Front Page
Thursday’s newspapers had no choice but to lead with the hot words, allegations and paper planes that flew around the Lok Sabha Wednesday afternoon during the Rafale deal debate. But the far more absorbing story, and one of social significance, was the account of two women who made history Wednesday and headlines Thursday: “Inside Sabarimala: Kanakadurga, 42 and Bindu 40” (The Indian Express).
“Sparks, paper planes fly as Rafale row hits Parliament”, Hindustan Times headlines its Rafale debate report, but depend on The Hindu to bring everything down to earth with its “Rahul, Jaitley spar over Rafale” headline and report.
Newspapers largely tell the same story of the LS debate, balancing Rahul Gandhi’s challenge to the PM for a debate, with Arun Jaitley’s “legacy of lying” accusation.
The Express, however, gives Page 1 space to the alleged audio tape cited by Gandhi in Parliament, where he alleged Goa health minister Vishwajit Rane was heard saying that CM Manohar Parrikar claimed to have all the files on the Rafale deal in his “bedroom”. Parrikar and minister Rane have both denied the allegation.
The Sabarimala Women
This first entry by two women of menstrual age into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple was hailed across the media this morning, as it was on news channels Wednesday. Unfortunately, however, news channels ignored the women for the high indignation on Rafale in prime-time discussions.
This morning, The Hindu gave “Two women make it to Sabarimala” a five-column Page 1 spread as its lead. That the battle for women’s empowerment is far from over was told by the two photographs it carried, as did HT: The women, draped in black, entering the temple premises and the “purification” rituals carried out later.
The coverage described the women’s passage to Sabarimala and then some. HT said in its opening paragraph: “More than three months after the Supreme Court threw open the doors of the Sabarimala temple to women of all ages, two women in their 40s became the first to worship at the shine on Wednesday, breaking an ancient taboo, angering traditionalists and triggering unrest in many part of Kerala.”
A more crisp but colourful and descriptive account appears in The Times of India lead: “2 women quietly visit Sabari, ‘purification’ & protest follow”.
Not to quibble, but the newspapers do disagree on the exact timing of the women’s entry into the shrine: While TOI sticks with 3.38 am, HT and Express time it at 3.45 am – the latter is repeated by the women in an interview on HT Page 9, “Didn’t do anything illegal…”
The last word on the subject belongs to BJP MP Udit Raj in the Express: “Why should women be banned to enter….Both genders are equal before God…Men have also come from women. Then if women are impure, how can men be pure?”
The editorials Thursday tackle a variety of issues, from “GST shortfall” (The Hindu) to “Internet overkill” (TOI).
Only HT and Express choose to comment on the Prime Minister’s interview Tuesday to ANI. In “Narendra Modi 2.0 for 2019”, HT writes, “Modi portrayed himself as a statesman committed to the constitutional process, political pluralism and rule of law… On Ram temple he refused to give in to the militant demands of a section of his own support base when he made it clear that the legal process must take its course.”
In “Quote Unquote”, Express acknowledges the PM’s stance: “More than once, the PM hinted at a wider frame, averring that, for him, electoral victory and loss were not the only criteria or standard.”
There’s an interesting single column report in TOI that catches the eye: “Most ‘cow meat’ caught was that of bull”. The National Research Centre on Meat found that “Of 112 samples from across the country anlaysed…on meat, eight samples or 7 per cent were found to be cow meat”, the paper reports.
Prime Time
Wednesday witnessed high drama in the Lok Sabha after the debate on the Rafale jet deal led to a dogfight between Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The former threatened to play an audio tape of Goa health minister purportedly saying that CM Manohar Parrikar, the former Union Defence Minister, claimed to have all the files on the Rafale deal in his “bedroom”, but backed down when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asked him to authenticate the tape.
Later, in the early evening, Gandhi addressed the issue at a press conference.
All the major English and Hindi news channels, from ABP and Aaj Tak to CNN News 18 and Times Now, devoted their prime-time slots to different aspects of the day’s developments.
There was one singular sighting: Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on a TV debate after a very long time (NDTV 24×7).
Up against him was Arun Jaitley. The Modi magic must have rubbed off on the FM because he managed to appear in two studios, simultaneously: Times Now and Republic TV.
The TV studios were littered with “apples and oranges” from Jaitley (Times Now), as well as paper planes thrown by Congressmen in the LS “like little children”, as Zee News anchor Sudhir Chowdhury observed with great disdain.
Arnab Goswami of Republic TV thought Rahul Gandhi was rather infantile in the debate. “In a childish way, Rahul Gandhi said I want to play the tape, this tape exposes absolutely everything as far as Rafale case is concerned,” Goswami said. “What Rahul Gandhi did today was the most amateurish performance ever seen.”
Today's The Debate on #RafaleTapeStunt is now LIVE. Watch here-https://t.co/LGCyJUWcLF pic.twitter.com/D0Zd2dg4gd
— Republic (@republic) January 2, 2019
Political analyst S.K. Dutta was even more biting: “If the national toddler of our country has decided to go snooping in bedrooms, let him do that,” he said.
To this, political analyst Abdul Razack Khan asked, “If the government is not at fault, then why are they shying away from a JPC (joint parliamentary committee probe)? Let the truth be out.”
On India Today, anchor Padmaja Joshi asked what we all wanted to know: The authenticity of the Rafale audio tape.
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia was dismissive: “Congress should act like a responsible party and determine the authenticity of the audio tape first. Rahul Gandhi is losing his credibility faster than a supersonic jet.”
Congress MP Amee Yajnik refused to debate the audio tape’s authenticity. She flew off in another direction: “JPC is the only forum through which truth can come out. BJP is lying to the honourable Supreme Court.”
#RafaleAudioTwist
Has Rafale tape backfired on Congress? Party MP Amee Yajnik responds #NewsToday
LIVE https://t.co/4fqxBVUizL pic.twitter.com/6HJgO0wcE9
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) January 2, 2019
In the Times Now studio, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said Rahul and the Congress were trying to “muddy the waters” after the Supreme Court had said the deal required no further investigation. “Who are we supposed to believe in this parliamentary system?” he asked.
Samajwadi Party spokesperson Juhie Singh urged a JPC probe in the Rafale deal.
'It is the government which will investigate the tape', says @juhiesingh, Spokesperson, SP #RafaleTapeTamasha pic.twitter.com/CWMBs8xySC
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) January 2, 2019
Shehzad Poonawalla, a former Congress member who is now a vocal critic of the party, hit back at Singh. “Your chief Akhilesh Yadav said that he has faith in Supreme Court and you are saying you have faith in JPC,” he said, “Are you a spokesperson of Congress or Samajwadi Party?”
On Aaj Tak, Congress spokesperson Rohan Gupta said, “The BJP has made a joke of the country’s defence structure.” JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Alok took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi: “Prime Minister Modi had once rightly said that there are people whose brain stagnates with increasing age, Rahul Gandhi is one of them.”