(This is a reprint from NewsBred)
Indian Express of February 25, 2016, is a collector's item. It's imaginative, creative and like all such things it takes great liberty in dispensing with facts.
It's imaginative for it gives a screaming full-page bottom-spread headline: "Quoting wisdom from 40 BC, misquoting Kashmiri poet" (see the image), even though there was no misquote from the person in question, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, Union Urban Development Minister. (More on it later.)
It's creative for it picks an exhortation for nationalism from ex-serviceman into a misleading headline: "Latest Wisdom: Bring a tank on JNU campus to instil nationalism in students." (More on it later.)
It's factually wrong for it it splashes a three-decker headline: "Prof. shares piece on Khalid, ABVP burns effigy, blocks class" even as there is no mention in the report how ABVP "blocked" any student or students from attending one or any class (More on it later.)
There is also the lead headline: "Smriti shines the light of treason", which could make a professor of English opt for a new paper roll in his toilet. But when agenda is an issue, language is a minor indiscretion.
All these are front-page headlines. None of them is in single column. Indeed, if there is any story other than concerning JNU row on front page, it's a single column four paragraphs on forthcoming budget. The newspaper didn't have space for rail budget due next day; the water crisis that has left the capital parched or even the jat agitation where casualty is 28 by now.
What chance then there is for you to read about the unfortunate plane crash in Nepal that killed all 23 passengers aboard? The newspaper in its wisdom apparently believes that a "babu" unable to sleep at night because of worrying "mahaul": ("Minister watching, Minority panel official says: Can't sleep at night, mahaul -climate- worrying") is worthy of a four-column display. Or that a retired octogenarian Supreme Court judge's opinion on "sedition" is worth a second lead story.
All this concerned the Page One or Front Page. Let's now move on to other pages:
Page 2: All stories barring two again concern the issues surrounding the JNU affair.
Page 3: Just one neutral story manages to find space on again a JNU-dominated page.
Page 4: By far the most neutral page in that just about half the page is on JNU affair. Things possibly are looking up.
Page 5: Darkness again. The entire page is devoted to JNU.
Page 6: Not a single JNU story. Possibly the agenda is exhausted after all.
Page 7: Not a chance. The Jat agitation is blamed on--you guessed it right--JNU. This story takes up more than half the page.
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