What anniversary?

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Thanks to the situation in Kashmir, the meltdown in the markets and the doctors continuing to up their protests on the quota issue, the UPA's second anniversary on Monday got buried in most regional newspapers. On the day, both Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran led with the Kashmir blast. Bhaskar's second lead was the students' protests and the anniversary was a pointer in the first column. The edit page's lead article was vacated for a debate on the government's performance. Jagran didn't have an edit on the event.

In Mumbai, the stock market crash dominated the front page of all Marathi dailies. Loksatta devoted half of the front page one to stock market reports. It also had a full page in the second section of the paper analysing the trend. Maharashra Times has written two edits on markets while Sakal, another Marathi paper, has one edit. Loksatta, too, had two oped pieces on the Dalal Street developments. All three Marathi papers have been carrying stock market related stories on page one almost every day since May 16.

The regional press in Karnataka did not attach much importance to the UPA government's two years in office either. While the leading Kannada daily Vijaya Karnataka made a passing reference to the issue, Praja Vani carried an editorial. Though the editorial commended Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his performance, it was critical of the UPA government's recent decisions.

"Manmohan Singh has done a fantastic balancing job in taking the government forward despite many shortcomings. However, he has been cornered on some of the recent issues like reservation in higher education," the Praja Vani editorial said. Others like Kannada Prabha and Udaya Vani did not mark the anniversary in any significant way.