Not a capital concern

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Just because it happens in the capital doesn't make it a capital concern, it appears. And so, most newspapers across the country gave the demolitions in Delhi the miss, along with the attempts by the Central government to fix it by allowing mixed use of land, the attempts by BJP politicians such as Madan Lal Khurana to get attention by preventing MCD officials from sealing unauthorised structures, and later the attempt by

Congress MPs to try and get a slice of the action as well " Congress MPs from Delhi all went and demanded an ordinance be passed. Surprisingly, however, it wasn't just the non-Delhi newspapers that by and large ignored the news, even the Hindi newspapers in the capital were mixed in their coverage. While English-language newspapers in the capital highlighted each attempt by Khurana to stop the police and officials, and the human-interest stories of office-staff that got sealed along with their offices and old men who had their medicines in sealed residences, no Hindi-language paper gave such detailed coverage, including on the inside pages.

Dainik Bhaskar, for instance, had its front pages occupied for much of the week by news of the SBI strike and the failure to resolve it, of Medha Patkar's hunger strike on the poor progress in resettlement in the Narmada case, and even pictures of Brian Lara on the catwalk during Fashion Week. News of the demolitions were restricted to page two and there were stories detailing the fact that, on one day, 458 shops were sealed and, on another, how BJP politicians were arrested. The return of Sanjay Joshi to the BJP and the increase in IIM fees also made it to the front pages.

Dainik Jagran, another Hindi daily, found it important enough to comment on the SBI strike (it said it was unjustified), but did not take any editorial line on the happenings in Delhi.

Punjab Kesri, though, played up the events prominently on page one, with even a six column picture on one day of the week and a bottom anchor coverage of events. Rajasthan Patrika, similarly, played up the events. A box within the bottom anchor during the week said it all  the BJP's begun a Jail Bharo Aandolan (fill up the jails), Khurana's rath yatra to begin, and there's a lot of movement in the Congress. The BJP is getting a lot of mileage out of the events and so the Congress is keen to ensure it doesn't lose out, and wants to be seen as the party that stopped the demolitions.