Rashtriya Sahara of January 9 has termed the “actions taken by the ICC after the failure of umpires was pointed out” as ‘cricket ki fatah’ (victory of cricket). The paper has pleaded for thinking “beyond the removal of umpire Bucknor and the deferral of Bhajji’s punishment” and says the matter should be seen in a “wider perspective because if the ICC shows any sign of partisanship and takes a weak decision, it will raise many problems for the organisation itself, other than harming Indo-Australian cricket relations, because after all, nobody can deny the importance of India in the realm of cricket.”

Sahafat on January 12, though says, “it would be wrong to blame the umpires for helping Australia defeat India”. The paper also says that the “The Bhajji affair should not be linked with the issue of bad umpiring. And as Symonds has raised the matter of racial abuse, it’s a very serious issue, deserving a serious probe.”

Taslima’s troubles

The Taslima Nasreen issue is again under discussion in the context of the Information and Broadcasting Minister’s statement of January 6 that Taslima should apologise to Muslims with “folded hands” for “hurting the sentiments of the community”. This has been highlighted by Rashtriya Sahara and Qaumi Khabrein (Lucknow -based daily) on January 7. Interestingly, Dasmunshi’s statement of January 6 followed a late night conclave of Muslim religious leaders in Delhi (reported by Delhi-based Hindustan Express on January 8) where they decided to launch a joint campaign to “corner and isolate” the writer, and put pressure on the government to “throw her out” as “Taslima is dangerous for all”.

... contd.