New Delhi: There was a big political story on Sunday regarding the Congress, with 23 leaders signing off on a letter to interim president Sonia Gandhi demanding a decisive, full-time leadership of the party. but prime time debates Sunday went everywhere but there —from students taking exams in the time of coronavirus to, of course, the Sushant Singh Rajput case. Zee News discussed the controversy over publishing house Bloomsbury’s book on the Delhi riots of 2020, while NewsX debated how the US election would impact the Indian-American voter now that Kamala Harris is the Democrats’ choice for Vice President.
First up, Aaj Tak, which looked at the NEET and JEE national-level entrance exams to be held in September. The government refused to postpone them despite appeals and protests by students. BJP’s spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia defended the decision: “Prime Minister is also working, cabinet meetings are also being held. We need to maintain a balance between going ahead with our work and ensuring safety”. He added, “Even the Supreme Court said that nobody can guarantee if corona will vanish in 2021. We cannot keep postponing exams.”
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate countered, “Look at the preparedness of the government. Bihar has seven centres for JEE, Uttar Pradesh has 17, which clearly means the students will have to travel in big numbers. Public transportation is still not available in these places. Imagine the plight of students and parents who’ll have to travel from faraway places.”
Times Now‘s Athar Khan stuck to the Sushant Singh Rajput case and the new ‘revelations’ after the CBI took charge. “Now the question is when will the CBI close this case? The Jiah Khan case which started in 2014 has still not been closed and the court says the shoddy work does by CBI doesn’t satisfy anyone,” said lawyer Manasvi Thapar. He asked BJP leader Shweta Shalini when that “closure report” would be delivered.
Khan came to Shalini’s rescue: “But Shweta cannot answer that question. Shweta is not part of the CBI. She’s not investigating. It’s unfair to ask her.”
Thapar tried to argue that since CBI is under the Centre, Shalini was the right person to ask but Khan was quick to cut to a commercial break.
Republic Bharat‘s Aishwarya Kapoor said (shouted, rather) that bringing every big or small news related to the Bollywood actor’s death is not just the channel’s campaign, but is also the demand of 130 crore Indians.
“But some lobbies are still pushing Rhea Chakraborty’s PR machinery agenda and the retarded suicide theory,” Kapoor complained. Patting its own back, the channel said it stood up for the CBI enquiry despite multiple attempts to pull it down.
BJP leader Shaina NC turned crime expert. “The autopsy report did not have the timings of death. How could the Mumbai Police so easily say it was an open and shut case?”
Over on Zee News‘ ‘Taal Thok Ke’, the discussion was on Bloomsbury India’s decision to withdraw publication of Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story after public outrage over a launch event headlined by alleged riot instigator, Kapil Mishra. The channel’s ticker read, “Danga karne mein nidar, kitaab se darr” (Those who aren’t afraid of instigating the riots are afraid of a book).
One of the book’s authors, advocate Monika Arora, said that the book was written on the basis of “stories found while visiting on-ground”. Arora claimed that Bloomsbury India told her that they were under “international pressure” to withdraw publication.
“This incident has exposed the left-fascist lobby which promotes misinformation in the name of CAA,” she added.
NewsX‘s Vineet Malhotra eschewed national topics and went abroad, specifically, to the US. His panel focused on how the US elections will affect Indian-American voters.
“Is Joe Biden just paying lip service because when it comes to inclination, Indian-Americans have always leaned in favour of the Democrats?” he asked.
Former Ambassador Pradeep Kapur replied,”The position on the ground today in the swing states is very narrow for each candidate, so each and every vote counts. So now, they’re getting into the granularity of voting patterns.”
Malhotra asked if India is being “hyperbolic” about Harris just because she’s of Indian origin.
Diplomat and former secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs Deepak Vohra pointed out that “The Indian-American community may not have the numbers [in terms of votes] but do they have enormous financial clout and that has a spin-off benefit.” But he added, “Trump has done nothing to antagonise us. Maybe when he offered to help with Kashmir, but we shot it down and he took it gracefully.” Ever the diplomat.
