From the first ‘aaya ram, gaya ram’ to today’s horses, trade hasn’t changed much, a roundup of prominent vernacular dailies reveals.
From the first ‘aaya ram, gaya ram’ to today’s horses, trade hasn’t changed much, a roundup of prominent vernacular dailies reveals.
While almost all dailies had their pulse on public sentiment, it was prominent Urdu daily, Srinagar Times, which on Monday aptly summed it up in its front-page cartoon showing SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav trying to reign in the uncontrollable horse with Manmohan Singh entangled in the saddle. Three days ago the same paper in a front page toon featured a fat MP with a signboard around his neck reading: “Last five days: Clearance Sale”.
Oriya dailies cheekily highlighted chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s attempts at keeping the party’s flock intact. ‘Patnaik talks “politely” with party MPs to avoid possible poaching,’ said Sambad.
Punjabi daily Nawan Zamana recalled how former chief minister of Haryana Bhajan Lal initiated the tradition of “aya ram, gaya ram” in the region, when as Janata Party chief minister he overnight switched over with his cabinet to become Congress chief minister.
In UP, Amar Ujala on Monday carried a piece titled “Har baar voter ka vishwas mat todiye” (Do not break the trust of the voter every time) by editor Shashi Shekhar. “It’s unfortunate whenever there is a trust vote in Parliament, the grand personality of the Indian democracy gets some permanent injuries,” he wrote. “In such a situation, the common man, who is actually the basis of our democracy, feels cheated,” he continued.
He gave examples of Chandra Shekhar, the confidence motion moved by PV Narasimha Rao and the one-vote defeat inflicted by Giridhar Gomango on Atal Behari Vajpayee to stress his point.
Bengali paper Ananda Bazar Patrika observed caustically: “Who will touch the magic figure of 272 on July 22? At every single opportunity, independent and small party MPS are raising rates.” CPI(M) mouthpiece Ganashakti said the “Congress ultimately resorts to purchasing Lok Sabha members to sell the interests of the nation abroad.”
Kannada paper Prajavani reminded readers that horse-trading in Narasimha Rao’s days cost Rs2 crore (per JMM member). Today the amount has merely gone up to Rs25 crore, or as some allege, Rs100 crore. Vijaya Karnataka reports it is sweet revenge for HD Devegowda who lost a trust vote over a decade ago thanks to the Congress.
Dainik Bhaskar in its Jaipur edition says, “Voters should rise to the occasion and throw out politics of opportunism.” Marathi daily Sakaal called the goings on a ‘mockery of democracy’. Lokmat said the Left parties have shown they do not practice what they preach.
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