Oil on fire

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

With a few exceptions, the interview given by Aniel Matherani to India Today (which he publicly denied giving later), and its aftermath "" Matherani's interrogation and Natwar Singh's resignation "" have been headline news in most regional newspapers this week. Of course, the Matherani-Singh duo have had tough competition from other events such as Amitabh Bachchan's hospitalisation and critical state. In the north, most newspapers had it on the front page. Dainik Jagran had a blurb which said 10 Janpath had found substance in what Matherani had said, and that is why Singh was being asked to go.

In Karnataka, the papers mostly reported the news in a matter of fact manner except for Kannada Prabha. Both Praja Vani and Vijaya Karnataka had second lead stories on the issue and supporting stories in the inside pages. Kannada Prabha ran a lead edit when Natwar Singh was asked to quit, and said the Congress should have taken this decision much earlier instead of "prolonging this drama". On a lighter note, they also ran a cartoon showing Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh acting as teachers to the "student" Natwar Singh, and teaching him how to sign his name.

In Tamil Nadu, the issue of Matherani's views on Natwar Singh's role in the "oil for food" deals was covered prominently by the Tamil daily Dinamalar. In between, the floods in Chennai relegated the issue to the inside pages. By the middle of this week, however, the issue was back on the front page. In one of its inside pages, the daily reported the fact that a team from the Enforcement Directorate has gone to Iraq to investigate the truth in Volcker committee report.

In Andhra Pradesh, while Andhra Jyothi carried the news as its second lead on the front page along with a list of Matherani's disclosures, Vaartha and Eenadu carried it on their inside pages with a pointer on the front page. Vaartha gave a prominent coverage to the Parliament proceedings being disrupted in its daily column on page three "" Parliament Durbar "" with a catchy headline "Volcker rocks the House again and Matherani creates furore". Almost all the Telugu dailies, on Tuesday, flashed the news about when Natwar Singh would tender his resignation. Vaartha, carried a report on its front page saying that the money allegedly received by Natwar Singh was deposited in foreign banks. The resignation of Natwar Singh was the second lead in Vaartha on Wednesday. Andhra Jyothi and Eenadu carried it on the inside pages, with a front page lead.

Most Marathi newspapers ignored the latest twist in the Volcker report episode barring an odd report on the front page in one of the dailies "" below the fold.