Front Page
Kamal Nath, Rafale, Maithripala Sirisena, Vijya Mallya and onions are big news this morning, but Rahul Gandhi leads the way.
On a quieter day for politics in general, all roads led to the Congress president’s door in Delhi amid feverish discussions in the party on who would be the chief ministers of its newly won states, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Anticipation of the Supreme Court decision on pleas seeking a probe into the Rafale deal makes it to the front page in Hindustan Times and The Hindu. In the just-concluded hearing, the court dismissed the petitions.
The Supreme Court in Sri Lanka finds a way in too, with The Hindu leading with a report on how the dissolution of parliament by Sirsena further exacerbates the seven-week “crisis” triggered by the sacking of PM Ranil Wickremesinghe by the President.
The Express front page features an exclusive interview of chief election commissioner Sunil Arora, and, importantly for the media, the I&B ministry’s decision to drop “paid news’ from its upcoming Press and Registration of Books and Periodicals (PRBP) Bill.
Onions are known to have brought down governments, so The Indian Express and The Times of India reports on the woes of onion growers are a must-read. As The Times of India puts it, “Would you grow onions if all they got you was Rs 2/kg?”
Kamal Nath’s late-night appointment as Madhya Pradesh chief minister leads to some fun headlines: “After election, Cong fights selection” reads The Indian Express report, “Kamal blooms in MP” puns TOI, and it’s “New innings for old guard” in HT.
All the reports detail Thursday’s developments, which led up to Nath’s appointment in MP, and the continuing tussle in Rajasthan. As the Times reports, “The reported reluctance of ‘Gen Next’ Scindia and Pilot to quietly make way for the ‘old guard’ in Nath and Gehlot saw anxiety levels rise…”
The Economic Times and The Indian Express also offer editorial comment on the tussle. In “Democratically Choose Chief Ministers”, ET writes, “Revealed leadership is what counts… Whether this quality is revealed by someone young or old is immaterial.”
The Express urges the Congress to get past CM choices to offer solutions to rural distress and youth unemployment. “Their success …will depend on whether and to what extent they can take the longer view,” it states in “Back in the game”.
In “Poll results a test for GST Council”, Business Standard provides a fresh perspective on the recent state poll results. It reports that the new arithmetic at the GST Council could be a headache for the Centre as state governments led by other parties can “block resolutions in… meetings”.
Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari “appeared to bat for fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya by saying that it was unfair to dub him a fraud for committing a rare default”, reports The Economic Times on Page 1. The Express reported that Gadkari also claimed Mallya had repaid loans for 40 years and one default does not make him a fraud.
And the photo of the day appears on the front page of Hindustan Times: “In the same frame”, as HT notes, stand PM Modi, former PM Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, together but looking elsewhere, while paying tribute to security officers killed in the 13 December 2001 Parliament attack. A photo in The Indian Express shows BJP president Amit Shah walking past UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Meanwhile, the HT front page reports that a man protesting the Supreme Court’s Sabarimala verdict allowing women into the sanctum had immolated himself. Others bury the news deep inside. According to The Times of India, “His dying declaration recorded by a magistrate doesn’t mention any reason for taking the extreme step, according to police sources”.
Prime Time
Most the new channels, including Aaj Tak, Republic TV, and India Today, debated the Congress’s internal tussle over picking chief ministers for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Aaj Tak anchor Anjana Om Kashyap began by asking what had delayed the appointments. Congress spokesperson Rajiv Tyagi sought to change the topic: The Congress was more concerned about fulfilling the promises it had made people, Tyagi said, “than installing a chief minister quickly”.
BJP spokesperson Aman Sinha observed that, given the current scenario, it would be difficult for the Congress to complete its term in office: “The way they are fighting with each other, it is difficult to see the government running for the next five years in Rajasthan,” he said.
On Republic TV, anchor Arnab Goswami was back at his attacking best, training his guns on the Congress: Is Congress mocking people’s mandate by creating suspense over the chief ministerial candidates, he asked.
“It took seven days for the BJP to appoint Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh chief minister,” NCP leader Sanjay Tatkare reminded him. However, BSP, which has extended support to the Congress in MP and Rajasthan, wanted the selection process to speed up: “It is the responsibility of the Congress to act swiftly now,” said BSP leader Sudhindra Bhadauria.
On India Today, Rajdeep Sardesai wanted to know who would be Rajasthan’s next chief minister: “In Madhya Pradesh, the drama seems to have settled down, but the real drama is beginning in Rajasthan,” he said.
Senior journalist Javed Ansari, who came to the show as a panelist, said he believed the “high command would settle the issue”, adding that there was “no debate of old guard and the new guard in the Congress camp”.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera defended the delay, describing the party’s approach as a virtue. “Consensus building in the country is not something what people in India are used to in the last four and a half years,” he added.
Striking a different note, Times Now’s Navika Kumar interviewed union finance minister Arun Jaitley on the appointment of Shaktikanta Das as Urjit Patel’s successor at the RBI.
On the issue of the RBI’s independence, Jaitley sought to calm concerns: “RBI is a very important institution in the life of this country, its independence does exist in the framework of law.”
News it’s just kinda cool to know
Researchers at the University of Zurich and Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have designed a foldable drone that can squeeze through tight spaces such as cracks in a wall or a slightly opened window, reports PTI.