Sixty and going strong

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

The Prime Minister's speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of India's independence received prominent coverage in the regional media. Punjab Kesari took it as the lead in its August 16 edition. Its headline read, "PM attacks communal forces," and the report played on the fact that the PM had not mentioned the nuclear deal with the US in his speech. This, the paper noted, was aimed at cooling down the Left's opposition to the deal. The paper added that this was Manmohan Singh's fourth speech as PM from the Red Fort.

Rajasthan Patrika greeted its readers on the morning of August 15 with a picture of Jawaharlal Nehru addressing a large gathering of people at the Red Fort on August 15, 1947. The picture was captioned "Azaadi ki subah" (A day of freedom).

Dainik Bhaskar, in its August 15 edition, took the picture of a street kid saluting a potential customer, as she sold mini-flags at a traffic junction in Delhi. The paper took as lead President Pratibha Patil's address to the nation on the evening of August 14. On its inside pages, the paper carried numerous reports on the 60th anniversary of independence. A cycle rally in Bhopal organised to commemorate the anniversary found mention along with a picture of the cyclists.

The Kannada newspapers celebrated the 60th year of India's independence with full glory. All the three newspapers Praja Vani, Kannada Prabha and Vijaya Karnataka devoted quite a few pages in their editions to various aspects of independence both in the run upto the August 15th edition as well as in the August 16th edition.

Praja Vani came out with a supplement on August 15 discussing the freedom struggle and how the nation has progressed over the past six decades. The supplement focused in detail on the freedom fighters from Karnataka. The papers also carried photographs of the famous flower show at the Lalbagh Gardens.

While the run-up to the Independence Day hogged the limelight, other developments such as India's cricket series win over England and the kidney racket in Bangalore also took the centre stage. Kannada Prabha ran an edit celebrating India's win.

Starting a week prior to Independence Day, prominent Marathi newspaper Maharashtra Times ran a series, "India at 60", covering all that happened in the last sixty years in literature, economy, politics, film, music, drama and so on. On Independence Day itself, the paper carried pen sketches of 60 heroes of independent India which included the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, A P J Abdul Kalam, M S Swaminathan, Lata Mangeshkar, Vijay Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, P T Usha, Amitabh Bachchan, Satyajit Ray and so on.

Loksatta's articles in its Sunday edition provided some intellectual delight. The lead article written by the newspaper's editor, Kumar Ketkar, analysed the circumstances in which India achieved independence. It dwelt on the end of the Second World War, the beginning of Cold War, Jawaharlal Nehru's leadership and the challenges India currently faces.

Another article critically analysed the portrayal of Gandhi in both Hollywood and Bollywood. On Independence Day, the paper carried two humour pieces on its front page, one a dialogue between on India's performance since independence, broaching both its victories and defeats. The other piece used an analogy based on characters from popular Marathi soap Gangadhar Tipre to portray what independence means to three generations of a family.