Hafta 520: Rupee vs dollar, India’s economy woes, Delhi polls, media’s lack of accountability

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by journalist Nidhi Razdan and economist and writer Vivek Kaul.

The panel begins with the Delhi polls, and Abhinandan says the BJP’s USP is primarily centred around portraying Kejriwal as a horrible politician. Shardool points out that the BJP is “organisationally strong” but doesn’t have a face in Delhi. Nidhi talks about the AAP’s shortcomings and Kejriwal’s struggle to hold onto his image as an aam aadmi. She also says the Congress is entirely missing from the conversation.

The conversation shifts to the current state of the media and the lack of accountability in newsrooms. Nidhi says, “Things that we thought were just shocking or immoral or unethical or unconstitutional – everything is being normalised. And part of the reason is because the media doesn’t ask difficult questions.”

Vivek then unpacks the rupee falling against the dollar and its repercussions. He emphasises that this isn’t a crisis, saying, “The rupee will keep depreciating against the dollar for the simple fact that inflation in the US is usually lower than inflation in India.” He also explains the downfall of the Indian economy in the last few years. 

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Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introductions

00:00:20 - Announcements and appeals

00:01:54- Special message

00:03:28- Panel introduction

00:04:38- Headlines

00:10:58 - Delhi elections

00:37:50- Current media landscape

01:12:34 - Rupee crash

01:55:44 - Recommendations

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters 

Produced and recorded by Prashant Kumar and Priyali Dhingra.

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