The times they are achangin’?

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Subramanian Swamy running down Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is not as big news as top newspapers carrying the economist-politician’s criticism of Jaitley is. But this is exactly what happened on Monday (October 17). The Times Of India carried a three-column news story on Swamy’s at the India Political Centre Conclave organized on Sunday in Allahabad to delve into the crucial issues in the upcoming UP Assembly elections.

Swamy said that he was satisfied with the work of the Narendra Modi government but “unsatisfied with that of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.”

Interestingly, it was not only TOI, the largest selling paper in India, but also Dainik Jagran, the country’s biggest daily, that prominently displayed this story.

It may be remembered that Jaitley enjoys an excellent rapport with top journalists, especially of these two newspapers. This is the reason that Swamy rarely gets a good press. That the two big dailies decide to give considerable coverage to Jaitley’s bête noir is conspicuous. Is Jaitley losing his clout in the media? Does it indicate anything? The times they are achangin’? We’ll try to find that out.