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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s move to slash its growth forecast for the Indian economy while maintaining status quo on key policy rates is the biggest news of the day.
Newspapers also widely report on former Union minister P. Chidambaram’s comments on the mismanagement of the economy under the Modi government, and the Unnao rape case after the victim was set on fire.
RBI monetary policy: “RBI slashes growth forecast, leaves key rate unchanged,” reports The Times of India, elaborating that the slashed growth estimate “disappointed markets and borrowers keeping its key policy rate unchanged after reducing it five times in 2019”. The Hindu points out that the move came as a “surprise”. Hindustan Times reports on the matter too, while The Indian Express (“RBI slashes GDP growth forecast to 5% — deepest cut in a decade”) explains the “sharpest revision in at least a decade” indicates the central bank’s “inability to foresee the deepening slowdown in the economy”.
Unnao rape case: “Set ablaze, Unnao rape victim battles for life” — Hindu reports that a 23-year old woman from Uttar Pradesh was set on fire by five men, including two she accused of rape last year. HT elaborates that the woman suffered 90 per cent burns and was eventually airlifted to New Delhi for treatment at Safdarjung Hospital. In “Thrashed, stabbed, set ablaze, rape survivor runs for help in a ball of fire”, TOI emphasises the violence the victim was subjected to and calls the incident a “rerun of the Hyderabad horror”. “Unnao again: Rape victim set on fire by accused on bail” — Express reminds readers of the other tragic rape case of a 17-year old girl who had accused former BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar earlier this year.
Chidambaram slams Modi govt: “PM Modi silent on economy, govt. Clueless,” Hindu quotes P. Chidambaram as saying a day he was released on bail in a money laundering case. Giving details of the press conference, HT reports that according to Chidambaram, “nothing summed up the state of the economy better than the series of numbers, 8, 7, 6.6, 5.8, 5 and 4.5 — a reference to quarterly growth rates of the GDP in the last six quarters”. He called the government “stubborn and mulish in defending its catastrophic mistakes”. TOI also reported the former finance minister’s jibe at the government — for calling the economic slowdown “cyclical” — “Thank God, it has not called it seasonal”.
Others: In “Ajit Pawar got clean chit – day after Fadnavis resigned, day before new govt was sworn in”, Express reports how the NCP leader was “exonerated” by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for the “multi-crore irrigation scam that rocked the state about a decade ago”. HT also covered the development but more briefly.
“I offer hundred apologies to lawyers: Judge,” reports TOI, on the Supreme Court judge Justice Arun Mishra’s apology. In “For contempt threat to senior lawyer, Justice Mishra sorry”, Express explains that the apology comes “two days after he warned a senior lawyer that he would initiate contempt proceedings against him”.
Under the bold-lettered “‘Locked out’ of Assembly, Bengal Guv Fumes”, TOI carries a photograph of West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar sitting in despair outside the locked gates of WB legislative assembly with his hands folded. Hindu reports how the governor exclaimed, “They [the WB government] are caging democracy”, after he was unable to enter the assembly through the main gate — which is customarily opened when the governor visits — and had to enter through another gate.
Opinion
The Indian Express: In “Two-Nation Citizen”, Express writes about the terrifying burden of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which defines citizenship in “religious terms”, for the “first time in India”. The Bill, which has “alarmed all those who have stakes in peace and calm in the Northeast”, raises a fundamental worry — by excluding Muslims, it violates the “right to equality and the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of religion”. It further “undermines the foundation of the Republic” to revisit the idea of the two-nation theory that led to the creation of Pakistan. The proposed law, coupled with the National Register of Citizens, can potentially turn into a witch-hunt against Muslims. If the Bill is passed, a larger question arises: Can the Supreme Court “countenance such a drastic and unconstitutional change in the character of the nation, in its very basic structure?”
The Times of India: In “Unending trauma”, TOI notes a series of incidents of women rape survivors being set on fire by their attackers — be it in Buxar, Unnao or Malda — indicating a “climate of impunity that makes a mockery of law and order”. The Unnao incident, where the rape survivor was stabbed, attacked and burnt on her way to a court in Rae Bareli, comes months after a reported attempt to eliminate witnesses in a case in which ex-BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar is an accused. These cases must serve as a wake-up call to Uttar Pradesh police and judiciary, writes TOI.
Prime time
Thursday was a mixed bag for news channels.
On NDTV 24X7, anchor Nidhi Razdan debated the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). Historian Ramachandra Guha said both CAB and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) were unconstitutional and went against the principles on which this country was founded.
While India Today debated the Karnataka bypolls held Thursday, Times Now‘s Navika Kumar said “#HangRapistsIn180Days” — news channels had extensively covered the latest Unnao rape case in which the survivor was attacked and set on fire while she was on her way to court. Kumar asserted, “We cannot let these beasts back on the street.”
Zee News discussed former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s comments suggesting that during the 1984 Sikh riots, then home minister P.V. Narsimha Rao did not heed former PM I.K. Gujral’s advice to call out the Army immediately.
On NDTV India, Ravish Kumar discussed the Delhi University Teachers’ Association protests against stopping the appointment of ad-hoc teachers.
Republic TV: On “#HangAllRapists”, Arnab Goswami went ballistic: “Our system is incompetent… Close the Parliament of India, it does not serve me… I don’t need this Parliament…”
ANI editor Smita Prakash asserted, “I don’t want any action from parliamentarians… I want more funds to be spent in police reforms.”
Advocate and actress Kunickaa Sadanand Lall countered Prakash: “We need the parliamentarians to talk about it, we need them to make fast-track courts… They can talk about mandir and masjid, but they can’t talk about fast-track courts?”
CNN News18: On the “#RightStand”, anchor Anand Narasimhan focussed on “#Cong84Admission” after ex-PM Manmohan Singh’s comments about his former colleague P.V. Narasimha Rao.
N.V. Subhash, politician and grandson of Rao, remarked, “Being a family member of Mr. Narasimha Rao, I feel so betrayed by Dr. Manmohan Singh. He happens to be the best… of Mr. Rao… Why this blame game only on Narasimha Rao? All the credit in the Congress party is given to the Gandhi family and all the discredit to Narasimha Rao.”
CNN News18’s Sanjay Suri who had covered the 1984 riots added, “The fact is that the Congress leadership was complicit in these killings.”
Aaj Tak: As onion prices skyrocket, anchor Rohit Sardana asked, “Pyaaz tune kya kiya? (What did you do, onion?)” on “Dangal”.
BJP’s Narendra Taneja insisted the government was taking every possible action to resolve the issue, but then added defensively, “What would be the prices in which state is in state governments’ hands.”
Congress’s Ranjeet Ranjan disagreed: “The minimum support price is decided by the central government, not state government… BJP is trying to run away from its failures.”
Krishan Bir Chaudhary from Krishak Samaj reminded the panelists that “two months ago, farmers had to sell tomatoes at Rs 1-2 per kilo in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha… These things happen due to policy failure”.