Battle lost, war won

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

This was one story no one could afford to miss. Sonia Gandhi's resignation from Lok Sabha as well as the National Advisory Council was big news. Her resignation and the subsequent drama that followed dominated the front pages of all prominent Marathi newspapers. While Sakal called it "Sonia's sacrifice Congress' profit", Loksatta's front-page headline declared "Sonia's masterstroke, BJP running for shelter", with an editorial that compared Sonia with black-belt Karate champion who, with one stroke, put all opponents on the mat. Maharashtra Times called Sonia's resignation a boomerang that hit the Congress. But Loksatta was the only newspaper that carried three articles in the Sunday edition, covering various facets of the "office of profit" controversy.

After Friday, however, Maharashtra Times carried all stories on the subsequent developments in the inside pages while local stories dominated the front page. Weekly columns in all Marathi newspapers commented on the political fallout of Sonia's resignation and the controversy surrounding it.

Even before Sonia tendered her resignation, leading Kannada dailies such as Praja Vani, Vijaya Karnataka and Kannada Prabha ran analysis pieces speculating the contents of the proposed ordinance to avoid disqualification of Parliamentarians holding office of profit. Sonia's resignation received front-page coverage in Praja Vani. Vijaya Karnataka ran the Sonia episode as front-page news for five consecutive days. The resignation incident occupied nearly three pages of the newspaper, including the front page. It also recalled a similar incident when former Karnataka Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde had to resign as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission when he was a MP 16 years ago. In its editorial, the newspaper contended that the politicians had not learnt from their past mistakes. It even conducted a public opinion poll on the matter, with citizens expressing divergent views. Kannada Prabha was critical in its analysis of the resignation. Though the newspaper gave extensive coverage to the issue "" front-page news for five days "" it contended that political parties were eroding the values of democracy by clinging to power.

The developments following the resignation continued to hog the limelight in the newspapers for the next two days. All Kannada dailies discussed at length the fate of two MLAs holding office of profit in Karnataka.