Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
On Monday, 10 September, we had a Bharat Bandh, an all-India strike, supported by around 20 Opposition parties who roughly represent over fifty percent of the popular vote in India.
When a Bharat Bandh happens, newspapers normally report it as a front page headline, whether successful or not. However, yesterday's bandh was nowhere mentioned in these papers!
I usually pick up The Indian Express as the first newspaper I read every morning. In the Lutyens edition, the most powerful one, there is a story on fuel taxes, NRI bonds, even markets plunging, but there is nothing about the Bharat Bandh!
When I saw some of the videos coming in to The Quint yesterday, they looked like there was some kind of activity somewhere.
On page 6 of The Indian Express, there is a fairly large headline. The paper says the bandh was indeed quite successful in several states – Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, et al saw a reasonable impact. But nothing on the front page.
Similarly, The Times of India. There is coverage of the Interpol case, the Babri trial, the National Herald tax case. Big headlines, prominent display. And once again, nothing on the bandh!
Just a little box on the flap on the front page of The Times Of India, as a colleague pointed out. I therefore stand corrected. I thought if there is no coverage on the front pages of two mainstream dailies, what we had put out on The Quint was perhaps fake news!
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