, on NDTV 24×7, discussed detained 83-year-old activist and Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, who was finally provided with a sipper straw that he had requested in early September.
Former Additional Solicitor General Sidharth Luthra said, “This matter ought to have been resolved at the point when the gentleman [Swamy] entered jail. There should not have been an occasion for him to move an application.”
Jacob asked, “Is this justice or is this a vendetta? Because it sounds like a bad Hindi movie script…Who are the bad guys here? Are they the cops? Are they the jail authorities? Is it the courts?”
Prem Kishan Jain, former additional director general of Maharashtra Police, called the situation a “a systemic failure”.
Political satirist Akash Banerjee remarked, “NDTV is having a debate on whether a sipper should have been provided to an old man suffering from Parkinsons. It doesn’t get more bizarre than this.” He went on to suggest Swamy was denied human rights.
And away from all this, India TV continued with its single-minded focus on yoga guru, Baba Ramdev.
“Kaise cure hongi prostate rog se judi pareshaaniya? Yoga se lekar gharelu nuskho tak, sikhiye Ramdev ka upaaye, (How will prostrate-related diseases get cured? From yoga to home made remedies, learn from Ramdev!)” declared the show.