Front Page
It’s polling day, again.
The Times of India and Hindustan Times front pages say the third and “biggest” phase of polling is underway, today.
However, there is other news too. The serial bombings in Sri Lanka dominate page 1 for a second successive day. The Hindu is the only newspapers to have its own reporter in Colombo, The Indian Express has bylines from India — the others depend on agency reports.
Photographs of devastated people, women in particular, accompany the news reports. HT and TOI carry the same one of a mother running with her child to safety.
In its lead, TOI says ‘…Colombo blames Lankan jihadi outfit’ for the blasts. The Hindu adds Sri Lanka “named a little-known local Islamist radical group, the National Thowheed Jamaath, as responsible for the ghastly Easter Sunday serial blasts”.
Express, however, quotes Sri Lankan Cabinet minister Rajitha Senaratne as saying, “We don’t see that a small organisation in this country can do all that…We are investigating international support for them and their other links.” (‘Bombers had no crime record, Lanka looks at home terror cell’).
TOI’s focus is the Indians killed in the attack: “Nine Indians, including five activists of JD-S (Janata Dal Secular) and a relative of a BJP functionary, were on Monday confirmed killed” in what it calls “the worst-ever terror attack in the country.”
HT says, “President Maithripala Sirisena gave the police and military sweeping wartime powers…”
“Provisions that granted police powers to the military were withdrawn at the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in May 2009”, it adds to reflect the gravity of the situation.
Express highlights “one of the suicide bombers (who) blew himself up at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo belonged to an affluent Lankan business family” but does not elaborate on it.
CJI Ranjan Gogoi: The sexual harassment allegations against India’s most powerful judge Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi received more traction this morning, after being virtually ignored on Monday. Newspapers report various angles of the story.
HT says the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA), “criticised the way the Chief Justice of India conducted judicial proceedings in the matter ‘in violation of procedure established by law as well as principles of natural justice’” (‘Lawyers’ bodies say CJI violated process in hearing own case’).
The Hindu agrees: “A storm of public opinion is gathering against the manner in which a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi convened” to hear the case against him.
Express follows the CJI, finding that “Amid snowballing criticism”, Justice Gogoi “asked Justice S A Bobde, the second most senior judge, to decide on the next steps in the matter.” It also runs an exclusive piece on the man who filed a “cheating” case against the woman complainant who had allegedly promised him a job at the Supreme Court.
TOI writes that the allegation “has led many SC judges to request all male staff at their residential offices,” adding, “The CJI said the request for male staff at residential offices was difficult to meet as 60% of the SC staff were women.”
Rahul Gandhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi makes it to the front page: ‘Rahul ‘regrets’ linking ‘chor’ jibe at PM with SC’s order on Rafale’ (TOI). Newspapers quote from his affidavit, wherein he expressed “regret” that his “chowkidar chor hai” slogan was “intermingled” with the SC’s order on the Rafale deal.
Iran oil: In other news, ‘U.S. ends waiver for Iran oil, India second biggest buyer after China’ (Express). “India was one of eight countries allowed temporary import of Iranian oil since they had made ‘significant reductions’ in oil imports”. Express’s ‘Explained’ box adds that now that US will not renew exemptions, “this could become a hot-button issue between India and the US”.
Opinion
HT in ‘A time of fear and uncertainty’ states that the Sri Lankan blasts “expose the dysfunction of the government”. The major reason behind this “dysfunction” is “animosity between President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe”.
HT thinks the terror outfit National Thawheed Jama’ath is “not capable” of “organising such bombings on its own”. It suggests “increasing influence of Salafi ideology among Sri Lanka’s Muslims and the growth of mosques and seminaries funded by west Asian nations” may have sown “Islamic State” links in the island nation.
With elections due in December, it “could witness more uncertainty and instability”, which can have “far reaching ramifications for India and especially the southern state of Tamil Nadu”, it concludes.
Express in ‘Terror next door’ calls the blasts a “diabolical plan to drag the country back into its darkest days”, which is “worse than anything it has experienced at the hands of the LTTE in the three decades of civil war.”
“Mainstream Muslim parties, major players in Sri Lanka’s robust democratic political space, had managed to keep the radicals at bay all these years despite the failure of the political class to repair the ethnic faultlines”, it observes, but that Christians — an even smaller minority — were under attack, “points to more than a local grievance.”
Prime Time
On the day Rahul Gandhi expressed ‘regret’ for his remarks, Sadhavi Pragya filed her nomination, a fire broke out in Mumbai’s iconic Crawford market, and another blast occurred in Sri Lanka, the news channel debates followed their familiar ‘tu-tu main main’ battles.
India Today: Anchor Rahul Kanwal interviewed Sadhvi Pragya.
Pragya claimed she had been tortured for nine years in the name of “Hindu terror”. She added, “Hinduism is sanatan dharm, one cannot link it with terrorism at all”.
When Kanwal said Congress denied the use of torture, she said, “This is completely false, one can appreciate after seeing me that it is painful for me to walk. Can medical reports be wrong?”
Times Now: Anchor Padmaja Joshi tackled the Twitter controversy over Vistara Airlines’s photograph of retired Major General GD Bakshi on one of its flights. Protests followed from “liberals” and it was deleted. Those supporting GD Bakshi called for a boycott of Vistara.
Bakshi was on the show and said, “I have served this country in many battlefields. I am a patriot and nationalist and I am extremely proud of it”.
Aaj Tak anchor Rohit Sardana’s show ‘Dangal’ was in Lucknow, on the topic: why had “bayanbaazi” replaced development in the elections?
BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi gave the standard party answer: “The country is in safe hands and under Modi’s rule we know how to tackle terrorism and conduct airstrikes in Balakot. Congress, on the other hand, failed to protect the country from terrorism.”
SP spokesperson Naved Siddiqui counterattacked with data: “According to report from the Association of Democratic Reforms, over 90% of communal words in speeches are used by the BJP.”
Congress spokesperson Rakesh Agarwal was more to the point: “BJP has done nothing as far as development is concerned. Hence, they are fighting elections in the name of nationalism.”
CNN-News 18: Anchor Bhupendra Chaubey discussed whether Rahul Gandhi’s apology for the ‘chowkidar chor hai’ remark will hurt Congress.
In his reply, Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha switched topics: “Congress will conduct an investigation in the Rafale case, and if Modi is proved guilty he will go to jail.”
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Mittal was scornful of this: “Rahul Gandhi is a liar and he has admitted that in the court. Why will people elect such a man in the 2019 elections?”
Zee News anchor Sudhir Chaudhary took a potshot at Rahul Gandhi’s apology in the Supreme Court, saying “in politics there is this word called credibility which is used by the politicians. Not being credible is not beneficial in the long run and this is what happened to Rahul Gandhi.”
#DNA में देखें- सत्ता के ख़िलाफ़ जनता का गुस्सा एक कॉमेडियन को राष्ट्रपति बना सकता है!@sudhirchaudhary pic.twitter.com/9HcCxvkQMP
— Zee News (@ZeeNews) April 22, 2019
Tweet of the day-
A true Hindu, a true Muslim, a true human being can never be a terrorist.
— Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) April 21, 2019