Monday has been another day of big developing news stories. The fallout of the BJP MP, Kirti Azad’s expose dominated the public discourse and influenced the proceedings of parliament.
The opposition parties sharpened their knives against the beleaguered finance minister, Arun Jaitley, in the parliament forcing him to issue a clarification.
The Lok Sabha witnessed quite a dramatic scene when, angry by disruption during his speech, Jaitley lost his cool momentarily and threatened an unnamed opposition leader to expose him.
The day also saw Jaitley move High Court and a lower court to file civil and criminal cases against the Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, and five other AAP leaders.
Then there was Supreme Court ruling rejecting the plea filed by Swati Maliwal, against the release of the juvenile rapist of 16 December gangrape. This development too has now prompted the politicians to rethink their determination to enact Juvenile Justice Act, currently pending in parliament.
Clearly most channels have already announced their plan to discuss both these stories. The question is; will participating panelists point out the channels’ refusal to beam Azad’s press conference on DDCA corruption on Sunday?
There were conversations on social media today how the same channels, who either completely blacked out Azad’s press conference or chose not to broadcast the crucial bit while the eight-minute video was being played, had gone berserk in giving blow-by-blow coverage of Jaitley moving to courts to file defamation on Monday.
In early prime time slot, India Today’s Karan Thapar extensively debated the impasse over the GST speaking to Jay Panda of the BJP, Kirit Somaiiya of the BJP, Ashwini Kumar of Congress, Naresh Gujaral of Akali Dal and Mohammad Salim of the CPIM. As always, much intelligent debate without any theatrics.
In the same slot, NDTV’s Nidhi Razdan spoke to fiery Azad. Indeed a good interview.
You are trying to unnecessarily creating problem between me and my leaders: Kirti Azad
You didn’t ask me the technical problems, frauds in accounting, fraud companies and fraud accounts : Kirti Azad
Sambit Patra on NDTV: Our Kirti is truly Azad, while in Congress Ghulam Nabi is not despite carrying name Azad
JKR: Nidhi has started discussing DDCA scam on her show Left Right & Centre
JKR; Her guests include Sambit Patra, AAP’s Ashish Khetan and journalists Saba Naqvi and Padma Rao
Hard to deny that CBI raids on Delhi CM office had nothing to do with politics: Saba Naqvi
My question to top Delhi anchors : Are u shielding Arun Jaitley? Will u cross question him d way u r doing Kirti Azad or AAP leaders?
— nikhil wagle (@waglenikhil) December 21, 2015
Every time there’s a defamation against journalists and politicians, the message is of gagging: Ashish Khetan
We are not going to be intimidated by these tactics: Ashish Khetan
We formed 3 member committee, which submitted its report on 17 November: Ashish Khetan
We were about to launch an enquiry when the CBI raids took place: Ashish Khetan
My friends who professed journalistic neutrality are all silent today whenit comes to DDCA controversy. Specially during UPA 2.
— Kartikeya Sharma (@kartikeya_1975) December 21, 2015
Sambit Patra addresses Ashish Khetan as Kirti, causing laughter in the studio
When asked if BJP welcomed the appointment of Gopal Subramaniam to head to commission of enquiry, Patra asks ‘if he’s the judge’
In public life you can’t have double standard. During UPA 2, same Jaitley questioned Manmohan Singh: Khetan
That’s because the scams took place under hin nose, same Jaitley can’t make a convenient arguemtn: Khetan
Rajdeep Sardesai on India Today discussing Nirbhaya and the juvenile rapist’s release.
Rajdeep asks Swati Maliwal, your Delhi govt created rehabilitation for juvenile, Swati says, it’s MY Delhi govt.
As for rehabilitation prog, that’s the shocking part of Juvenile Justice act, Delhi govt not doing of its volition: Swati Maliwal
JKR: Debates on NDTV and India Today are so much better to watch. No drama or theatrics
Swati Maliwal makes important distinction. Providing Rs 10,000 to the rapist was because Delhi govt is mandated to do so
JKR: Swati Maliwal is on fire on India Today, making her point eloquently
Strangely entire BJP comes out to defend Arun Jaitley. Yet they say that Arun Jaitley filing cases in individual capacity.#JantaKaReporter
— Abhishek Shukla (@IamAbhiShukla) December 21, 2015
JKR: Arnab Goswami has arrived with a bang!!
Ashutosh on NDTV says ‘we caught Arun Jaitley lying ‘ Barkha says lying is s strong word
Nalin Kohli of BJP says, Kejriwal had said he would not take bail, but did because he would spend endless time in jail
JKR: Nine minutes into Newshour, it’s still Arnab, no guests
Rajdeep is speaking to Kirti Azad, who says it’s unfair to him that Arun Jaitley didn’t file defamation against him
Ravish on NDTV India’s Prime Time challenging the BJP spokie who says Kirti Azad never took Jaitley’s name, Ashutosh flashes a letter to support claim
Sambit is getting hammered by panelists on Newshour and Arnab Goswami over arrests of Nirbhaya’s mother by Delhi police
Please ask the father, we are not lying, pleads Sambit Patra on TimesNow
After seeing the picture you’ve just shown, I want to apologise to Nirbhaya’s mother because she was ill treated by police
Times Now shows footage of Nirbhaya’s mother with bruised hand. Will Delhi police apologise too?
Jyoti Singh’s mother was arrested twice in as many days by Delhi police, she sustained injuries in scuffle with police
Are you ready to take on Jaitley in the court or you are developing cold feet> Khetan says AAP is the last party to be frightened
Jaitley was not honourary president, he was very much hands on. Therefore, he must be made accountable: Khetan
BJP’s GVL Narasimha Rao on India Today says AAP should be prepared to face the wrath of law now
Can’t make out anything on TimesNow except that Arnab is angry that someone called him he was not prepared
That may be true for other channel and anchors, I’m always prepared: Arnab Goswami to Congress representative
A panelist to Arnab, today’s debate has generated more heat than light, well many would say this is true for Newshour every night, Arnabs slips into break
Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nundy says on NDTV that the juvenile rapist wasn’t the most brutal
Intense debate on The Buck Stops Here with DCW chief Swati Maliwal and Supreme Court lawyer Karuna Nundy. Two perfect guests for this subject.
This country has not given justice to Nirbhaya and that’s the fact: Swati Maliwal on NDTV
Arnab explaining the definition of civil society. he’s spoken for few minutes non-stop but panelists looking at him in ‘awe’