New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday admitted to having misquoted the Supreme Court in the context of its Rafale order. “It’s clear no court would do that (say ‘Chowkidar chor hai’),” he said, explaining his remarks made after the apex court issued an order in the aircraft deal case earlier this month.
Gandhi said his statement was a “rhetorical flourish in the heat of political campaigning”. He added that it was in response to the BJP claiming that a December order of the apex court amounted to a clean chit for the government in the case. He also insisted that ‘Chowkidar chor hai’ was a political slogan, raising it at an election rally later in the day.
The death toll in the serial blasts that rocked Sri Lanka during Easter celebrations on Sunday rose to 290, of which eight have been confirmed to be Indians. Meanwhile, the authorities seized 87 detonators and safely exploded another bomb. The government said the attack was carried out by a local Islamist group, National Thowheed Jamath, with international assistance.
English channels
Times Now
With #RahulJhootJumla and headlines like “Rahul confesses guilt in court” and “Painted ‘chowkidar’ a chor”, the channel adopted a distinctly anti-Congress tone in its discussion.
Anchor Navika Kumar asked, “Does it give Rahul a right to lie that SC says ‘chowkidar chor hai’, then regret it before the court and repeat it outside”?
There was more Congress bashing through headlines like “outrage sweeps across India” and “BJP: Congress president has lost all credibility”.
The programme also showed Kumar interviewing Modi and asking, “If there is nothing to hide in Rafale, then what is the harm in looking at those facts (presented by petitioners in the Supreme Court). To this Modi replied, “They provided photocopies, we had submitted all necessary documents, our objection was to politicisation (of the deal)”.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi Files Affidavit in SC, Expresses Regret Over Rafale Verdict Remarks
Speaking for the BJP, author Ratan Sharda said, “Rahul has become a new Kejriwal of Indian politics who spits and runs” and that his charges on the quantum of gains to private businesses in the Rafale deal were hugely inflated.
Political analyst Abdul Razzak Khan said the BJP lied that the SC gave them a clean chit on Rafale. “Everyone knows they want to hide something. SC is yet to hear what BJP is trying to hide.”
Republic TV
Like Times Now, this channel too had #CongAdmitsJhoot to go with a story on “Rahul admits Rafale lie in court”. It also asked, “Has Cong lost grip of 2019 campaign?”
Anchor-editor used the story to state his point of view. “I was the first person to say Rafale is the biggest fake news story. There is no scam in Rafale at all, Rahul knows the real scam was his father’s dealing with Ottavio Quattrocchi. Rafale is not a scam, it is a lie repeated many times.”
Political analyst Ravi Srivastava hit back, saying, “You are abusing them, please refrain from abusing those who have died.”
NDTV 24X7
In “Left, Right and Centre”, the channel discussed the Sri Lanka situation with the headline, “Day after blast, Lanka declares emergency”. The channel foreign editor Maya Mirchandani said Sri Lanka wants to be sure who was behind the serial blasts.
Strategic affairs expert Ajai Sahni said the question to be asked here is: “Why Lanka?” He said the island nation was targeted because terror groups “probably found an opportunity and the logistics to execute their plans – they strike wherever they can.”
The channel also spoke about how Sri Lanka has said external influence was most likely behind the Easter explosions.
NDTV 24X7 was the only channel to take up Modi’s comments at a rally in Barmer in which he indicated that India had not kept its nuclear weapons for Diwali.
“Taking national security narrative too far”, “PM raises Pak nuclear button during campaign” and “India has quit the policy of fearing Pak’s nuclear option” was how the headlines described the episode.
Former diplomat K.C. Singh said he was the ministry of external affairs spokesman in 1998 when India conducted nuclear tests. “The whole world reacted and then Prime Minister Vajpayee and his Principal Advisor Brijesh Misra came up with the no first use nuclear doctrine. The basic idea was that India has got this knowhow for deterrence and would never use it to start or fight a war.”
Also read: Sri Lanka Failed to Act on Intelligence About Attack on ‘Prominent Churches’
Asked by Nidhi Razdan why Modi’s statement was “not healthy”, Singh said that through his words Modi had destabilised the nuclear stability which has persisted in the region since 1999. “What will the rest of the world think of us – if we want to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, become permanent members of the UN Security Council, then we need to act responsibly.”
Janata Dal (United) leader Pavan Verma explained that “what PM said was that in the past India and Pakistan were seen as two nuclear powers. You could not escalate even conventional warfare – but post-Balakot, we have shown that we can use force. But I agree that to talk of nuclear warfare loosely or flippantly is not right.”
India Today
The channel ran small stories on Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu being barred from campaigning for 72 hours by the Election Commission for his appeal to Muslims in a Bihar rally to vote unitedly. It also reported on how BJP has chosen cricketer Gautam Gambhir to be its East Delhi candidate.
The channel showed Sidhu telling Muslims at a rally at Barasol: “Do not consider yourself as being in a minority. You constitute the majority here. You are about 64%. Do not fall into the trap laid down by people like Owaisi (president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen). They have been propped up by the BJP.”
The channel also reported how in Sri Lanka the death toll had risen to 290, with at least seven of them confirmed to be Indians.
“Another IED defused near a Catholic church” and “Island on the edge – 87 detonators found, worst not over”, were the headlines it ran.
It also quoted Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy saying that four of the dead were JD(S) workers.
Hindi channels
Zee News
The channel looked at how India and Sri Lanka have enjoyed nearly ten years of relative peace – which has only now been shattered by the serial blasts in the island nation.
Anchor Sudhir Chaudhary said that in 2008, the movie, A Wednesday, portrayed how unsafe Indians had started feeling due to the numerous terror attacks. He recalled that even the 26/11 Mumbai attacks happened that year.
Like in the “Analysis of Sri Lanka’s wahabi tradition”, he looked at how “On April 21, Sri Lanka experienced India’s 26/11”.
The channel said the terror strike was a result of its “government’s carelessness”.
ABP News
With #RahulKiJumlebazi, the channel recalled the confrontation between Congress leader and advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and anchor Sumit Awasthi on April 12. It had taken place on the question of whether Rahul Gandhi should apologise for his statement.
The channel said now “Rahul files 27-page affidavit in SC” in which he regretted his statement. Awasthi said while Singhvi was not prepared to admit that he should apologise, that is precisely what the Congress president had now done.
The channel said another Congress spokesperson and lawyer, Rajiv Tyagi, too insisted on April 15 that Rahul did not make a wrong comment.
It again spoke to Tyagi, who asserted that “Rahul will continue to raise the issues of farmers and the poor and continue to say ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’.”
NDTV India
Anchor Ravish Kumar questioned why environment, water and air pollution were not major issues for the political parties. He showed how in different parts of the country, people were suffering in the absence of adequate water supply.
Kumar also mentioned a report in The Wire on how several schemes had remained only on paper.
From Mahisaur village in Vaishali, Bihar where people’s “water budget is increasing” to Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh, where leader Jyotiraditya Scindia was seen telling a rally how he has arranged more water for them, Kumar said the water crisis is widespread. And yet, he said, the droughts and the hardships do not make it into the political narrative.
Standing near the garbage mound at Ghazipur in East Delhi, he spoke to Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment about the issue. “In no one’s speech, why is that you do not find environment, river or water?” he asked
Narain said the issue is that “weather is changing, farmers are suffering due to air-water changes, they are not being provided proper crop insurance. There is awareness about these issues, but leaders do not want to talk about them. While Maharashtra and Gujarat may be staring at droughts, no one is even discussing them.”