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Times Now and NewsX were the big claimants. The former actually got pretty good quotes, like, “I don’t want the Intelligence Bureau to judge if a judge is rational or spiritual.” Subramaniam also expressed satisfaction at failing a “test of conformity and mediocrity”, and dissatisfaction with the judiciary, which did not stand shoulder to shoulder with him. Arnab Goswami had to trump that, because there’s no stopping human nature, and he put the Chief Justice of India in the dock.

But this nasty incident is now behind us. So is Narendra Modi’s sentimental blog post, which said that never mind the customary 100-day honeymoon period, the media had not even given him 100 hours. Cut to the quick, NDTV India reminded viewers that the Modi wave had been created by the media.

The issues now on the front burner are the Budget and the growing agitation over the issue of the four-year undergraduate programme in Delhi University. Mail Today had a rhetorical headline yesterday accompanying a picture of Dinesh Singh, the embattled vice-chancellor: “Has anyone seen this man recently?” Denied visual contact, Headlines Today was forced to re-run an episode of Rahul Kanwal’s programme Right to be Heard from the first week of June. Most channels also ran a video of the university’s spokesperson, in which he refused to speak.

The Budget drumbeat has picked up well, too. In times past, industry players and interest groups had to visit North Block and navigate through shoals of clerical staff in order to propitiate the god of finance. Now, television studios are happy to invite them to provide free programming. The business channels have featured so many charters of demands that the evening slots are full up, and they are airing demands for tax breaks first thing in the morning. CNN-IBN is taking an interesting tack, directly contrasting business objectives with farmers’ interests. In visual terms, it’s the steel rolling mill versus swaying paddy fields. One of the stops of their Budget Yatra is Singur, where the farmers still insist that they cannot be relieved of their fertile farmlands.

Meanwhile, Dwarakapeeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati’s campaign against the worship of Sai Baba has reached its natural conclusion, with his tirade on various interested channels, such as News 24 and Sahara Samay. On camera, he called upon cult followers to cleanse themselves in the manner of our ancestors — a waterless fast, followed by a dip in the Ganga. It’s a rationalist position, but his effigy is being burned in the streets. Maybe a first in the history of his faith.

pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com