CONG LEADER IN MP HITS OUT AT KANGANA
Senior Congress leader and former minister Sukhdev Panse has called Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut a ‘naachney gaane wali’ (a professional singer and dancer), sparking a row here.
The BJP termed his ‘uncharitable’ remarks against the actress as reflection of ‘narrow mindset’ of the Congress.
“What do you expect from a leader of a party whose leader Rahul Gandhi re-tweets comments on farmers’ stir by (pop star) Rihanna and (former pornographic actress) Mia Khalifa”, BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal said here on Friday.
While protesting the purported comment by Ranaut calling protesting farmers in Delhi as terrorists, Panse on Thursday said the Bollywood actress was hardly aware of farmers’ plights since she was a ‘naachney gaane wali’.
Senior Congress leader and former minister Sajjan Singh Verma came to the rescue of his colleague when the latter’s comment on Ms Ranaut snowballed into a controversy.
“He (Panse) should have said Ranaut knows how to dance, but is not aware of farmers’ issues”, he said.
The Bollywood actress was currently shooting for her upcoming film in Sarni in Betul district.
Sydney, Feb. 19: Australia and Facebook held high-stakes talks on Friday after the social media giant sparked global outrage by blacking out news for its Australian users, as Canberra insisted it wouldn’t back down on a new law that would force the tech firm to pay for journalistic content.
From Thursday, Facebook has blanked out the pages of media outlets for Australian users and blocked them from sharing any news content, rather than submit to the proposed legislation.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he had spoken with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday to find a way out of the showdown, and that negotiations would continue over the weekend.
“We talked through their remaining issues and agreed our respective teams would work through them immediately,” Frydenberg said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison also urged Facebook to “move quickly past” what he called threatening behaviour and “come back to the table”.
He said his government's world-first legislation to force Facebook and Google to pay Australian media for news content published on their platforms was garnering interest from leaders around the world.
“People are looking at what Australia is doing,” he said, noting that he had already discussed the situation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canada’s Justin Trudeau.