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HomePlugged InMedia probes Imran Khan's 'fresh start' appeal

Media probes Imran Khan’s ‘fresh start’ appeal

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Imran Khan wants to make things right with India, and all the newspapers, barring the Indian Express, make it the leading story. “Imran looks for fresh start” writes The Hindu on the Pakistani Prime Minister’s invite for bilateral talks with India, which have been stalled for over a decade due to terrorism. According to The Times of India, “Khan’s comments reflected, at least in part, the 2004 joint statement arrived at between then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan would not allow territory under its control to be used for terrorism”.

“I tried to reach out to India from the very first day of my term,” Mr. Khan said. “But I got a bad response when the meeting at the UN was cancelled,” The Hindu reports him saying.

Hindustan Times offers an explanation, writing, “At present, the mood in India is not in favour of a dialogue with Pakistan. With India set to go for elections in 2019, Mr Khan’s gesture, although well meaning, seems to have come at the wrong time.”

TOI takes a harsher, more skeptical stance, saying, “The problem lies elsewhere – in Pakistan’s unwillingness to forego the terror tool even as it claims to want to pursue peaceful dialogue with India,” and further, “Given the wide divergence of the two countries on Kashmir tying it to Kartarpur doesn’t, unfortunately, augur too well for the future of the corridor either.”

CBI

Meanwhile ex-Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief Alok Verma has approached the Supreme Court , who has said it  “would discuss the CVC report on charges against CBI director Alok Verma only if it concluded that he had been legally divested of his powers in view of the contention that a high-powered selection committee should have cleared the decision.”

Verma’s hearing had been delayed because of an alleged leak in documents pertaining to the case, published by The Wire. TOI carries a report in which Verma’s counsel, Fali S. Nariman, tells the top court that the “media could not be gagged from reporting petitions” no matter how sensitive they might be, but that “they could be asked to postpone publishing the contents of sensitive petitions till the judges perused them and passed orders in open court.”

Demonetisation

“Ex-insider Arvind Subramanian delivers demonetisation shock” reads the leading story in The Telegraph, calling it a “a massive, draconian, monetary shock”. “What drew the maximum attention were words like “draconian” and “massive”,” observes The Telegraph. Subramanian resigned in June this year, and was the former Chief Economic Advisor to the Modi government.

Other stories

“Jaitley, Chidambaram spar over GDP revision” reads a headline in the Hindustan Times’ front page flap. “One way to view this political wrangle is to acknowledge that mainstream political parties are now extremely mindful of the level of economic growth,” writes the Express in its editorial, adding “what political parties ought to keep in mind is the potential damage to credibility and its impact on investors, both global and domestic.”

“The Maharashtra legislative assembly and council on Thursday unanimously passed a bill granting 16% quota to the community” says The Times of India in a front page report. The quota comes after violent agitations across Maharashtra through the year.

The Express puts a story of daughters of farmers who committed suicide on its front page writing, “Apart from demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Report, loan waivers and reduction in prices of fertilisers and diesel, their main demand is to get Parliament to discuss the agrarian crisis in the coming winter session.”

Prime Time

CNN News 18

CNN News 18 anchor Zakka Jacob discussed whether the Maratha reservation bill which has been passed by the state assembly stands the test of law.

As per the bill passed Thursday, Marathas will now get 16 per cent reservation in jobs and education in the state. This in turn will take the overall reservation in the state to 68 per cent.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sanju Verma said that Congress had failed to bring reservation for 15 years while Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha mentioned that BJP had passed the bill in order to gain political mileage.

Verma said, “Congress had 15 years and could not give reservation to the Marathas, it is the BJP which had done it ultimately.”

Jha said, “Government has got the bill passed just before the elections in order to gain political mileage. We did not vote against it because we favour the principle of reservation.”

CNBC TV 18

CNBC TV 18 anchor Latha Venkatesh interviewed Sudipto Mundle, member of the board of governors of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.

Mundle mentioned that the statistical production system must be ring-fenced from governments to avoid controversies like the ongoing GDP data fiasco. He added that he is happy with the Centre as it produced an official set of back numbers after a three-year delay.

Over the involvement of the Niti Aayog in releasing revised GDP data, Mundle said that the government think tank does have a role in statistics production, “It may have been in government’s interests to let Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) deal with data and maintain a distance.”

On Central Statistics Office (CSO), Mundle said, “If the statistics office had a problem with panel’s data, they should have written a dissent note.”

India Today

India Today anchor Preeti Choudhry debated who will win in the Rajasthan assembly elections.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said that Congress should stop dreaming about victory while Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill mentioned that BJP is looting and fooling the people of Rajasthan.

Patra said, “Congress should forget dreaming about achieving victory in Rajasthan. No matter how good the leaders are the captain of Congress’s team is Rahul Gandhi. He will fail.”

Shergill commented, “There was once goron ki sarkaar which looted the people now there is this choron ki sarkaar. They are trying to fool the people of Rajasthan.”

ABP News

ABP News anchor Chitra Tripathi interviewed Congress leader Sachin Pilot and discussed who will become the Chief Minister if Congress comes to power — Sachin Pilot or Ashok Gehlot.

Pilot said the Congress legislature party will decide the chief minister after the elections.

He said, “This is not a presidential election. It’s the party that wins and MLAs decide who will be their leader.”

When asked about a possible rift between him and Gehlot, Pilot mentioned, “If there was any rift in the Congress party in Rajasthan, Congress would have lost by-polls.”

News it’s kinda cool to know

According to a research published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, scientists have developed a cheap method to develop an electronic skin which can help robots and prosthetic devices to attain abilities akin to human skin that allow tactile interactions with the environment, reports IANS.

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