Front Page

What The Indian Express calls the “strongest pitch for India-Pakistan peace since he (Pak PM Imran Khan) came to power” makes it to Page 1 on all dailies — and the flap page of The Times of India.

The Hindu highlights a part of Khan’s speech that went on to dominate TV news prime time: according to Khan, Kashmir was the only “discordant” issue between the two countries.

Congressman Navjot Singh Sidhu features in a standalone TOI story, “Sidhu hogs the limelight”, and photo ops in the Express and Hindustan Times.

This “reaching out to the Indian government” to “break the shackles of the past” and “restart engagement” (The Hindu) is tempered by the accompanying reports on, “Sushma reality check: Won’t attend SAARC, no talks until terror stops”, (Express) and the killing of Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jatt, responsible for the death of journalist Shujaat Bhukari. TOI calls Jatt a “honcho” and his death a “big breakthrough”.

The Express finds India’s dilly-dallying with Pakistan, unhelpful. In an editorial, it writes: “The conflicting voices and messages from government and politicians on the Kartarpur Sahib corridor have shown India in an unflattering light…India should have signalled its assent to the holding of the SAARC summit. But in election mode, the (Narendra) Modi government, trapped by its own rhetoric, seems inadequate to the task of rising above itself.”

GDP

All major newspapers give Page 1 space to the latest GDP controversy. The Telegraph leads with the newly revised GDP figures, writing, “Abracadabra! Achchhe Din: Modi govt puts out data claiming NDA’s GDP growth is higher than UPA’s”. The Economic Times plays it straight with “New Back-Series GDP Data Cuts UPA-Era Growth”.

According to the ET report, the numbers are “experimental results meant to facilitate a decision on the approach to be followed and were not official estimates.”

Other stories

HT and TOI place a “heatwave risk” on their front pages, just as winter sets in. “The number of people exposed to heat wave events across the world rose by 157 million between 2000 and 2017, according to the Lancet Countdown 2018 on health and climate change,” reports HT.

“Death penalty freakishly imposed” has the The Hindu quoting Supreme Court Justice Kurian Joseph. According to Justice Joseph, “The test of “rarest of rare” had been “inconsistently applied” by courts,” says the report.

Absent

News of the farmers’ march to Parliament with a strength of 15,000 goes either unreported or is buried within newspapers. Hindustan Times puts the news on page 4.

Prime Time

TV news goes into Kartarpur corridor at prime time

Republic TV and Times Now went after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for his speech after laying the foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor. They said Khan demeaned the Indian government — he said Wednesday India and Pakistan should have a “civilised relationship” and there is only “one issue- Kashmir” between the two countries.

Republic TV’s anchor Arnab Goswami questioned Khan’s credentials: “Pakistan army’s stooge Imran Khan spoke about cheap politics. Personally, I have never seen such an immature man in any office.”

Retired Major Gaurav Arya, now a Republic analyst, felt Khan injected politics into a religious matter: “This Kartarpur occasion had a certain sanctity that was destroyed by Imran Khan, he was just playing to the gallery.”

Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan G. Parthasarathy challenged Congressman Navjot Singh Sidhu’s claim that he had helped initiate the talks to open the Kartarpur corridor: “Sidhu did not initiate anything on Kartarpur, the talks had been going on since the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.”

Interestingly, Sikh devotees at the Kartarpur shrine who spoke to India Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai said Sidhu had played a major role in opening up of the corridor and there is no need to politicise this historic event.

On Times Now, anchor Navika Kumar wondered whether Khan wants Modi to be ousted from power in the 2019 elections. Which lead Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra to accuse Congress and Pakistan of trying to politicise a religious issue —“Both of them are hand in gloves in politicising this issue.”

Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ghanshyam Tiwari changed tack and went after the BJP on developments in Kashmir: “The Government is confused about Kashmir, internal security, foreign policy, they should focus on these issues.”

Sardesai’s ground report from Kartarpur discussed the possible implications of opening it up: “This is a rare occasion when both the countries have gone that extra mile and this is a significant day for the people of the two countries.”

With revised GDP figures under the UPA-II released on Wednesday, ET Now anchor Supriya Shrinate interviewed Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar. The back-series slashes the figures which previously estimated double-digit growth of 10.3 per cent in 2010-11 to a revised 8.5 per cent. Kumar explained that with the new GDP back-series, the overestimation of the tertiary sector’s contribution has been corrected.

News it’s kinda cool to know

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) said India collected approximately $12 billion in 2010-2018 by taxing coal production. This taxation is cited as an inspiring development to force others in the Group of 20 countries, reports DownToEarth.

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