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New Delhi: Prime time debates Wednesday were tense about the India-China standoff in Ladakh, with several anchors wondering why China was so riled up.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s comments Tuesday on the lockdown continued to be a topic of interest on news channels.
ABP News’ anchor Rubika Liyaquat was upset about the ongoing politics in India, “Kahan toh baat thi ki corona se ladayi hai…Lekin India mein corona se zyada rajneeti par ladai ho rahi hai,” (In India, coronavirus is not a topic of discussion or fights, politics is).
Liyaquat explained, “Ab ladai lockdown par chal rahi hai,” (Now the fight is on lockdown). She was referring to the comments Gandhi made Tuesday on the lockdown and how it had not worked.
She also had some questions for the Congress party, “Jab desh mein lockdown nahi laga tha toh Congress ke netaon ne lockdown lagane ki maang ki thi, Chidambaram ne 29 march ko tweet bhi kiya tha iss baare mein, par ab Congress lockdown ko fail bata rahi hai,” (When the country was not under lockdown, Congress ministers had asked for it. Chidambaram also tweeted about. But now they are saying that it has failed).
Liyaqaut questioned “Congress ki confused neeti” (Congress’ confused politics).
India TV’s Rajat Sharma decided to give his viewers a crash course on the stand-off on the Line of Actual Control, “China ke border mein itne dino se ho kya raha hai, China ko India ke border par fauj bhejne ki kyun zaroorat padi,” (What is happening on the border since so many days? Why did China send the army to the border?).
Tensions along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh escalated after China reportedly deployed about 6,000 soldiers at four locations in eastern Ladakh, three in Galwan Valley and one near the Pangong lake.
After answering his own questions, Sharma spoke about US President Trump’s offer of mediation, “Trump ne mediate karne ki khwaish rahi hai. Yeh America ki puraani aadat hai, aur na hi China maanega, na Bharat,” (Trump has offered to mediate. This is America’s old habit, neither will China listen nor India).
Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhary had a rather unique take on the standoff with ‘China’s ghuspeth business model’. He asked his viewers, “Koi aapke neeji jeevan par nazar rakhne ki koshish kare toh yeh bhi ek tarah ki ghuspeth hoti hai…China jaise desh ne ghuspeth ko apna udyog bana liya hai,” (If someone tries to keep an eye out into your personal life it is an intrusion, China has made incursion its venture).
He then explained that invasion had become China’s “business model”. “India ke seema par ghuspeth kar raha hai China, apni mobile apps se ghuspeth kar raha hai, ab toh apne hi desh ke logon pe health apps ke zariye ghuspeht kar raha hai,” (China is intruding on India’s borders, invading people’s lives through its apps and is now invading the privacy of its own citizens through a health app) he said.
On Times Now, Navika Kumar had her own fresh take on China, “After so many years since Independence, India has finally started to ramp up its border infrastructure. The main contention here is the 255 km road connecting Daulat Beg Oldie with Shook and Darbuk, whose construction has been completed in 2019.”
She continued, “This is all happening in Indian territory. China has an issue with it because it has never happened in the past, India’s growth connectivity is growing leaps and bounds.”
CNBC TV18 anchor Ritu Singh had some bad news on the economic front, “Markets may be sharply higher but that is in direct contrast to the output of India’s economic growth that some international rating agencies are forecasting.”
She explained, “Crisil ratings is the latest one to forecast a recession for India in FY 2021. It says that India is set to see the worst recession it has seen since Independence with the economy contracting by 5 per cent in FY 21, and a 25 per cent contraction in the first quarter of the financial year. It believes that India will have to go over 11 per cent over the next three years to make up for the lost growth which is nearly impossible.”
Anchor Sanket Upadhyay got a lesson in health economics from Dr Eric Ding, a prominent American health economist on NDTV 24×7. Dr Ding explained, “Healthcare rates are going to be rising a lot. I think it is important to give free testing and potentially free treatment. If you don’t offer free testing, people aren’t incentivised to get tested. If you don’t get tested, this epidemic will get worse. Economics around healthcare is really critical during this pandemic.”
He added, “If a drug reduces illness by the duration of four days but it doesn’t significantly reduce mortality… is it really cost effective to charge an exorbitant amount of money with that sort of a healthcare return.”
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