You have to hand it to Arvind Kejriwal, he certainly knows the pulse of his soon-to-be voters. With his Friday evening press conference, he has hit on the subject many middle-class Indians discuss in their drawing rooms but most newspapers don’t pick up – Robert Vadra and his business dealings.

Now that the Vadra Code of the media has been broken, how did the newspapers report the news? Read on.

The Hindu

Headline: Kejriwal questions DLF link to huge rise in Vadra’s wealth.

Blurb: Alleges company lent Sonia’s son-in-law crores to buy its own properties below market price.

Positioning: 4-column lead story on front page.

Tone: Neutral, gives the facts, who said what and lays out the details of the allegations. No apparent biases.

Related story

Headline: Congress rallies to defend Vadra.

Tone: Headline shows a slight bias and goes on to state that Sonia Gandhi “reportedly asked senior Ministers and spokespersons to mount a defence of her son-in-law”.

The choice of words “rallies to defend” and “mount a defence” are interesting to say the least.

Hindustan Times

Headline: Kejriwal guns for Vadra, Cong rebuts.

Positioning: Small 2-column story on right-hand top of front page, continued on page 7 as a small column report.

Tone: Slight pro-Congress bias. Starts with describing Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan as “India Against Corruption activists who have turned politicians recently”. Says they have now “targeted” Robert Vadra.

The front page story contains the details of the alleged financial wrongdoings in one paragraph saying “they accused Vadra of increasing his wealth from 50 lakh to 300 crore in three years by receiving an ‘unsecured, interest-free loan of 65 crore’ from real estate giant DLF to buy properties at very cheap prices from the same company” and then lists the clarifications by the Congress and the reaction of the BJP.

It’s only if the reader bothers to turn to page 7 that there are some details of what exactly Vadra has been accused of.

Headline: Modi may raise Vadra issue in campaign.

Positioning: Page 11

Tone: HT also points readers in the direction of a ‘related story’ on Page 11 which quotes unnamed BJP sources as saying that the Gujarat CM is set to use the allegations against Vadra in his poll campaign.

The insinuation that this charge against Vadra will be misused by Modi is clear.

The Indian Express

Headline: Team Kejriwal targets Vadra for his ‘Rs 300-cr assets, DLF links’.

Blurb: Worst kind of political chicanery, says Cong; transactions transparent, says DLF.

Positioning:  2-column story and 3-column graph on front page. Story continues as an anchor story on page 2 in 3 columns.

Tone: Despite the use of the words “target” and “political chicanery”, the article itself was surprisingly neutral. All the allegations made by IAC, including the details of the allegations were laid out. It’s continued on page 2 and includes the name of the five companies. BJP statements and the defence of various Congress ministers that have been quoted by other papers are given here too. If only the headline and blurb could have used slightly less dramatic words.

The accompanying graph comes with a photo of Vadra. The graph is more of a who said what which gives the gist of what all the players, including DLF and Delhi govt, have said.

Another story on Page 5

Headline: BJP targets Cong on Vadra.

Positioning:  First story on the page. 4-column story.

Tone: Mainly lists out quotes from BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad. Starts by saying BJP has “latched on to” charges levelled by the IAC.

Not the most objective choice of words.

“Sensing a chance to open another front against the Congress, the BJP Friday latched on to the charges leveled by the IAC against Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of party chief Sonia Gandhi, and demanded a probe into the claims as well as disclosure of the business interests of Vadra.”

The Times of India

Headline: DLF gave Vadra Rs 500 crore property cheap: Kejriwal.

Blurb: Cong rubbishes charge, says it’s politically driven.

Position: Lead story with graphic. “Full coverage” on page 14.

Tone: Neutral. The graphic lists the allegations along with the stakes he holds in various properties and other details. It also lists the defence by Congress leaders, DLF and the statement which was given by Robert Vadra to the Economic Times last year.

The one column story gives the basic details of the allegations and the responses of the Congress leaders which includes the words “teaching a lesson”.

Page 14

Headline: IAC demands independent probe into “quid pro quo”.

Positioning: Top story on the page. 4 columns.

Tone: Includes graphic which says “31 properties of Robert Vadra group” but lists only 13. Who needs all the facts after all?

The story – continued from Page 1 – includes more details of the allegations and a denial from the Haryana CM. Also mentions IAC’s demands of a probe.

Related article

Headline: Politicians brace for IAC’s next expose (Why do newspapers refuse to put accents on words? Expose, exposé. Big difference).

Tone: Slightly alarmist and theatrical.

States “anxiety gripped political circles” over IAC’s announcement that it would make its second “expose” on October 10. Talks about Kejriwal’s October 2 announcement that he would make serious revelations against two political leaders. Also mentions that some are wondering whether the next will be against “someone at the other end of the political spectrum”.

The Telegraph

Headline: Kejriwal fires Vadra gun, Congress fights back.

Positioning: Anchor story on Page 4.

Tone: Gives some details of the allegations and rebuttals by senior Congress ministers. Article signs off with the sentence – “When Kejriwal signed off his press conference warning that another political ‘heavyweight’ would be under the scanner on October 10, the BJP seemed discomfited”. Really? Behaviour experts are we?

While at first blush it does seem that most newspapers stuck to the “who said what” format and displayed admirable objectivity, Hindustan Times’ positioning and weightage of the news report is a little difficult to ignore. Although we have to say the TOI seems to have more than made up for HT’s lack of coverage, with its three articles. Indian Express’ headline writer did manage to add a dash of drama to the objective reportage. Just in case we get too used to a good thing?