Human interest stories are not always about filling the spaces with a feel-good factor or a tear-jerker. They can sometimes nudge at the cynicism of our times. An interesting strand in the state-left wing extremism confrontation in Naxalist affected regions is how All India Services officers can serve as the human face of the state (assuming the state doesn’t wither away). The Hindustan Times had a remarkable story (Touched by cop’s kindness, Maoists abjure violence, April 18, 2012) about an IPS officer enacting the real life 1957 classic film, Do Aankhen Barah Haath. The paper reported: “Dreaded Maoist Sudama Oraon and 21 fellow rebels have had a before and after transformation in jail, touched by the gesture of an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. The rebels have decided to give up violence and rejoin the mainstream. A 2005 batch IPS officer Manu Maharaj (now Superintendent of Police, Rohtas District) has been a heroic presence in the lives of Oraon and fellow Maoists for the way he ensured good treatment for them in prison, provided financial help to their families, and even took pains to sort out their land disputes.”

From human interest stories to hard news. And what could have been harder than the hard lines being drawn on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) issue? The Indian Express, The Hindu, The Times of India and The Hindustan Times reported the hardening of the stand taken by Non-UPA Chief Ministers against the proposal to set up NCTC in its present format. Covering the annual Chief Ministers’ meeting on internal insecurity called by the Centre, the papers (April 17, 2012) tinged the headlines with federal stress: “Non-UPA CMs join hands to fight ‘overbearing’ Centre’” (TOI), “CMs flag opposition to NCTC” (The Hindu), “Non-Cong  CMs accuse UPA of creating ‘mistrust, suspicion’” (HT) and “Modi, Jaya & Naveen stand up to Centre” (IE). The last headline was also suggestive of the political equations that were being explored on the sidelines of the meet. Interestingly, none of papers chose the partisan contours of the centre-states stalemate for editorial commentary. Signs of ‘federal stress’ having run its seasonal course on edits!

Now, squabbles over the nature and powers of counter terrorism agency to actual acts of terror. The preceding day (April 16, 2012), it was a security disaster that hogged the front pages as well as evoked editorial comments. The Taliban strike across Afghanistan targeting the Parliament and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) made headlines in all the dailies. In the wake of the attacks, IE commented in its edit: “India must expect that anarchy will intensify in the north-western subcontinent. Insulating India from this deepening disorder must be the main strategic objective of Delhi’s policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan (Sunday Tremors, IE, April 17, 2012). For The Hindu, the terror attacks provided a sombre context in which Praveen Swami placed his insightful analysis of the complex layers that constitute the challenges of the peace process in Afghanistan (In Afghanistan, A Kind Of Suicide, The Hindu, April 16, 2012).

You may have thought they were local, and the Prime Minister went on record to limit them as ‘local’, but neither the polling nor the results of Delhi’s MCD elections were local for our metro-obsessed national dailies. Along with election graphics and photo-ops splashed over front pages, edit pages were engaged with the poll narrative too. TOI commented in its edit (Capital Gains, April 18, 2012): “…although a civic election, this contest throws up a bunch of interesting trends extending beyond the purely local.” Certainly Congress is not buying this ‘trend-spotting’.

If it was ‘rate relief’ for TOI, IE thought it could ‘spur growth and credit’, and HT viewed it as ‘it’s in all our interest really’, but for The Hindu it was a ‘risky wager’ (April 18, 2012). The papers were not ambiguous about where they stood on the news that for the first time in three years, the Reserve Bank of India announced a sharp cut in the rate at which it lends to banks – or the repo rate by 0.50% to 8%.

So did your papers have any front page reporting on the putsch in Mali which has ended with the army’s renunciation of power? No, although The Hindu editorially commented on it as a ‘very unusual coup’ (April 17, 2012). But so was the fate of developments in the other political theatre of the world – Europe. Are papers giving a clue about EU developments, in terms of international diplomacy, regional dynamics or even national politics? Any build up to French Presidential race?

The edit pages of papers engaged with diverse reflections on Right to Educaton (RTE). While Sitaram Yechury (Lost in Transition, HT, April 17, 2012) and Aruna Sankaranarayanan (Beyond the Right to Education Lies A School Of Hard Knocks, The Hindu, April 17) critically dwelt on some disturbing subtext of RTE, it is Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s piece (Classroom Struggle, IE, April 18, 2012) which dissects the legislation more incisively. As he argues: “There is a brute sociological fact: no government school system can run successfully if there is a large-scale secession of elites from the public system. The accountability dynamics are largely determined by the presence of the powerful. In India this secession is almost total.”

But how could one forget the outstanding piece written by a man who was described by Ramachandra Guha, as ‘one of the most civilized civil servants’ (Guha wrote this in the dedication note for his book ‘The Last Liberal’). If you haven’t already done so, read Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s (Three Cheers To Parliament, The Hindu, April 17, 2012) for historical perspectives and imperatives of ‘parliamentary morality,’ with which he has addressed the contentious questions of the times. If not carrying the simple sagacity of JS Mill’s statesman-like effort, it certainly glows with the cogency of Russelian wisdom.

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