Prime Time
The Karnataka crisis made news throughout Monday and dominated the evening debates.
However, the photo-op of the day was elsewhere. NDTV 24×7 ran a photograph of Raj Thackeray, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief greeting Congress’s Sonia Gandhi with a bouquet of flowers at her residence. “This is a huge political development…” observed NDTV 24×7’s reporter. “It’s a secular makeover for Raj Thackeray,” commented anchor Sonia Singh.
The other telling visuals on Times Now were of BJP members seen accompanying Congress MLAs who resigned in Karnataka or visiting them at a Mumbai hotel. Anchor Padmaja Joshi accused BJP of “exploiting” Congress’s problems. This was an “inherent weakness of Congress”, replied BJP’s Gaurav Bhatia.
ABP News: Anchor Romana Isar Khan asked, “If Congress does not have a leader, have they also lost their foundation?”
BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said that the erstwhile Congress president had resigned but “every Congress spokesperson says that he is and will remain the party president… This is Congress’ strategy.”
Political commentator Shahzad Poonawala was more colorful: “An ICU patient cannot be fixed with a band-aid. What is happening in Karnataka is similar to that.”
CNN News: Anchor Zakka Jacob also discussed the Karnataka crisis. BJP’s Prakash said, “This government was in ICU, running on the support of a ventilator.”
Surabhi Hodigere, a contributor to Swarajya magazine, said, “People in power will go to any extent to hold on to power, that is the nature of politics.”
NDTV 24×7: Here too it was Karnataka. Anchor Nidhi Razdan asked, “Should the BJP steer away from staking a claim on the seat of the CM?”
BJP’s Vivek Reddy said, “…we are very clear that unless and until the government can prove its majority on the ground there is no question on the BJP making a political move. If the coalition enjoys a majority, then they can continue.”
Razdan asked if Madhya Pradesh with a Congress government, was the next one in trouble?
Journalist Radhika Ramaseshan said MP looked very vulnerable (for Congress). “Only Rajasthan and Punjab seem secure.”
Aaj Tak: PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti’s comment that Amarnath yatra was causing inconvenience to Kashmiris due to strict security measures was the topic on Aaj Tak.
Tahir Saeed, PDP leader, claimed that this was the first time the yatra was being “politicized” — because of “this procession, Kashmiris are locked in their homes”.
BJP’s Gaurav Bhatia agreed but blamed Mehbooba: “She is the one who is politcising the yatra. Whoever goes for the yatra, their security is our responsibility. We will not endanger it.”
Times Now: Burhan Wani’s death anniversary saw demands for a shutdown to mourn his death in the Valley.
Defence analyst Major General G.D.Bakshi (Retd) said, “In my many years in J&K, we captured many like Burhan Wani and spoken to them at length. At the end of the day, the fight was all about power and money.”
Majid Hyderi, political analyst, disagreed: “How can somebody who picks up a gun to get killed have lust for power and money?”
Front Page
For the second day in a row, the “natak” in Karnataka makes it to the front pages either as the lead or second lead. Hindustan Times headline says the coalition is “hanging by a thread” with the resignation of two independent MLAs and withdrawal of ministers’ support. The Indian Express says this is the JD(S) alliance’s “make or break” moment.
All 30 ministers resigned “voluntarily” to allow a Cabinet reshuffle in a “desperate bid to accommodate disgruntled legislators and pull the alliance from the brink of collapse”, reports the Express.
HT writes that it was 32 ministers who resigned “in a bid to make room for the disgruntled leaders”. It adds, however, that the “strategy appears to have floundered” since several of the rebels, who had moved to Goa, simply reiterated “their commitment to quit the coalition”.
TOI’s description of the mass resignations is more emphatic: “The entire Karnataka ministry barring CM HD Kumaraswamy resigned”, it writes, adding, “In a day of fast-paced developments, the numbers tilted in favour of BJP”. “The coalition’s strength in the 224-member assembly has now come down to 103.”
“All eyes are now on Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar who is expected to look into the resignations when he returns to office on Tuesday. His decision will seal the fate of the 13-month coalition government,” informs The Hindu.
In other Congress related news, senior leader Karan Singh is “aghast at disorientation of Congress” when searching for a new leader (Hindu). The Express says that he presented a “different solution” to the crisis: appoint an interim president “at the earliest” with four working or vice presidents.
Sensex
Express and HT dwell on the “budget blues” — namely stock markets taking a “heavy beating” Monday with the benchmark BSE Sensex “plummeting 793 points” (Express). It also points out that the global shares were in a “muted mood” after strong US job gains “tempered expectations” that the “Federal Reserve will deliver a large rate cut”.
HT calls it the “Year’s biggest fall” while underlining “disappointment over lack of measures to immediately revive economic growth” and “fear” that the higher tax on the “super-rich would extend to investment vehicles through which some foreign investors channel their investments into India”.
TOI, meanwhile, gives minimal space to the “second worst post budget fall in Sensex in a decade”. It adds that global markets “were hit after stronger US jobs data reduced chances of rate cut”.
Bus accident
For Hindu and TOI, the bus accident off the Yamuna Expressway is the lead. TOI calls it “the worst-ever crash on the Yamuna Expressway”, The Hindu says that “the vehicle hit a divider and fell 40 feet down into a drain between carriageways”.
While HT and The Hindu agree that “it appeared the driver dozed off at the wheel and lost control of the bus, which then veered into a drain”, Express, claims “the cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained”.
On its front page flap, TOI also runs an explainer on “Why bus accidents happen so frequently on our roads”. The “killer” Yamuna Expressway “stretch has recorded 5,507 road accidents and 944 deaths since it opened to traffic in August 2012” and though the “primary focus of accident causation has been narrowing down on unsafe driver behaviour” it does not “take into account several factors that contribute to crashes, road geometrics being one”.
World Cup
HT goes blue again, in support of India as it plays the “shaky Kiwis” (TOI). Graphics of Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson adorn front pages and their flaps.
Opinion
In “Karnataka embroglio”, TOI traces the circumstances that led up to the crisis in the JD(S)-Congress alliance which is on the verge of collapse. 13 MLAs including 10 Congress MLAs and 3 JD (S) MLAs have quit the government.
The ruling H.D. Kumaraswamy government seemed “brittle” from day one since it seemed like the two parties formed an alliance just to “ward off an existential crisis for both parties in Karnataka”. Congress also had to give up the CM post to JD(S) which could have sown discord amongst the MLAs. This coupled with the flawed promise of plush portfolios to all MLAs led to this inevitable crisis. With Congress in disarray following Rahul Gandhi’s resignation, it seems the alliance is “living on borrowed time”.
The Hindu, in “A regrettable conviction”, states that LTTE supporter Vaiko’s conviction on charges of sedition is a worrying development. “Political speeches are criminalised to the point of being deemed an offence against the state.” Section 124A or the sedition law has been used increasingly to suppress political dissent and this particular conviction is “inopportune”. There is now “greater recognition than in the past that Section 124A is neither relevant nor needed today”.
While Vaiko’s speech was virulent against the Union government, whether it was enough to incite violence is debatable. This also highlights the wide definition of sedition which takes in “its fold not only incitement to taking up arms but also harmless, even if strident, criticism”.
With inputs from Taran Deol, Kairvy Grewal, and Rachel John.
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