New Delhi: In recent times, certain media houses have claimed and misled the people on major issues. For instance, on September 25, The Indian Express carried a report with a headline, "In wake of caste protests, PMO holds its first meeting on affirmative action in private sector", suggesting that the NDA government to going to impose caste-based reservation on the private sector.

However, the report stated that the central government was focusing on the skill development of the members of the SC/ST community rather than providing them quota in the private sector.

Officials present in the meeting told representatives of the industry chambers that the government had prepared a list of 22,000 villages where the percentage of SC/ ST population was high.

“They (the government officials) said that the private sector can adopt villages and work towards extending skill training and then provide jobs to the SCs and STs in these villages,” said a source who attended the meeting but did not wish to be identified.  

The above was a presentation by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion before the Coordination Committee for Affirmative Action for SCs/STs. The principal secretary to the Prime Minister is its chairman.

This committee has industry heads as members, which means the decisions taken by the committee have the private sector's consent.

Also, clearly, this was a bureaucratic exercise that hardly saw any political intervention. The Prime Minister was not even present in the meeting.

Times Now, which had the chance of rectifying the information and making people aware of the truth, seems to have used this opportunity for reasons known only to them. On listening to the anchor of this piece of news, it becomes clear that she is referring to the Indian Express story of September 25.

The Indian Express report dated September 25 created a furore in the country, with members of upper castes protesting on social media. The report today on Times Now, given that it's a popular channel, might lead to hysteric reactions across the country once again. And the needless row would be based on misrepresentation of facts by a section of the media!