Front page
The biggest story today is the case of a newspaper group not reporting its own news. The Economic Times and The Times of India didn’t report on their front pages adverse remarks by Bajaj Group chairman Rahul Bajaj on the Narendra Modi government at the Economic Times Awards, Saturday — either on Sunday or Monday.
It was left to The Sunday Express and The Telegraph to report, “Shah listening, Bajaj speaks: No one will tell… not sure you like criticism’’ (Express) and “A Rahul bells a fearsome cat” (The Telegraph). Express also has an editorial this Monday — “Those who question” (see Opinion).
Bajaj’s comments were made in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. Shah’s response became the story for ET.
Bajaj had said that the business community lacked the confidence to criticise the government, and flagged the absence of strong action in the case of BJP MP Pragya Thakur’s comments on Nathuram Godse as well as lynching cases.
On Monday, while Business Standard carried “Rahul Bajaj criticism can hurt national interest: FM” and Express “Day after Bajaj spoke up, BJP and ministers hit back” on page 1, TOI and ET carried excerpts of Bajaj’s comments on their inside pages: “Shah to Bajaj: If you say there’s an atmosphere, we’ll work to improve it” (TOI) and “No need to be afraid: Amit Shah” (ET).
ET’s accompanying story was an interview with Bajaj’s son Rajiv Bajaj, managing director Bajaj Autos, contradicting his father: “Nobody joins him, people just cheer”.
Most mainstream newspapers have differing leads Monday. The telecom industry’s decision to hike call and data rates is seen with varying degrees of importance and all report BCCI’s move seeking dilution of the Lodha committee’s reforms.
Telecom rate hike: The Hindu leads with “Private telecom players hike rates, prepaid users to be hit” and notes the “era of low tariffs” is over as Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance Jio increased their rates by up to 40 per cent for prepaid customers. Express writes that the “shake-up” is the “first hike in 5 years”, highlighting in its strap that the decision is being “seen as the return of the ‘sensibility’ in industry stressed due to competition”. The Times of India, in single column, mention Jio’s plans to hike rates on its “all-in-one” plans, and Airtel and Vodafone’s move to spare their “high-paying” postpaid users.
BCCI reforms: The second lead in Hindustan Times and Hindu details Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI’s move to “water down” (HT) the Lodha panel reforms. TOI writes that BCCI “unanimously proposed amendments to the existing constitution of the board, which will now require the Supreme Court’s approval”. However, Express’s take away from the BCCI annual general meeting was entirely different: it focused instead on Ganguly’s claims that “at least one player involved in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy was approached by bookies” during the latest edition of the T20 tournament.
Maharashtra: In its lead headline, Express says the new Maharashtra government laid out its “secular” agenda, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said he is “still with Hindutva, can’t be separated from me”. TOI reports the tripartite government’s decision to review the bullet train project, while Hindu reports that Congress leader Nana Patole will be the state assembly’s new Speaker.
GST collections: “GST collections rebound in Nov, exceed Rs1 lakh crore”, HT writes in its lead, adding that officials attributed “an increase in voluntary compliance and a government stimulus package” for the jump. TOI reports this in the bottom half of the page, noting the “7-month high” in its headline.
Others: TOI reports that the main accused in the Hyderabad rape and murder case had been driving a truck with “no licence for 2yrs”, while Hindu focused on Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao ordering the case be assigned to a “fast-track court”.
Opinion
The Indian Express: In “Those Who Question”, Express notes industrialist Rahul Bajaj’s tough questions about the “atmosphere of fear” in the country, and former PM Manmohan Singh’s similar concerns expressed a day before.
Singh highlighted that the “precarious state of the economy was linked to the state of society”. The GDP rate for the September quarter, also released Friday, indicated the lowest quarterly growth since early 2013. Express said it was up to the Modi government to join the dots and not to see “another conspiracy in the three events, or to create a spectre to divert attention from them”. The daily noted the difference in the tone of Bajaj and Singh — the former was more “hesitant and self-conscious” while the ex-PM had an “understated authority”. To revive the economy, the BJP would have to review its social and political ethos philosophy, and desist from delinking the political-electoral from the economic, Express advised.
The Times of India: In “The Road Ahead”, TOI writes that India’s September quarter GDP fall to 4.5 per cent didn’t come as a shock as many indicators “pointed to a continuation of the slowdown”. Manufacturing “contracted by 1 per cent” and options for youth to transition out of farm activities also lessened. The only segment which saw a double-digit growth was government spending, but that won’t provide a “durable solution”. The slowdown appears to be “structural” as even the nominal GDP growth rate — which is not adjusted for inflation — was lower than what the government based its budget arithmetic on. The “road ahead requires structural reform” in land, labour and capital markets. Still, financial markets is one sector that needs immediate reform to address issues with the flow of credit.
Prime time
News channels Sunday couldn’t get over the shock of the brutal rape and murder of a young veterinarian, Priyanka Reddy, in Hyderabad last week.
On NDTV 24×7’s “We The People” and Aaj Tak‘s “Khabardar” asked why women couldn’t feel safe in their own country. News X wanted “#JusticeforNirbhaya” as it recalled that the “6 beasts” found guilty in the 2012 case were still awaiting “justice”.
CNN News18‘s Maha Siddiqui questioned Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s silence on the Hyderabad incident.
On NDTV India, Nagma probed the controversy around the removal of SPG cover for Sonia Gandhi’s family. And, amid dramatic sound effects and the loud sound of a police siren, TV9 Bharatvarsh looked at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special security commandos.
Republic TV: Anchor Arnab Goswami’s “Sunday Debate” questioned the “#IdeologyMissing” in opposition parties trying to keep BJP out of power (Maharashtra, for instance).
“These parties will compromise every ideology to come together. The ideology in their mind is the ideology of fear… darte hain yeh BJP se (they are scared of BJP)” he remarked.
AIMIM leader Waris Pathan clubbed the main national parties together: “Congress and BJP are different sides of the same coin, they want to fool the people of the nation.”
BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi added to Goswami’s point: “Congress who finished fourth in the (Maharasthra) election is now in the coalition…’’
Shiv Sena’s Vijaya Krishna insisted his party had its ideological bearings intact: “Shiv Sena will be Shiv Sena and our ideology will be Hindutva,” he said.
A similar debate on Times Now saw Navika Kumar ask BJP’s G.V.L. Narasimha Rao if the midnight swearing-in of the Devendra Fadnavis government with NCP’s Ajit Pawar, last month, had “bruised” the party’s image — it is “not smelling of roses”, she observed. Rao insisted the party had come out “very favourably”.
India Today: Anchor Pooja Shali wondered if India was “No Country for Women” — “How Many More Nirbhayas” would occur before we see a change in society.
She interviewed Asha Devi, mother of the victim in the 2012 case, who wanted to know why the accused had not been hanged and why the Nirbhaya fund had not been utilised in 7 years.
BJP leader Neha Joshi said, “… somehow as a society, we are failing our women”.
Activist and feminist Brinda Adige remarked, “There are people who believe that they can commit a crime and get away with it… for (prevention of) that, swift and stringent punishment is necessary.”