NL Hafta
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Weekly wrap of events of the week peppered with context, commentary and opinion by a superstar panel. Click here to support Newslaundry: http://bit.ly/paytokeepnewsfree Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Weekly wrap of events of the week peppered with context, commentary and opinion by a superstar panel. Click here to support Newslaundry: http://bit.ly/paytokeepnewsfree Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Tear Gas in Arunachal, Backtracking on Ladakh: How India Treats Its Borderlands
एपिसोड
The discussion turns to Arunachal Pradesh, where Tongam Rina, a senior editor at the Arunachal Times, describes the recent armed deployment against Siang dam protesters. “Why do you arm and come against people who are saying, ‘We don’t want hydropower’?” she asks. She says a women-led protest in Pasighat was met with a road blockade and tear gas by the central armed police force. Despite this, she says, the protesters’ position has not changed. They want the armed deployment withdrawn, jailed activists freed and the hydropower project stopped altogether. She also points to Facebook pages of media houses and young protest leaders being shut down by the government. Mustafa Haji, legal advisor to the Leh Apex Body, then explains where Ladakh’s talks with the Home Ministry stand. After a consensus was reached on May 22 for a legislature for Ladakh alongside Article 371-type protections, he says the Centre has backtracked and now envisages only a territorial council-type body, which Ladakh has rejected. The panel also notes the same police chief has overseen the response in both regions, and asks why border communities are met with force rather than dialogue. Subscribe to watch the full conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Manisha Pande asks Rohan Venkat, non-resident managing editor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Advanced Study of India, about the far left’s role in the recent violence in France. She also asks him to give Indian audiences some cultural context on the country’s tradition of radical protest. Rohan notes that coverage in the US, as in India, has leaned on blaming immigrants and religious and ethnic minorities. He stresses that mass protest in France is hardly new, from the student-led upheaval of 1968 to the Yellow Vest movement in 2018. “You’ve had the right-wingers in other parts of the world point to these things as if it’s a new thing that you’d see large-scale protests in France. And this is, of course, the country of the French Revolution,” says Rohan. Manisha is quick to remind our audience that the French unrest began with students complaining about poor school infrastructure, a shortage of teachers and an uncertain future. Rinchen Norbu, meanwhile, dismisses the conspiracy theories, spread by right-wing handles on social media, that the protests in India are being engineered by arms of the US establishment to topple the Modi government. The theory makes little sense, he says, given that it is bending over backwards for the Trump administration. Manisha also rejects the comparison with the CJP protests in Delhi. For nearly 30 days, she says, there was no arson or looting, barring two police vans, and the defining image was of abandoned shoes and chappals. The comparison, she argues, makes no sense. Subscribe to watch the full conversation. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Anshu Anand & Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Newslaundry reporters Khushi Mehrotra, Samarth Grover and Astha Savyasachi recount what it was like to report from the ground during the October 10 protests in Delhi. Abhinandan Sekhri begins by asking how live reporting differs from the investigations Newslaundry usually does, where the pressure is to stay accurate and avoid reacting in ways that could later be called unjournalistic. Khushi, who was a print reporter during the first CJP protest, says on-camera reporting brings a fear of becoming the story. Reaching the protest site took her and Samarth about two hours, with police turning them back from lane after lane. She says it wasn’t random who got through: PTI and ANI reporters were let in, and an NDTV car went ahead of them. Samarth says that unlike reporting on the violence of July 20, this time it was “an exercise in exhaustion”, with journalists questioned repeatedly, their credibility challenged, and told to stay on the footpath, away from the detentions. He adds that he sees the police’s conduct as “a system” rather than a matter of good cops and bad cops. Astha, meanwhile, says it is dangerous for journalism that a policeman was deciding who counted as a journalist. She also explains why she didn’t escalate an incident that happened to her on October 10 when she was detained because she didn’t want to become the story. Subscribe to watch the full conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan are joined by political cartoonist Manjul, Rachita Taneja of Sanitary Panels fame, and comedian Sanjay Rajoura to ask whether Indian politics has lost its sense of humour. The discussion begins with a takedown of political cartoons on the Modi government’s direction. Abhinandan argues that satire has always mattered in democracies because it can say what serious commentary cannot. “Every autocrat, every dictator fears being mocked more than anything else,” he says. Manjul recalls that early in his career, even the PMO asked for his cartoons. It was only after 2016-17, he says, that trolls supporting the ruling party, and then the government, came after him. Now, it does so through IT rules that push platforms to remove posts within hours. Rachita calls automated takedowns a dangerous precedent. Satire, she argues, punctures the aura of godlike leadership since laughing at them “brings them down to earth with the rest of us mortals.” She also points to the recent Cockroach Janta Party protest in Bengaluru against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, where shared laughter built community. Sanjay argues that difficult times sharpen the craft. “Good satire makes me angry, actually,” he says. Subscribe to watch the full conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Chief Justice of India’s remark that the polls in question were “only by-elections” in West Bengal is where this Hafta discussion begins. Abhinandan Sekhri calls it “a bit alarming”, and says similar casual comments have come up in earlier hearings. Neha Rathi, a Supreme Court lawyer and a petitioner in the SIR cases, says the Supreme Court was the right forum, but argues that the reason behind voter deletions in Bengal remains opaque. Of the “logical discrepancy” ground, she says, “there is no notification about that, it’s still a mystery.” Shahrukh Alam, a senior Supreme Court lawyer, calls the SIR a “gambit” and says the Election Commission has “got away with” its “big little power plays”. She says she and others are pushing back on the state’s legal responsibility, but asks, “What about its moral responsibility?” Rinchen Norbu cites data showing that the share of people who trust the Election Commission “a lot” fell from 50.8 percent in 2019 to 43 percent in 2024, according to a recent CSDS-Lokniti survey that appeared in the Hindustan Times. TNM executive editor Sudipto Mondal widens the lens to the judiciary itself. “The judiciary is the greatest threat to Indian democracy. Not from today, from its inception,” he says. He says a brave judge is needed, but “in the long term one hero is not going to save us.” Subscribe to watch the full discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa challenges the framing of the Election Commission’s internal rift. Asked by Abhinandan Sekhri whether the “dissenting notes” amount to genuine dissent, Lavasa flips the premise, arguing that if two Election Commissioners share one view and a third disagrees, it is the third (the Chief Election Commissioner in this case) who is dissenting, not the two being labelled as such. The conversation then turns to the changes made to Form 6 during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Lavasa argues that the Commission overstepped its authority regardless of whether all three commissioners were in agreement. As he says, “The Election Commission of India is not competent to make these changes, because they fall under the principle of subordinate legislation, which ought to be approved by the competent authority — in this case, the government.” Manisha Pande brings up the case of Goa, where election officers who had verified wrongly-deleted voters were reportedly unable to restore them to the rolls due to what the Commission described as a “software” limitation. Lavasa is unconvinced that this explanation absolves the Commission of responsibility, offering the segment’s standout line: “Whenever you use technology, it is used to support the law. It cannot impede the enforcement of law or the taking of action in accordance with the law.” Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Hassan Bilal & Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Rinchen Norbu are joined by Anupam Manur, Professor of Economics at the Takshashila Institution, and Mihira Sood, Supreme Court lawyer specialising in women’s rights. The panel opens the discussion by examining the government’s decision to introduce a 0.4% fee on UPI merchant transactions above Rs 2,000, asking what the move means for a payment system that has become central to everyday transactions in India. Anupam Manur acknowledges that UPI generates wider economic benefits, but argues that the current model also creates a problem: who ultimately bears the cost of running the system? He explains that the cost of operating UPI is substantial, while the government subsidises only a portion of it. Manur says, “When UPI came about, India was miles ahead of the world in some sense. It was truly revolutionary.” But he argues that the costs leave new entrants with insufficient incentive, which has affected private-sector innovation. “Private players are just not incentivized to innovate.” The discussion then moves from the economics of UPI to the politics of its messaging. Abhinandan argues that the government has often reduced complicated policy questions to easily marketable slogans: “I think the problem is, like many things that Mr. Modi does ever since he’s come, let’s count his slogans. He’s a fantastic ad man.” The panel then turns to the BJP’s push for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC). Mihira offers a qualified position. She makes clear that she supports the idea of a UCC in principle, particularly as a route towards greater equality. But she distinguishes that principle from the particular version being discussed. She says, “What I have a problem with is this particular type of Uniform Civil Code because it is not based in secularism and it is not based in feminism.” Rinchen questions whether we should even call this a ‘uniform civil code’, given the carve-outs that exist for Scheduled Tribes in states like Uttarakhand, where the BJP has implemented its version of it. He also argues that the focus on polygamy in the UCC debate distracts from the larger issue of inheritance rights for women. “This whole bigamy, this whole polygamy thing is a red herring, it’s overstated,” he adds, while Mihira breaks down the real legal questions surrounding inheritance if the BJP actually cared about women’s rights. Timecodes 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:07:03 – Headlines 00:12:01 – MDR on UPI 00:44:03 – Anupam’s Recommendations 00:48:32 – Manisha on Brazil politics 00:55:32 – UCC 01:25:52 – Mihira’s Recommendations 01:28:32 – Letters 01:46:08 – Recommendations Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Saurav Kr. Ranjan & Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan are joined by urban geographer and researcher Rashee Mehra to discuss Delhi's continuing housing crisis. Rashee traces the problem to a structural failure in planning. Using the example of Satya Niketan, a “regularised JJ colony”, she explains how a neighbourhood can be made legal while the construction within it remains unauthorised. “It is actually a very confusing governance structure that we have created in the city,” she says, pointing to the overlapping jurisdictions of the central government, state government and municipal bodies. “That leads to questions of whose responsibility it is.” She argues that Delhi’s housing problem cannot be reduced to a question of illegal construction alone. “Housing has to be adequate, affordable, viable, sustainable. Where housing is affordable, it’s not adequate, and where housing is adequate, it’s not affordable. And that’s your catch-22 kind of situation.” Anand adds that the crisis extends well beyond university students. He notes that landlords in the city fall into two categories: “One who has made investments in these houses, and one who is living on the rent only... they have less incentive to invest because all the rent that they get, they spend somewhere.” Subscribe to watch the full discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The discussion opens with Abhinandan Sekhri talking about the flood of commentary around India's quarterly GDP figures over the past two days. Much of it, he says, is “just completely wrong” – although still a healthier public debate than recent controversies over food or language politics. He calls it a small win for Indian media, even if the conversation isn’t always well-informed. Vivek Kaul addresses ex-finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg's viral ‘2.5% quarterly GDP growth rate' claim, saying Garg “did what the BJP has been doing to us all these years.” “He made a quick point, he made a simplistic point, which was wrong,” Vivek says, adding that by the time fact-checkers responded, the claim had already spread widely. He then turns to the GDP methodology shift from a 2011–12 base year to 2022–23, a recalibration meant to reflect changes in the economy's structure. He notes that private consumption, recalculated under the new method, has been revised downward by close to $1 trillion over four years – a correction he says went largely unreported by business media. Puja Mehra builds on this, explaining that GDP estimates depend heavily on the data sources and proxies used, particularly for India’s large informal economy, which lacks reliable direct data. “GDP, you get to define what GDP is and then measure it in the way you have defined it,” she says, pushing back on the common misconception that GDP should behave like a fixed, universal measurement, “unlike weighing one kilogram of fruit”. Subscribe to watch the full conversation. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Hassan. Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week’s Hafta panel tackled two connected threads: the anti-reservation protests and the suicide of an IIT Delhi student, Rishikesh Kumar. Joining the Hafta panel this week were Dr Aqsa Shaikh, one of India’s first transgender doctors and a member of the Supreme Court-appointed National Task Force on Student Suicide Prevention in Higher Education, and Dr Sameena Dalwai, a law professor, writer and researcher who specialises in gender, sexuality and law. Panellists pushed back on the “merit versus reservation” framing, arguing it obscures how privilege is already built into ‘merit’, and noted how complicated affirmative action becomes in India’s caste and tribal contexts, unlike the US’s simpler racial binary. The discussion also delved into other reservation debates that include EWS, women, and transgender persons. On student suicides, the panel cited data showing roughly 13,000 suicides a year nationally, with higher rates in hypercompetitive spaces like IITs and medical colleges. The panellists traced this pressure back to a coaching culture that begins in school. Subscribe to watch the full discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, the Hafta panel discussed the BJP’s push to expand its presence on Instagram, a shift Manisha Pande linked to the party being caught off guard by the memes and reels that emerged from the CJP protests. Anurag Minus Verma argued the BJP’s problem isn’t taking Instagram seriously – it’s that its content is unsuited to the platform. Right-wing pages, he said, largely cycle through three or four genres: doxing, threats, punching-down humour and “catching hypocrisy”. “These things have a shelf life because these things are not cool,” he said, adding that Instagram runs on a post-irony aesthetic that demands ideological looseness rather than stiffness, something he argued right-wingers struggle with. Abhinandan Sekhri connected this to Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, suggesting being famous for sheer stupidity, as with Ravi Kishan’s viral moments, now functions as its own currency. Manisha argued that trolling, which works on X (formerly Twitter), doesn’t quite translate to Instagram because the latter is a visual, face-based medium, where putting a face to a thought requires courage in a way anonymous text does not. She also said the BJP’s messaging remains stuck in a 2014 register, still invoking “urban Naxals” and Umar Khalid, and contrasted this with a Rajasthan schoolchild’s viral video on poor school infrastructure, arguing that dismissing such concerns as “dimaagi Naxal” sidesteps the real issue of young people demanding better education. Subscribe to watch the full discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This Independence Day, NL Hafta’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Rinchen Norbu are joined by historian and author Sam Dalrymple. The discussion began with the question: Was the India we inherited inevitable, or could history have taken a very different course? Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav .Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On Meta, Abhinandan Sekhri asked whether the platform has the bandwidth to process takedown requests in India at that scale, or whether “it’s actually a phase where it’s the Wild West”. Independent tech journalist Abhishek Baxi agreed with that characterisation and explained that Meta’s automated moderation system – a response to takedown requests in India doubling year on year – was behind the technical glitch that pulled down PM Modi’s video from Facebook. Meta’s global affairs chief had to fly down to apologise to IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw directly. Manisha Pande pointed to a recent instance where an interview with a CJP protester, conducted by Priyanshi Sharma, a journalist with Peak TV, was repeatedly taken down from Instagram and reinstated without explanation, alongside three of Newslaundry’s own videos that are restricted in India. “I don’t think these platforms are going to fight the freedom of speech fight for us,” she said. “They want to continue doing business here.” On the ruling establishment’s inability to figure out Instagram like they did WhatsApp, Shardool added that it was “a sad fact that a government governing 1.4 billion people doesn't understand Instagram” and that “it takes one conversation with creators to understand how the platform works, but instead every viral trend is seen as a conspiracy.” Abhinandan went on to argue that US tech giants “don't have our interest in mind at all”, and would readily compromise on user protections if it meant preserving profit and market access, leaving Indians caught “between two [powers] who basically don't have your interest in mind.” Subscribe to watch the entire discussion. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav .Sound by Anil Kumar . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
For the 600th episode of NL Hafta, the panel – Abhinandan Sekhri and Anand Vardhan – are joined by Hafta alumni Jayashree Arunachalam and Mehraj Lone, who set the usual rules aside for an “unpopular opinions” special. Abhinandan’s own unpopular opinion is that the liberal “snowflake” stereotype often holds up in practice, with an inability among some liberals, particularly in journalist and writer circles active on social media, to sit with positions or people they disagree with. Mehraj traces the “snowflake” problem to what he describes as the hyper-individualisation at the heart of modern liberalism, i.e. the elevation of individual grievance and “triggers” above community consensus. He links this to the broader Western backlash against “wokeism” and what some commentators are calling a post-liberal turn. Jayashree closes out the segment on “cancel culture”, arguing it’s often just accountability rebranded. Getting arrested for something illegal isn’t cancellation, she argues. “Being blacklisted for saying a certain thing isn’t being cancelled. It’s just facing a consequence.” Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav .Sound by Anil Kumar . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This Hafta episode features author Chetan Bhagat unpacking why a youth-led street protest snowballed the way it did, and what it reveals about how anger travels online. Abhinandan Sekhri opens with a mea culpa on having dismissed “Gen Z” too readily. Bhagat is explicit in his assertion that the protest itself “would have been limited” were it not for visuals like that of a Delhi Police officer in riot gear and a helmet, wielding a baton, chasing a 16-year-old girl. It was footage like this, not the underlying policy grievances, that he calls the “content gold” – the emotionally engaging visual that made the protest go viral. Drawing on examples from Gujarat, Satara, and a bouncer-contractor's Instagram post racking up 400,000 likes, Bhagat argues this generation instinctively performs for the camera – as captured in a viral Mumbai clip where teenagers laugh off a cop threatening to plant drugs on them. His point is that virality isn’t accidental; an audience-literate generation produces it. A recurring metaphor – an argument that "it isn't really about a dirty plate" – is used to explain why the protest isn’t really about paper leaks, even if that's the government's chosen frame. Finally, Bhagat also reflects on being called a “Modi bhakt” then later a critic, and his defence of centrism as pragmatism rather than fence-sitting. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Hassan .Sound by Naresh. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the latest episode of Hafta, the panel discusses whether political protest movements need ideological anchoring to succeed, sparked by a debate over the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) lack of clear ideological convictions. Poornima Joshi, the resident editor of The Hindu Businessline, argues that successful mass movements of the last decade – even ostensibly issue-based ones – have tended to carry ideological undertones. In addition to ideological moorings, Rinchen Norbu notes that mass protest movements also crucially push for structural, systemic demands that outlast a minister’s resignation or reshuffle. The CJP’s demands, he argues, don’t meet that bar. The Anna Hazare movement comes up as a test case, with Abhinandan Sekhri disputing the claim that it had RSS backing, saying the initial support came from trade unions and communist parties, not the Sangh. A similar dynamic is drawn out through the farmers’ protest, which Joshi argues benefited from ideological and organisational anchoring – support from farm unions gave it both structural backing and a wider anti-corporate framing beyond the farm laws themselves. The conversation also touches on how ideology can double as both an asset (organisational strength) and a constraint (limiting appeal). Anand Vardhan notes that once a movement positions itself in the opposition camp, its stated commitments – secularism, socialism, anti-corruption – tend to overlap with those of every other party making the same pitch, leaving it with a harder question to answer: what, then, is its actual product differentiation? Separately, Abhinandan notes that Newslaundry is lining up a follow-up round table with panellists holding more critical views of Hartosh Singh Bal’s position on the film Satluj. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Hartosh Singh Bal, Executive Editor of The Caravan, and sports broadcaster Arjun Pandit. The discussion begins with Hartosh’s critique of the film Satluj (previously known as Punjab 95), which he labels as propaganda carrying partial truths. Hartosh, who has reported on Punjab for years, is also the nephew of KPS Gill – the highly controversial officer who helmed the state police at the height of militancy. This was the very force that Jaswant Singh Khalra, the central figure of the film, was investigating, and whose actions ultimately led to Khalra’s killing in custody. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Ashish Anand with production assistance from Sourav. Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, Anand Vardhan and Rinchen Norbu are joined by historian Ramachandra Guha. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav.Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The alleged theft of donations from the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya has opened a window into the opaque finances of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. Our Hafta panel discusses the SIT investigation into missing funds from donation boxes, the unanswered questions around the crores collected during the temple construction drive, and the land purchase controversy that implicated trustee Anil Mishra – with no consequences. The panel examines who Champat Rai (the general secretary of the trust) is, why allegations are being made against him, and what Nripendra Misra – former principal secretary at the PMO and chairman of the Temple Construction Committee – characterising the incident as a “dacoity” rather than theft signals about the political dynamics at play. With UP assembly elections months away and resentment running deep in Ayodhya, the panel asks: Is this about stolen money, or a power struggle within the RSS over control of the trust? Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav.Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan, and Rinchen Norbu are joined by a very special guest – our former colleague Jayashree Arunachalam. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav. Research inter Manya Garg .Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Shardool Katyayan are joined by journalist, author and former Amnesty India executive director Aakar Patel. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Abhay. Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan and Rinchen Norbu are joined by veteran journalist Neerja Chowdhury. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav . Sound by Anil Kumar. Research Intern Manya Garg. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan are joined by Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor at The Hindu. In this week’s episode, the discussion moves from PM Modi’s Europe tour, particularly his visit to Norway, to press freedom. Suhasini Haidar, who was present at the venue in Oslo, describes how shocked Norwegian journalists were to learn that the Indian Prime Minister would not be taking questions at all. She says, “We have so normalised in the Indian media this idea that the prime minister doesn’t take unscripted questions, that we didn’t even clock how big a deal it was for Europeans.” Haidar criticises the way the focus shifts to attacking the reporter’s background, ideology, and even personal life, rather than engaging with the issue she raised. “The focus became about that journalist — who she is, what her background is, where she goes on vacation. It’s not about the question anymore. It is about the fact that the prime minister does not take unscripted questions.” Abhinandan Sekhri points out how deeply normalised this culture has become in India. “It is so alien to journalists outside India. They are shocked at the kind of barrage and abuse that follows a simple question,” he remarks while discussing the online trolling and threats directed at the Norwegian journalist after the incident. Manisha Pande argues that the government’s response to the controversy reveals how deeply political communication in India is driven by headline management rather than accountability. She adds, “The focus is so much on controlling the headlines, which you've managed to do in India so well that that is all your focus, and you've been unable to do it with the world media, so you don't get it. Like, why are these guys asking us questions? But I think this basic understanding that the world is not going to bend in the way that the Indian media has to you, large parts of it, many are free, but a large part of the loud primetime segment has completely given in to you.” All this and more. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Ashish . Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Rinchen Norbu and Raman Kirpal are joined by business journalist Govindraj Ethiraj and Anushka Saxena, a researcher from the Takshashila Institution. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Ashish . Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan are joined by senior journalist Aunindyo Chakravarty and The Hindu resident editor Varghese K George. The panel begins with what the recent poll results mean and if traditional election analysis is even equipped to understand the playing field. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav. Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri and Manisha Pande are joined by Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institute, and former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan are joined by Pooja Prasanna of The News Minute and Sobhana K Nair, senior deputy editor of The Hindu. The panel focuses sharply on the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and the contentious issue of delimitation. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav. Sound by Naresh Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Manisha Pande and Raman Kirpal are joined by Anuradha Nagaraj, founder of The Migration Story, and Arghya Sengupta, Founder and Research Director at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Anand Vardhan are joined by Bashir Ali Abbas, Research Associate at Council for Strategic and Defence Research (CSDR) and Amit Kumar, executive editor of East Mojo. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by senior journalist Sreenivasan Jain and Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute. The panel dives into the high-stakes 2026 assembly elections across Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Priyali Dhingra and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Manisha Pande are joined by The New York Times journalist Mujib Mashal and Aishwaria Sonavane, research analyst for Pakistan studies at the Takshashila Institution. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Priyali Dhingra and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by independent journalist Nidhi Suresh and Mridul Dudeja, a freelance technologist who has been engaged with queer-trans community spaces in Mumbai and across India for over 15 years. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav Ranjan and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan discuss three big themes: Nitish Kumar’s succession politics in Bihar, religion creeping into sport, and the ethics of euthanasia. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Saif Ekram and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Naresh. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by AFP’s chief US correspondent Shaun Tandon and Aditya Ramanathan, research fellow at Takshila Institution. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with Production assistant by Saif Ekram. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan are joined by academic and columnist Fahad Zuberi and Kallol Bhattacherjee, the foreign affairs editor of The Hindu. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters. Produced by Amit Pandey & Priyali Dhingra Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Amba Kak, a tech policy expert and researcher, and Alex Travelli, the South Asia business correspondent for The New York Times. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters. Produced by Ashish Anand & Amit Pandey. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan are joined by filmmaker Sudhir Mishra and senior journalist Arati Jerath. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters. Produced by Amit Pandey Assistant production by Ashish Sound design by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by musician and author T.M. Krishna and defence analyst Ajai Shukla for a conversation that spans Parliament flashpoints, billionaire ownership in journalism, and the deeper cultural fight over India’s national symbols. The panel opens with a discussion around the furore in Parliament over former Army chief General M.M. Naravane’s yet-to-be-released memoir this week. Questioning Om Birla’s claim that the Opposition was planning an attack on PM Narendra Modi, Manisha says, “It’s fear-mongering… the same story as what prime time had done back when the Prime Minister got stuck in a traffic jam.” Ajai Shukla opines that the very fact that a former Army Chief’s account is stuck in clearance limbo shows how tightly the government controls uncomfortable narratives around national security and China. The discussion then transitions to the layoff purge at The Washington Post, which Jayashree describes as a symptom of a world where media outlets are “bought by a billionaire” and then “gutted to maximise profits”. Abhinandan argues that economics is not just a study of money, but a study of societies, adding that journalism is a public good that cannot be left to the mercy of a billionaire. Finally, TM Krishna discusses his new book, We, the People of India, which examines India’s anthem, flag, and other national symbols. Krishna contrasts Vande Mataram with Jana Gana Mana, arguing they reflect very different ideas of India. He also points to a deeper democratic failure. “We entirely failed in making democracy a culture,” Krishna says, arguing that constitutional values were reduced to textbook lines you “just mugged up to write in an examination.” This and a lot more. Tune in! Timecodes 00:00:00 - Introductions and birthday announcements! 00:05:25 - Headlines 00:28:14 - T.M. Krishna on his book and being an artist today 01:28:00 - Controversy over General MM Naravane’s book 01:49:11 - Letters 02:08:10 - Recommendations If you want to write to Hafta, click here. Click here to contribute to our Sena project. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. Check out Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Priyali Dhingra, with assistant production by Ashish Anand. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan are joined by journalist Nikhil Inamdar and Sudipto Mondal, executive editor of The News Minute. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey, with assistant production by Ashish ,Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by journalist and entrepreneur Govindraj Ethiraj. The discussion opens up with the recently concluded World Economic Forum held in Davos. Abhinandan sharply questions the performative nature of Indian participation at the forum, criticising chief ministers for announcing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Indian companies on foreign soil. “We are funding the circus,” Jayashree remarks bluntly, calling Davos a “clown show” driven by optics rather than outcomes. Govindraj also agrees that announcing MoUs, especially with Indian firms, is a misallocation of time and attention, given how the WEF offers leaders “an opportunity to gauge the temperature of what is happening in the world order right now”. The discussion also touches on the much-touted India-EU free trade agreement, which European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described as the “mother of all deals”. Govindraj, however, tempers expectations, warning that free trade agreements are often narrow and slow-moving. “The first bottle of cheaper Scotch won’t arrive tomorrow – it could take five years,” he quips. He further adds, “The red lines for India are clearly dairy and agricultural products… You can’t do something which immediately jeopardises your farming lobby. So, if you take away agriculture and cheese, what’s left now?” From Davos, the conversation shifts to press freedom in Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking on the recent summonses sent national media reporters by the J&K Police, Manisha remarks, “Over the last one year, at least 25 journalists have been summoned by the J&K Police… anything at all can just land you in a police station being questioned, because it’s ‘public disorder’, you’re causing ‘public safety’ disorder.” Drawing a contrast between reporters in New Delhi and Kashmir, Abhinandan says, “It’s very difficult for someone in J&K to tough it out because there is no insulation. Delhi provides great insulation; that’s why those headquartered in Delhi have to step up and protect their reporters who are not in Delhi. This and a lot more. Tune in! Timecodes 00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements 00:04:40 - Headlines 00:17:15 - WEF Davos / India- Eu trade deals 00: 55:59 - Govind’ recommendations 01:08:51 - Kashmir reporter’s summoning 01:17:35 - Letters 01:28:07 - Recommendations Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey, with assistant production by Ashish, Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by Chander Shekhar Luthra, a veteran sports journalist, and Suhasini Haidar, diplomatic affairs editor of The Hindu. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey, with assistant production by Saurav Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Raman Kirpal are joined by Ishaan Tharoor, a foreign affairs columnist at The Washington Post and Advocate Vrinda Grover. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey, with assistant production by Ashish Anand. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by Kallol Bhattacherjee, Senior Assistant Editor at The Hindu. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
For this special year-ender episode, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri and Manisha Pande and The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran and Pooja Prasanna are joined by columnist and media critic Santosh Desai. The conversation begins with a wrap of the Indian media ecosystem this year. Santosh says, “Institutions are struggling to retain credibility and resist pressure.” Dhanya argues that mainstream media exerts significant influence over people, but on social media, the results vary. Discussing the state of the media more specifically in Karnataka, Pooja notes that although it's “heavily compromised”, it can still be seen as a “lesser evil” compared to the Hindi and English media. Manisha argues that, in terms of news consumption, the internet can be very ruthless – in contrast to legacy media, which does not have to face the crash and burn. She cites the example of Beer Biceps, whose rapid rise and fall illustrate this ruthlessness. Some influencers, Dhanya says, have also realised that “credibility comes with consistency”. On the economic front, Abhinandan explains, “It is the lethargy of legacy media that is reflected in their belief about how business is done – in large spaces and studios. Hence, sustainability and viewership become two completely different things.” The panel also discusses advertisements that make them nostalgic. Dhanya says, “Now, we pay to remove ads. I cannot remember the last time I watched an ad.” Meanwhile, Abhinandan notes, “The death of ads is the death of jingles, which in turn traces to the death of radio.” While discussing Arnab Goswami's recent shows that questioned the central government, Pooja remarks, “This man can damage the country by stooping so low, but all it takes for him to be viewed as a crusader is the targeting of a soft issue as a larger strategy.” This and a lot more. Tune in! We have a page for subscribers to send letters to our shows. If you want to write to Hafta, click here. And click here to contribute to our new Sena project. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. Once a month, we will invite one TNM subscriber to the show. Write to us on what you would like to speak about to southcentral@thenewsminute.com Send your thoughts, suggestions, and criticism as well. You can also let us know what you think by filling out our quick feedback form. Your suggestions help shape future episodes of South Central. Become a subscriber - Click here. Contribute to our reporting fund. Click here. To check out our other shows, Click here To not miss any updates, join TNM's WhatsApp Channel! Click here Timecodes 00:00:00 - Introductions & announcements 00:02:16 - Headlines 00:07:30 - Brands vs individuals: Understanding news models 00:33:15 - Karnataka Hate Speech Bill 00:38:00 - How has advertising changed? 00:59:00 - Santosh’s recommendations 01:00:00 - Arnab Goswami’s turnaround 01:07:00 - Christmas violence 01:12:00 - Letters 01:35:13 - Recommendations Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Recorded and produced by Priyali Dhingra. Production assistance by Megha Mukundan and Ajai. Edited by Saif Ali Ekram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Development economist Reetika Khera & ESPN’s Anirudhh Menon. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute and Anupam Manur, professor at the Takshashila Institution. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Shardool Katyayan and Raman Kirpal are joined by Medianama founder and editor Nikhil Pahwa and senior journalist Maya Mirchandani. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Anand Vardhan are joined by content creator Meghnad S and Pooja Prasanna of The News Minute. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by journalist and author Rahul Pandita and The News Minute’s Sudipto Mondal. The discussion begins with Rahul’s new novel, Our Friends in Good Houses, and then turns to the recent killing of Maoist commander Madvi Hidma in Andhra Pradesh. Rahul recalls meeting the man who recruited Hidma as a child. He then talks about the “tragedy” of the Maoists and the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). “One reason why we are witnessing this downfall now of the CPM office is that this somehow, in the passage of this time, steered away from what they had set out to do, which is to basically protect the adivasis and their natural resources. But during this course, I think they became obsessive about fighting the state…and became, in their own ways, stakeholders in these natural resources. That is the tragedy of the CPM.” Sudipto says, “The worst part about the Maoist movement is that it follows one basic principle of armed conflict, which is that the people sending people to war are old men. The people going to war are young boys." The conversation then moves to the Red Fort blasts. Abhinandan asks the panel about the video of a key suspect in the case justifying suicide attacks, seeking their views on whether airing such footage is irresponsible or journalistically necessary. This and a lot more. Tune in! Timecodes 00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements 00:03:37 - Discussion on Rahul Pandita’s Book 00:11:40 - Headlines 00:18:33 - Killing of Madvi Hidma 01:00:38 - Red Fort Blasts Aftermath 01:21:36 - Sudipto & Rahul Pandita’s Recommendations 01:24:58 - Letters 01:36:40- Recommendations Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with Ashish Anand & Sourav Ranjan. Sound Recordist Anil Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this special NL Hafta Live episode, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan and Raman Kirpal were joined by The Hindu’s Sobhana K Nair and senior journalist Neerja Chowdhury to decode the Bihar poll results. On the sweeping mandate for the NDA, Anand spoke about Nitish Kumar’s enduring appeal, noting that he “maximises his EBC base better than anyone else. He knows how to balance administrative acumen with realpolitik.” Sobhana weighed in on Prashant Kishor’s poor performance, saying, “It is not a surprise to me that Jan Suraaj did not get even a single seat. There was a lot of disinterest in the rural regions of Bihar. A lot of distrust also. There were questions being asked about where he was getting so much money to put up such a big campaign.” Neerja highlighted the unusual nature of the mandate. “I have not seen this kind of a pro-incumbency wave in India despite 20 years in power. It is unprecedented.” On Nitish Kumar’s future in Bihar, she pointed to his biggest vulnerability: “The minus point of Nitish Kumar is that he doesn’t have a second line of leadership. Nor has he named a successor. At one point he considered Prashant Kishor but the story would have been different had they not fallen out.” This and a lot more. Tune in! Timecodes 00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements 00:01:25 - Headlines 00:13:28 - Discussion on Bihar Election results 01:34:17 - Neerja’s Recommendations 01:37:07 - Concluding remarks 01:46:06- Recommendations Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by NL Team. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
