Front Page
The biggest newsbreak of Wednesday — Rahul Gandhi confirming his resignation as Congress president — gets front page billing in all newspapers.
The Indian Express calls it “owing up to the responsibility” of the Congress’s failure in “Rahul quits as Congress chief: Hard decisions, accountability needed.”
Hindustan Times also goes with a more forward-looking headline: “Cong must change radically: Rahul says will fight, not lead”. It says, he “brought finality to his decision.”
Papers also quote the contents of Gandhi’s resignation letter, which he posted on Twitter. The Hindu reports “Mr Gandhi’s decision to make his resignation public sent senior Congress leaders into a huddle”, and lists several other congress leaders who could take his place, quoting “sources.”
It’s also the only paper to note that if Gandhi doesn’t relent, then Congress general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad “could be asked to take interim charge. Mr Azad became a general secretary of the CWC as far back as 1986.”
The Times of India focuses on the turmoil that the Congress will now face — “possible resignations of office-bearers, reconstitution of the working committee and the installation of a new party chief.” It offers plenty of comments, too, saying, “His reference to the need for sweeping changes and that “numerous people” should also be held accountable seems to indicate a call for a purge or a version of the “Kamraj plan” where senior leaders voluntarily follow suit.”
Towards the end of its report, TOI is critical of Gandhi’s letter. It says, “The letter blames a capture of all institutions by the BJP-RSS machinery and does not in any way acknowledge that Congress’s campaign may have missed the mark…In fact, he suggested that elections will become a ritual from now on.”
Express, on the other hand, suggests Gandhi was stung since “most senior leaders didn’t support his ‘chowkidar chor hai campaign’ against PM over the Rafale fighter aircraft issue.”
Dam breach in Ratnagiri
Several people were killed after Tiware dam in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district breached due to incessant rains, leading to flood-like situation in downstream villages. But, newspapers, while reporting the matter, differ in giving death toll figures.
TOI makes it the second lead while others give it lower bidding. According to TOI, “Fourteen people, many of them from an extended family, were killed” and “Nine people were still missing when rescue operations were halted for the night on Wednesday.”
Express’s headline reads, “Repaired weeks ago, Ratnagiri dam breaches, 23 feared dead.” Like TOI, it speculates that “at least 14 people were killed”, and says the rest are dead, too.
Hindu agrees with Express on the number of dead: “23 feared dead after dam breaches in Maharashtra” and says the bodies of 11 had been recovered till Wednesday night.
HT, meanwhile, reports just the opposite of TOI’s figures: “9 dead, 14 missing as dam collapses in Maharashtra.”
Express’s report says even though the dam had “undergone major repairs just two months ago”, “a minor irrigation tank, constructed only in 2004, started leaking again,” leading the dam to breach.
TOI, on the other hand, says the villagers knew that “the tragedy was waiting to happen” since “they had been complaining to the authorities for at least two years about major leakages from the dam.”
While Express says the dam was built in 2004, TOI says it was built in 2014 — a ten-year difference. Meanwhile, HT and Hindu both agree that it was “built around 14 years ago” in 2005.
HT reports that Rs 4 lakh compensation will be provided to the families of the deceased. TOI says “the state government has formed five teams to ensure there is no outbreak of disease in these villages.”
Other news
Strangely, only Express reports “Under pressure, Pakistan books Saeed, aides for funding Lashkar” and makes this its lead. It says the move comes “more than a week after it (Pakistan) was rapped on the knuckles by global watchdog Financial Action Task Force…that “lodged 23 charges of terror financing and facilitation” against him.
HT headlines “Govt clears wage code in new wave of labour reforms” that doesn’t find space in other papers. It writes the government “cleared the long-awaited Code on Wages Bill” and “signalling its intent to reform India’s labour policies, widely considered a difficult and potentially controversial second-generation reform.” One major change is that minimum wage laws will apply to employees in the private and unorganised sectors too, it says.
Hindu’s second lead is “Cattle traders move SC against 2017 rules”. It reports, “The traders told the court on Tuesday that the seizure and forfeiture of their livestock, a means of livelihood for many, was happening on the strength of the 2017 rules against animal cruelty and cattle slaughter”.
Opinion
TOI: In ‘Rahul says alvida’, it categorically asserts the need for the Congress party to move on from him. Gandhi Wednesday announced his resignation and took responsibility for the 2019 Lok Sabha election defeat. “It is rare in Indian politics for top leaders in dynastic or supremo-led parties to accept responsibility and graciously resign.” The “tone of finality” in Gandhi’s resignation letter should propel the process of electing a new president.
TOI also calls for clear-cut roles for members of the Gandhi family so that the “new president is not hamstrung by the Gandhis.” It believes that the time has come “for Congress to put party over family.”
Express: In “A thing of beauty,” Express pays a rather poetic tribute to Rohit Sharma’s “languid brilliance and lazy elegance.” Even as “graceful batting is increasingly a relic,” Sharma’s style has often been condemned by those who view his batting as casual. Yet, even if the beauty of his strokes is distracting, the statistics don’t lie. “In the last three years, he has emerged as great a batsman as Virat Kohli.”
He has scored 3,987 runs in 70 matches and considering he is an opening batsman “those are numbers that are worth their weight in gold.” Rohit Sharma has “smoothened the brazen edges, eschewed risk-prone strokes” and it is time his numbers are acknowledged as much as the beauty of his strokes.
Prime Time
Prime time, too, was dominated by Gandhi’s resignation as Congress president
Republic: Anchor Arnab Goswami wasn’t impressed by Rahul’s resignation. “Is Rahul’s resignation a sham? Is the interim president, a 90-year-old Motilal Vora, the only option Congress has?” he asks
Senior journalist Sanjeev Srivastav said, “He has resigned. But I don’t know what purpose it (will) serve.”
Gaurav Bhatia, BJP spokesperson, said the theme of his letter was that “If Rahul Gandhi loses, India loses. Rahul Gandhi thinks it (Congress) is his family fiefdom and will always remain so.”
Aaj Tak: Anchor Rohit Sardana asked, “Is Rahul upset about his party’s loss or did he use this to transfer blame on others?”
Political analyst Ashutosh replied that “Rahul Gandhi has ensured that if the party has to fight Modi government it has to bring radical reforms and by this he has taken responsibility of the loss.”
Another analyst Sangeet Ragi was, however, skeptical of the Congress’s future: “Congress was functioning on the 70-year pillar of Nehru-Gandhi family. I doubt there is any chance of a revival.”
Times Now called it the #RahulShamResignation drama.
Pankaj Vohra, Managing Editor, The Sunday Guardian, said, “The present Congress party has no resemblance to the Congress party which was headed by Indira Gandhi.”
Madhu Kishwar, Editor, Manushi, said Gandhi’s letter suggested that there are internal politics in Congress “where leaders don’t seem to be on the same page, (so) a Gandhi is needed every time to balance the scales.”
Political analyst Tehseen Poonawala said, “It is a genuine act to take the responsibility. We must accept that for a radical transformation, a step like this was necessary.”
NDTV 24×7 discussed something different — the new rule of making disability pension to military veterans taxable.
Lt. Col Manish Ahuja wondered if “the officers, who are the custodians of the disability rule, are aware of it? They aren’t… they also don’t know how to act on it.” “Even I didn’t know,” he added.
BJP’s Mamta Kale defended the order, saying, “This has come from the services. A few people are misusing this pension. Veterans who have been disabled in combat or during service will eventually get their pension.”
Major D.P. Singh, a war veteran amputated after the Kargil War, challenged Kale’s point: “Even when this order was not there, I had to fight for seven years for my pension.”
ABP debated banned Bangladeshi terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen allegedly using madrasas in West Bengal’s Burdwan and Murshidabad districts for the purpose of radicalisation and recruitment.
Anchor Rubika Liyaquat asked, “Why are madrasas in the country dragged into the debate on terrorism?”
Dodging the question, political analyst Atiq ur Rehman said, “No evidence of such extremism has been found.”
Political analyst Shehzad Poonawalla said, “When these madrasas avoid central regulation, it definitely raises eyebrows on whether these madrasas want to grab money or send people on the wrong course.”
Zee News: The channel is busy promoting its 5 June Budget Day coverage with the oddest promos: the gods and women will not be amused. See for yourself.
https://twitter.com/ammarawrites/status/1146473497075621888
With inputs from Harshit Mansukhani, Kairvy Grewal, Taran Deol, and Rachel John.
Just go. No one is irreplaceable. Someone is gonna step up and be the best leader. Are we relying on a male successor if he just does. Come on.