INDIA bloc rally vs Modi’s ‘war’ on corruption: What made the front pages of newspapers?
The rally in Delhi was ‘in effect the first public meeting of the 10-month-old INDIA bloc’ https://www.newslaundry.com/2024/04/01/india-bloc-rally-vs-modis-war-on-corruption-what-made-the-front-pages-of-newspapers
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”. 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”.
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.
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”
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. 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”.