New Delhi: The unprecedented unrest in Sri Lanka, an absconding leader and perceived shadows of a similar fate for India kept the Urdu papers busy. But the opposition’s objections to the new lexicon of unparliamentary words. and its concerns about alleged Chinese incursions, also made it to the front pages.
A United Nations report saying that India will become the most populous country in 2023, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s reference to the population of “a section of the people” in this regard — allegedly referring to Muslims —were also picked up by the Urdu media.
ThePrint brings you a wrap of headlines and editorials in the Urdu press this week.
Sri Lanka Crisis
The public uprising in neighbouring Sri Lanka that forced its President to flee the country remained the top focus throughout the week. On 10 July, Roznama Rashtriya Sahara announced on the front page that with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa missing, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe had agreed to resign.
On 14 July, all three newspapers — Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, Siasat, Inquilab — carried on the front page the news that a state of emergency had been declared in Sri Lanka. Siasat reported that President Rajapaksa had fled to the Maldives. Inquilab also carried an inset about a statement by former Sri Lankan cricket star Sanath Jayasuriya saying that the president had been asked to resign, not to flee the country.
In an editorial on 14 July, Inquilab wrote that Sri Lanka’s political upheaval has its roots in economic woes and because India’s economy, too, has been seeing multiple difficulties in the past few years, comparisons are being made and questions are being asked whether a similar situation may emerge in the country. The paper argued that India has the advantage of being a large country, so that even if the finances of some states are not healthy, others can make up for those deficits
Siasat, in its editorial of the same day, wrote that the first and immediate requirement is for all institutions in Sri Lanka to work together to make things better. Only after some semblance of order is restored can the country seek help from the international community, it said.
Describing the incidents as a rebellion, Sahara’s editorial on 14 July wrote that the Sri Lankan public’s perception holding the Rajapaksa clan responsible for their troubles is not misplaced, given that the family had held on to power for many years. With the government determined to quell the unrest, only time would tell whether the protesters would get their way, the paper wrote.
On 15 July, the page-one lead article in Siasat announced that the demonstrators had finally started vacating government offices.
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Opposition and Parliament
The opposition’s angst — first over alleged incursions by China into Indian territory and then over the new handbook of unparliamentary words — made the front page several times during the week.
On 12 July, Inquilab, alongside photos of Congress MPs Jairam Ramesh and Gaurav Gogoi, carried as its front-page lead an article about how the government is under attack over alleged Chinese intrusions. It quoted the Congress leaders saying that the PM was being silent on this in order to protect his own image.
On 12 July, Sahara carried on its front page a report on the Supreme Court’s decision that the disqualification petition against Shiv Sena MLAs should not be ruled on immediately. The same day, Inquilab wrote that the top court had given relief to the Uddhav Thackeray camp.
In a small article on the front page, Siasat reported on 13 July that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had left for Europe on a personal tour.
On 15 July, Inquilab’s lead headline said that the opposition was upset about words like ‘Jumla-jeevi’ and ‘corruption’ making it to the list of words that, if uttered in Parliament, are liable to be expunged.
In an inset, the paper carried comments from Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh about why they didn’t find the list acceptable.
The release of the handbook by the Lok Sabha secretariat also made it to the front page of Sahara. The paper wrote that Gandhi had reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the words he had himself used during Parliament interventions.
In an editorial on the role of the opposition, Inquilab wrote on 15 July that in a democracy, it is a game of “checks and balances”, and as such responsibility and accountability are key. That is why the opposition in a democracy should not be portrayed as the enemy — but this seems to be the case now, it said. Why else would there be an intent to finish the opposition, the newspaper contended.
Population ‘row’
On 12 July, Siasat highlighted on its front page the United Nations report which predicted that India will overtake China to become the world’s most populous country in 2023.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s statement on this report that “the population of a section of the people should not increase,” — allegedly referring to Muslims — made its way to front pages and editorials.
On 13 July, Inquilab published a report titled ‘Muslims are not responsible for the increase in the population of the country‘, criticising Adityanath’s statement. The newspaper said it’s not difficult to understand what the Uttar Pradesh chief minister was implying.
The report further said it’s not a new thing that attempts are made to create fear in the nation regarding the population of Muslims. The newspaper also cited the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) report to counter Adityanath.
On 13 July, a Roznama editorial pointed out that since Independence, the population of Muslims has not increased as much as that of Hindus.
India’s current total population is 1.412 billion, or more than 140 crore. At the time of Independence in 1947, the total population of Hindus was about 20 crore, which has now increased to more than 100 crore, i.e. the population of Hindus has quadrupled in 75 years. From 1951 to 2020, the Hindu population increased by an average of 1.14 crore every year, the editorial said.
The same day, Roznama carried on the front page the news of a Muslim youth who was allegedly caught by some youths near the Dharmpura canal at Mathura in Uttar Pradesh and forced to chant slogans of Bharat Mata ki Jaiand Jai Hind . It added that the youth was dubbed a ‘traitor’ by his attackers in the backdrop of the killing of a tailor in Rajasthan’s Udaipur.
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Mission Telangana
On 12 July, Siasat’s editorial wrote extensively about the rivalry between Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2023 Telangana polls.
As far as political circles are concerned, the editorial said, the general impression was that KCR was in a direct electoral contest with the BJP.
KCR is trying to give the impression to people that the competition is between his party and the BJP, and that the Congress is nowhere in the competition, it said. It also referred to an instance of KCR reportedly showing an old video of PM Narendra Modi to attack the BJP.
On 13 July, Roznama prominently published on the front page the news of Modi launching development projects worth Rs 16,800 crore in Jharkhand. It also carried the news of former Himachal Pradesh BJP president Khimi Ram joining the Congress on the front page, terming it “a big setback” for the BJP.
Trial of Mohammed Zubair
The trial of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair was closely followed by the Urdu press. On 12 July, Inquilab carried a short article about his remand being extended by 14 days, on the front page.
The next day, Sahara reported that the Uttar Pradesh government had been given four weeks to reply in the case lodged against him in Sitapur, and that the Supreme Court had extended Zubair’s interim bail in the case. It called the bail extension a relief for the fact-checker even as hearings continued in a Delhi court in a case over a 2018 tweet.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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