Triumphant return

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams' successful return from the International Space Station was widely covered in the Hindi press.

A day after space shuttle Atlantis touched down at the Edwards Air Force Base in California, Rajasthan Patrika took the news on its front page. The piece detailed how Atlantis had landed after overcoming a spate of difficulties, such as computer problems with the shuttle and bad weather which delayed landing attempts. In its June 24 edition, Dainik Bhaskar reported that all astronauts were soon to meet their family members. The paper added that Williams had been chosen "Person of the Week" by leading US television network ABC. The report was accompanied by a picture of family members of Williams celebrating her successful return in Ahmedabad.

The other story that remained in the headlines during the week gone by was the series of charges levelled against presidential front-runner Pratibha Patil. An edit in Punjab Kesari decried the mudslinging, saying that certain powerful forces were behind the trumped-up charges against Patil. "First a TV channel took up the charges and gave them prominent coverage, and now an English newschannel considered close to the American government has also joined the bandwagon. The kind of campaign that has been launched against Pratibha Patil is unprecedented," the edit said.

Sunita Williams' return to earth did not receive much attention in the Kannada press. Only Kannada Prabha of the New Indian Express Group carried a news agency story on the front page on the day of her return. The event was treated as a routine development by other leading Kannada newspapers.

A lot of local issues dominated the front pages. Incessant rain caused havoc in six districts of the state claiming 45 lives. Kannada dailies Praja Vani, Vijaya Karnataka and Udaya Vani accorded top priority to this disaster with rain-related reports appearing on the front page for three consecutive days.

Another development was the High Court directing 1,100 erring schools to follow the state's language policy. These schools which had obtained government recognition by undertaking to teach in the Kannada medium were found to be imparting education in English. As their actions violated the state's language policy, the government derecognised them. The schools had approached the High Court seeking relief but failed.

All prominent Marathi news papers such as Sakal, Loksatta and Maharashtra Times (MT) carried every development relating to Sunita Williams' return to India prominently on their front page. The day Sunita started her return journey back home, MT carried a letter from 'Team MT' as a flyer on the front page which wished Sunita a safe return on planet earth. Both MT and Loksatta carried edits on Sunita's safe return in their Monday editions.

The Loksatta edit called Sunita "The woman with the right stuff" and compared her to the heroine of The Right Stuff, a science fiction cult classic by writer Tom Wolfe. The editorial also dubbed Sunita a true Miss World because of her mixed parentage, marriage to a Chinese-American and American citizenship. The editorial also discussed the impact of people such as Williams on contemporary human life, values and philosophy.

The other stories which were carried by Mumbai papers prominently were the SSC examination results, the first rains and the resultant collapse of Mumbai's train system and the ongoing spat between BJP and Shiv Sena over the latter's decision to support UPA-Left's Presidential candidate, Pratibha Patil.

Williams' return from a record-setting mission to the International Space Station was covered in all the Bengali dailies. Anandabazar Patrika came out with a front-page photograph captioned "Sunita conquers space". The paper carried an article describing Sunita's emotional reunion with her family as friends and wellwishers gave her a rousing reception.

Aajkal, another Bengali daily, published an article and a photograph of Sunita Williams on the second page. The article described how Sunita had an emotional reunion with friends and family after a record six-month stay at the space centre. Bartaman carried a brief article along with a photograph of Williams on the front page.