Crisis? What crisis?

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

While most non-English language dailies across the country have given prominent coverage to the Left parties' outrage over various decisions of the UPA government, from the Iran vote to privatisation of airports, all have concluded that the response amounts to plain posturing and the tirade, though full of sound and fury, signifies nothing.

In the north, Hindi newspaper Punjab Kesri had a lead story talking of how the Left's sword was back in its scabbard, now that it had formally announced it would not be supporting a no-confidence motion against the government. The next day, the paper had a front-page story on the irony of the Left opposing the government in Parliament on the Iran issue, while the BJP was to support it. Rajasthan Patrika had this as the day's lead on two consecutive days, including one on how parties were once again exploring a Third Front option. Another day it had, as the second lead on the front page, a report on how the Left party leaders boycotted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's dinner despite being repeatedly requested to attend.

The Left parties' strong resentment on the Iran vote and the moves for a Third Front was prominently covered in all Telugu dailies. Eenadu carried Prakash Karat's statement on the formation of a Third Front as an anchor story on its front page on Monday, while Vaartha splashed it as the lead on the penultimate page with a photograph of Biman Basu and Karat addressing a public meeting in Guwahati. Andhra Jyothi carried the Third Front report on page 2. The UPA-Left meet on the Iran issue was the lead story on page 2 in Eenadu on Tuesday. Vaartha carried it on page 3 and said that the Iran vote was a critical factor but the Left was not going to support the no-confidence motion. Almost all the Telugu dailies carried photographs of the meeting.

The Telugu dailies also carried CPI secretary AB Bardhan's announcement that they would continue to support the UPA government even though it had transgressed the common minimum programme.

In Maharashtra, however, the latest stand-off between the UPA and the Left was given less prominence. Only Sakal carried a few front-page reports on the day-to-day developments. Sakal refrained from making any political comment through editorial or other columns on this issue. Loksatta and Maharashtra Times carried fewer number of stories and that too on the inside pages. However, both carried two editorials each on the game of brinkmanship being played between the Left and UPA. In Tamil Nadu, Dinamalar carried the news for six days, but on the op-ed page.