New Delhi: Monday was far from a slow news day, between a spike in Covid cases, the India-China clash in eastern Ladakh and the passing of former President Pranab Mukherjee, and prime time reflected that.

While NDTV 24×7 and Mirror Now discussed the economy being at an all-time low, News Nation‘s topic was why the Congress doesn’t “trust” the government. Meanwhile, Republic Bharat continued to focus on Sushant Singh Rajput death case.

First to CNN News18‘s segment on former President Pranab Mukherjee, who died at the age of 84, having been in a coma for several days. His fellow party member, the Congress’ Abhishek Manu Singhvi, spoke about the Bharat Ratna recipient: “I haven’t come across anybody else with such versatility and qualities, like Pranab Mukherjee. A man with total simplicity, and unpretentious.”

On Times Now, Padmaja Joshi discussed the Re 1 that lawyer Prashant Bhushan had been directed to pay by the Supreme Court after he was found guilty of contempt and refused to apologise.

Joshi asked, “If he stands by his tweets, why is he paying the fine?” To this, BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma said, “Because he didn’t want to go to jail.” And then Joshi quipped, “Because he is helping the economy.” Touché.

Speaking of which, Mirror Now focused on the record contraction of the economy, which is at an all-time low since 1996.

Deepali Joshi, an economist formerly with the ED and the RBI, said, “There’s not going to be a total remission, so you’ve to be ready to pay your instalments. But banks also have to be ready to restructure loans. We all know that banks need to be well capitalised in order to keep lending.”

Founder and CEO of infiniX Venkatesh Pannirchelvan said, “If MSMEs are not taken care of by the government, it’s going to deal a huge blow to the economy. Loan moratorium has to be extended by three months.”

After reports of a fresh flare-up between India and China on the intervening night of 29 August and 30 August in Ladakh, on News Nation‘s ‘Desh ki Bahas’, anchor Deepak Chaurasia’s question of the hour was: “Do we need to give China another befitting reply?”

This soon turned into a debate on why the Congress doesn’t “trust” the BJP and whether the party shouldn’t be standing with the government at a time like this.

The Congress’ Suren Rajput argued, “Are the three parts of the government — PM, Home Minister and Foreign Minister — on the same page? Are they in the same tune? PM Modi is saying that nobody has entered, foreign minister says that we haven’t seen such aggression ever, why so much deployment?”

Rajput then said, “We are with the government, our Army is on duty and has given a befitting reply. But isn’t it the Prime Minister’s and the government’s responsibility to be truthful to the citizens of the country?”

But none of the above news mattered to Republic Bharat anchor Arnab Goswami, who continued his tenacious ‘investigation’ into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. “Today we will show you proof of what all happened in Sushant Singh Rajput’s house on the day of his murder,” he thundered.

The “proof” was the WhatsApp chat of Sushant’s household manager with one of the deceased actor’s friends over a business deal.

Goswami said the timing of his chat is exactly the same as when the house manager was supposedly banging on Rajput’s door, to open it. “Was Deepesh chatting on one hand for his business deal and knocking on the door with the other hand?” Goswami demanded.

“One of the above is definitely a lie. What business deal was this, that it was so important to close the deal before opening Sushant’s door?”

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