New Delhi: Prime time debates Tuesday were preoccupied with the spat between Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari over the opening of religious places in the state.
The governor had written a letter to the CM questioning if the latter had suddenly turned ‘secular’ after he opposed the reopening of temples. Thackeray hit back saying that matter had nothing to do with being ‘Hindutva’ or secular.
Meanwhile, Zee News asked if advertisements could be termed as ‘communal’ or ‘secular’ — referring to the controversy surrounding an advertisement by jewellery brand Tanishq that featured a Hindu-Muslim inter-faith marriage.
And CNN News18’s Shreya Dhoundial revealed that Delhi’s air quality index hit the level ‘poor’ for the first time this season Tuesday. “From here one, things will only get worse,” she said.
On Times Now, anchor Navika Kumar shed some light on the “heated mahabharat” between the Chief Minister and the Governor in Maharashtra.
First, she gave some gyaan: “People are learning to live with the pandemic after taking precautions that are necessary. Most places of worship have also been reopened now complete with new guidelines just like malls, offices, bars.”
She added, “However, the Maharashtra government is vehemently opposing the opening of temples in the state. Devotees across the state along with BJP leaders today launched a protest against the Uddhav sarkaar questioning the state’s stubborn attitude towards opening temples demanding this lockdown over faith be done away with.”
Aaj Tak’s anchor Rohit Sardana showed live reports from various temples that were open across the country.
BJP leader Prem Shukla attacked the Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra and said, “Sena will also shout the slogans of ‘first mandir, then sarkaar’ before the elections, and yet is not opening temples for the common citizens. However, liquor shops are opened despite rising Covid cases.”
But Shiv Sena leader Kishor Tiwari turned the whole matter around and noted that the controversy was not about temples but the letter by Governor Koshyari, which was written in an “unconstitutional language”.
NDTV 24×7 moved away from all this and instead focused on a recent statement by the Chinese foreign ministry, where it claimed that China did not recognise Ladakh as an Indian territory.
Anchor Sonia Singh recalled, “This is the second time China has raised the issue of recognition of Ladakh changing the goal post, but it’s coming because of India’s increased focus on infrastructure here, a day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated 44 bridges, including 8 each in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.”
Singh asked fellow anchor Vishnu Som, “On one hand we have joint statements and on the other hand these very aggressive statements from China.”
Som then attempted to make a joke, “It’s almost as if one arm of the Chinese administration didn’t know what the other arm was doing.”
He added, “While they are continuing dialogue on the military table, remember there have been seven rounds of talks but very little has taken place… They identified Indian infrastructure construction as the root cause of the problem that presently exists and they are trying to tackle that root cause.”
On ABP News, Rubika Liyaquat focused on the ‘Tanishq controversy’. The jewellery brand had released a 45-second advertisement where a Muslim family was preparing a traditional South Indian baby shower for its Hindu daughter-in-law.
However, the ad was withdrawn after immense backlash on social media with several people claiming that it promoted ‘love jihad’ and ‘fake secularism’.
“If giants like Tata group will give up in front of such hate spreading groups, then what will the rest do”, asked Liyaquat.
Image consultant Dilip Cherian said that the brand failed to understand that those who are trolls, are not customers.
“The ad is completely within the values espoused by Tanishq,” said Cherian.
Industrialist Suneel Alagh said that Tata as a company should have advertised this, and not Tanishq, which is just a subsidiary under the large conglomerate Tata Group.
“Product advertisement always gets into trouble like this”, said Alagh.
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