Feel-good factor with a foreboding

VERNACULAR VIEWS

North: As in the English-language dailies, the cow-belt's papers are full of feel-good, feel better, and feel-best. So, there's exhilaration about Bush's statement on new Indo-US ties in Dainik Bhaskar, and even the Mars landing is attributed to the brains of Indian scientist Kanna Rajan.

While talking of rabi forecasts for the year, Bhaskar says the feel-good factor's pervaded to the farm sector as well. And The Economist has incurred the paper's wrath for incorrect reporting on India in its The World in 2004.

The Economist talks of Vajpayee trying to postpone polls, Bhaskar reports, because he's unlikely to come back to power! The special issue also talks of how Vajpayee will not talk of Kashmir when he's in Islamabad and that relations between the two countries will remain frosty. Bhaskar takes great pride in saying The Economist got it wrong.

For the rest, both Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran are full of election stories, on the alliances being sewn up, and of George Fernandes upping the ante on Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins once again.

The mini-Budget and the election goodies, unsurprisingly, made it to the front pages of all papers, though Bhaskar was lyrical in its headline: Riyatons ka mausam, Rahatos ki jhadi (Season of concessions, rain of reliefs, literally)! The Pravasiya Bharat hangama also featured prominently.

East: The last fortnight saw mega events vying for space on the front pages of the Bangla newspapers. There was Vajpayee's visit to Islamabad; Finance Minister Jaswant Singh presented a mini-Budget; and then there was Vajpayee's announcement at Hyderabad about the decision to present a vote-on-account by February and prepare for an early poll in April.

But in terms of display and prominence, news related to the forthcoming general election occupied much of the front page. Aajkaal even put out April 4, 11 and 18 as the likely dates of the three-phased general elections.

Bartaman speculated on how former cabinet secretary T R Prasad and commerce secretary Deepak Chatterjee were the two candidates being considered to succeed J M Lyngodh as chief election commissioner.

Ananda Bazar Patrika went a step ahead by carrying a second-lead story on the government's plans to announce the setting up of the sixth Pay Commission to win over the bureaucracy before the elections. The allocation of the coal and mines ministry to Mamata Banerjee also figured prominently in the Bangla newspapers.

West: The outrage caused by the gangrape and subsequent suicide of a girl in Ahmedabad was reflected in Gujarati newspapers, with almost all dailies strongly criticising the police.

In an article on January 12, Gujarat Samachar, the state's largest circulated daily, equated the gangrape with a scene in Damini, a decade-old Hindi movie. It said that while one Damini, with the support of society, managed to get justice, it might take many Daminis to rectify the situation in Gujarat.

The article concluded by stating that by the way the government handled the case, it appears as if Narendra Modi, too, believes that might is right.

The newspapers featured lead stories of possible pre-poll alliances and the rumoured discussions between the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the National Democratic Alliance in New Delhi created a storm of politically speculative articles.

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray hinting at a possible three-way tie-up between the BJP-Shiv Sena and NCP, sans former deputy chief minister Chaggan Bhujbal, added fuel to fire, and he threatened to disrupt the existing alliance government of the NCP and the Congress that adminsters the state.

Even as editorials and articles questioned the ethics of NCP chief Sharad Pawar (who has thus far opposed any truck with the saffron parties), the Congress and NCP ended the speculation with an informal announcement of their tie-up, which made news. The papers now dwell on Pawar's political ploy to extract more Lok Sabha seats from the Congress.

South: With speculation on the Lok Sabha elections reaching fever pitch, the three leading Andhra dailies "" Eenadu, Vaartha and Andhra Jyothi "" focused on the political scenario. Vaartha started by launching a campaign against the bogus votes in the state, which created such a stir that the opposition submitted a memorandum to the election commission (EC).

Subsequently, the EC sent a team to the villages in the state and terminated 32 lakh votes. Later in its editorial, Vaartha opined that the bogus votes might have been enrolled by the ruling party. Eenadu held Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu responsible for the failure of the CII Partnership Summit- 2004.

Rahul Gandhi was also dragged into controversy. An article based on the complaint seeking action against Gandhi and his Colombian girlfriend Juanita for staying together even though they are not married "" they spent three days at Kumarakom"" was published on the front page.

What dominated coverage in Tamil newspapers were the plans of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa for the coming Lok Sabha elections. The battlelines for the elections were clearly drawn with all opposition parties aligning with the DMK-led front. And DMK chief M Karunanidhi, in his statement to the media, said the DMK-led front would win all 39 seats.