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HomePlugged In`Rafale has come!’ jokes Ravish Kumar, Time's Now’s political take on Sushant...

`Rafale has come!’ jokes Ravish Kumar, Time’s Now’s political take on Sushant Singh Rajput

A quick take on what prime time TV news talked about.

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New Delhi: From the arrival of five new Rafale jets in Ambala to whether there are “elements” trying to influence the investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death to the reported decline of terror activities in Jammu & Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 — prime time debates Wednesday shot in different directions.

Times Now‘s Rahul Shivshankar questioned the credibility of the Mumbai Police’s probe into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, especially since his rumoured partner and Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty was slapped with an FIR by Rajput’s father Tuesday.

Shivshankar asked, “The CBI inquiry has been rejected. The Congress in one state says yes we need one — in Maharashtra, where it has an alliance, it says we don’t need one. Are certain elements pressuring this probe so that it peters out?”

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, who was, inexplicably, giggling, connected this to the upcoming Bihar elections, considering Rajput’s father filed the FIR in Patna. “The sentiment in favour of knowing the truth about Mr Rajput is that in Bihar it is at a high pitch right now. So it would be very difficult for any party to take a stand especially with elections not very far away,” he said.

Vikas Singh, Rajput’s father’s lawyer, was rather more blunt: “The Mumbai Police has completely lost the plot in this investigation.”

India Today‘s Rahul Kanwal discussed the arrival of the Rafale jets in the context of the Ladakh crisis. He first played devil’s advocate, saying, “There will be some cynics who’ll say there’s just five of them, the Chinese will probably be laughing — look at these Indians getting excited so excited about five aircrafts that are coming two decades too late”.

On cue, former Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said, “No air force will induct 100 aircrafts at the same time. It happens in batches everywhere.” He then assured, “The pilots have been trained…and now it’s just about getting into the battlefield and take it on. We don’t need to be cynical about this.”

With the first anniversary of the revocation of Article 370 nearing, NewsX‘s Vineet Malhotra discussed a Home Ministry report that found terror activities have reduced by over 30 per cent in J&K post the 5 August move.

Although other reports noted how the Ministry also flagged concerns about home-grown terrorism and lack of jobs since last year’s move, Malhotra steered clear of these factors. He said that the “government took a stand” that’s “paying off” and that “Rome was not built in a day.” Right you are, Sir.

BJP MP Gulrez Sheikh grandly declared that, “The abrogation of 370 has shaken the rotten system of Jammu and Kashmir”. He pointed to former chief minister Omar Abdullah’s refusal to contest assembly elections as a reflection of this.

On NDTV India, Ravish Kumar’s show, titled ‘Look look, Rafale has come, Rafale has come’, was positively dripping with sarcasm. He began by stating (well, overstating) that there are very few days now when history is not created. “The weight of history is falling on each day. Now without history being created, a Monday or a Wednesday doesn’t even arrive.”

He added that now `achhe din’ (good days) are passe and itihaasik din (historic days) are the new normal. Like on 5 August, the day of the Ayodhya bhoomi pujan. He then said, “Today is 29 July but the Rafale jets that came are five…this is the stuff which makes the day of people at WhatsApp University. If 9+2 made 5 then it would have been even better.”

Kumar then began to imitate other news organisations, with graphics on the screen asking ‘Will Pakistan be able to look India in the eye after the arrival of Rafale’ and ‘Does China have any counter to India’s Rafale jets?’ We got the point the first time…

It was Sushant Singh Rajput again on Zee News, where anchor Sudhir Chaudhary informed viewers that, “While Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide is being debated on every news channel, on Zee News we don’t give you reported news. When there is a break in a story we substantiate it with documents and present it to you.”

The breaking news was that Sushant Singh Rajput had started many companies prior to his death and in some, Rhea Chakraborty was the director. Last year, Rajput formed Vivid Range Rheality X Pvt. Ltd. company. According to Chaudhary, Sushant and Rhea had been discussing this for a while and on Rhea’s saying, the company had Rhea’s name in its, thus spelt Rheality as opposed to reality. Quite the news break, we say.

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