Hafta 296: Hathras rape case, Babri Masjid verdict, and the Trump-Biden presidential debate

Oct 3, 2020

01:50:47

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This week on NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, and Raman Kirpal are joined by Nisha Susan, journalist, author and founder of The Ladies Finger.

The conversation begins with the Hathras rape. Manisha details the suffering of the victim’s family at the hands of the authorities, especially the police’s forced cremation of the body. The panel agrees that this would not have happened so unceremoniously had the victim belonged to an upper caste. Abhinandan and Nisha compare this with the story of Bhagat Singh, where the authorities had been scared to return his body to his family for fear of backlash.

Raman points out that the victim had been shifted in and out of three hospitals while in critical condition, which might have caused her health to deteriorate. The panel analyses alarming statistics on how four or five Dalit women are raped every day.

On the Supreme Court’s acquittal of all the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition, Raman says he’s unsurprised. “Any case that has dragged on for 28 years is anyway dead,” he says. He adds that he had been present at the site in 1992, and that the demolition was a “conspiracy”. Mehraj emphasises the lack of political accountability in India since 1947, noting that evidence collected by the Liberhan Commission was not taken into consideration in the verdict.

Moving on to the US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and the former’s critical comments on India, Abhinandan points out that Trump is not India’s ally. He’s also shocked over Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists. Mehraj says the American public does not vote according to leaders’ stances on key social issues and debates, as evidenced from the last election.

All this and more, only on NL Hafta.

Timecodes

1:19:03 - Headlines and introduction

7:45:13 - Hathras rape case

32:41:16 - Babri Masjid demolition verdict

38:27:21 - Subscriber letters

48:42:02 - Nisha’s recommendations

50:22:12 - Babri Masjid demolition verdict

1:08:31:24 - Subscriber letters

1:43:01:20 - US presidential elections debate

1:46:07:10 - Recommendations

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