INDIA bloc rally vs Modi’s ‘war’ on corruption: What made the front pages of newspapers?

Yesterday, the opposition sounded its poll bugle in a sprawling rally at Delhi’s Ramlila ground. It was attended by parties including the AAP, Congress, TMC, DMK, Samajwadi Party, RJD, CPIM, Shiv Sena (Uddhav), PDP and J&K National Conference, and thousands of supporters. Over 20 leaders from 15 parties addressed the crowd.

But did the rally make today’s front pages?

The Indian Express in Delhi had the event on page 1, with the top headline declaring the opposition “rings alarm on free and fair polls”.

“With barely two-and-a-half weeks left before the first vote is cast in the 17th Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition INDIA bloc rally sent out a message Sunday that is set to harden the faultlines in the fractious campaign that lies ahead: it raised doubts about the fairness of the election process itself,” the report said.

On the side was a report on Prime Minister Narendra Modi making a speech at an event in Meerut, where he “launched a no-holds-barred attack on the Opposition saying its leaders were trying to ‘save the corrupt’ at a time when he was waging  war against corruption”.

A smaller story contained interviews with at least three former Chief Election Commissioners who told the newspaper that “the recent actions of the Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate against opposition parties and their leaders have the potential to disrupt the level playing field during elections”.

The Hindu in Delhi also devoted the top half of page 1 to the Delhi rally, saying this was “in effect the first public meeting of the 10-month-old INDIA bloc, which has been hit by desertions and conflicts over seat-sharing arrangements”.

A snippet on the page noted that the BJP claimed the rally “failed to make a mark...with citizens of Delhi rejecting the rally calls of AAP and Congress”.

Hindustan Times had two stories sharing space on its front page in Delhi. The first was on the INDIA rally, the second was Modi’s promise that “action on corruption” will continue. The prime minister had been speaking at the Potato Research Institute in Meerut.

“We have started a battle against corruption to ensure that nobody can gobble up money but a few people are upset because we have been initiating action against corruption,” he said.

The Times of India in Delhi followed the same approach, placing the two stories side by side. It had Modi claiming “this war on graft…has put biggies in jail” while Rahul Gandhi said Modi was engaging in electoral “match-fixing along with three-four billionaires to snatch Constitution from poor”.

Page 1 also had a smaller story on Sunita Kejriwal reading out a speech by her husband, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, that had “six guarantees” if the INDIA alliance won the Lok Sabha polls. 

Finally, The Telegraph in Kolkata which said the rally “tried to make most of the public sympathy generated by the rash of arrests of Opposition leaders like Kejriwal of the AAP and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren of the JMM, as well as the freezing of the Congress’s bank accounts”.

The story shared space with a rally held by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Dhubulia in Sunday, where she threw her weight behind Mahua Moitra. Banerjee “held aloft…Moitra’s hand” and “urged people to re-elect her to register their protest against her expulsion from Parliament”.

Newslaundry was at Ramlila ground yesterday to report on everything that happened at the rally. Read our report here. Also click here for our coverage on Kejriwal’s arrest.

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