Ep 68: Budgam, Rahul Gandhi, Khopivali water crisis and more

In this episode of Reporters without Orders, Gaurav Sarkar takes over as host. He's joined by Newslaundry's Ayush Tiwari and Basant Kumar, as well as Jane Borges and Anamika Gharat, who are both reporters with Mid Day in Mumbai. The panel discusses the Budgam incident, where a Mi-17 helicopter was shot down by the Indian Air Force in a case of friendly fire on February 27, leading to the death of all six airmen on board as well as a civilian on the ground. Gaurav asks why this information was revealed only after the conclusion of the general election. While Ayush recounts other instances of friendly fire and the resultant deaths caused, Basant calls this a sort of "cover-up", saying if the information was revealed in real time, it might have adversely affected the election results for the governing party.The conversation moves to a story that Jane and Anamika reported from the village of Khopivali in Maharashtra, which faces severe water scarcity for a major part of the year. Community members here exclusively marry members only from outside the community, a tradition that is causing the village’s male residents to be stuck in a state of “forever bachelorhood” since no women from other villages want to get married and settle in Khopivali. “This is also a women empowerment issue,” Jane points out. Anamika explains how she discovered the story in the first place, and discusses how things played out in the political spectrum too.The panel also discusses the growing violence towards Muslims ever since the results of the 2019 general election were announced and “the curious case of Rahul Gandhi’s resignation”.For this and more, listen in!

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