NL Hafta

In this episode of Hafta, host Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Meghnad S are joined by freelance journalists, Nitin Sethi and Vrinda Gopinath. The panel discusses the big news of the week -- electoral bonds, Pragya Thakur’s nomination on parliamentary defence panel, massive protests by JNU students, among other things.Speaking on the issue of electoral bonds, Nitin Sethi says, “If you pay for journalism, journalism will respond to your requirements and desires and expectations. Similarly, for politics. This is why electoral bonds is such a big issue. Because if you want politics to be responsible to citizens then you can’t have corporates paying for politics. You need to have transparency. You need to have answerability to citizens.” Abhinandan says, “This pretty much implicates the government for lying to the Parliament, ministries and the Election Commission.”On Pragya Thakur’s nomination to the Parliamentary Defence Committee, the panel wonders which committee the Bhopal MP should have been ideally given. Meghnad argues that the decision should not whip up outrage as he reasons, “This was a natural course of action that was supposed to happen.”They also discuss the recent JNU protests. Manisha argues, “I think this just needs to be drummed into everyone, of all the tax that is collected only three per cent is personal income tax. 70-80% taxes are indirect taxes which everyone, even the poor pay for it. So, you are not running the country.” While Vrinda says, “I think it’s very obvious that it’s JNU that they are after. There are hundreds of other universities but they want to finish JNU because they think it is the fountainhead of all your radical, rebellious, leftist thought.” The episode also features a discussion on the announcement of nation-wide NRC by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha, water impurity issue in Delhi, and more.NL Sena - TSRTC-KCR Stand-Off: https://www.newslaundry.com/sena Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To watch the unedited interview, Subscribe to Newslaundry.Click here to watch the full 1 hour 7 minute interview: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/12/07/nl-interview-gd-bakshi-army-human-rights-the-sarasvati-civilisationMajor General GD Bakshi is a decorated Indian Army officer, a veteran of many skirmishes along the Line of Control and counterinsurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. He served in the military for 37 years, winning the Vishisht Seva Medal for commanding a battalion during the Kargil War and the Sena Medal for distinguished service in commanding a battalion during counterinsurgency drives. He has authored as many as 36 books, including on information warfare and psychological operations. In conversation with Abhinandan Sekhri, he talks about how the Army is represented in the media and popular culture, human rights violations, psychological warfare, collateral damage in war. Speaking about psychological warfare, Bakshi says, “There are two negative emotions in combat. These are disorganising emotions. One is fear, the other is guilt.” He claims the Indian Army has been the victim of a sustained campaign painting it as one of the worst perpetrators of human rights violations. “Where human rights stem from compassion, I’m all for it,” he says. “But where they’re used as a pretext to hamper operations, induce guilt and to make sure the insurgent gets away, that I’m totally against.” Discussing his latest book, The Saraswati Civilization, Bakshi says the British colonial historiography had an ingrained bias, for it was employed to justify foreign rule to the Indian population. “There is an amazing level of cultural continuity that comes down to us from that ancient era,” he adds.Tune in. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So here's a little sneak peek into the complete episode. This week’s episode features host Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Mehraj D Lone who are joined by Joanna Slater, the India Bureau Chief of The Washington Post. The panel discusses the big news of the week, from the gangrape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad, and the subsequent killing of the four accused by the police to Donald Trump’s impeachment process, among other things.Listen to the complete episode, here: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/12/07/hafta-253-hyderabad-killings-citizenship-bill-donald-trumps-impeachment-and-more\ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, the usual Hafta gang of Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, Anand Vardhan and Madhu Trehan is joined by Alok Prasanna Kumar, a senior resident fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. The podcast begins with the panellists airing their views on the Ayodhya verdict and the Sabarimala issue. While discussing the Supreme Court’s verdict on Ayodhya, Alok says, “The burden of proof falls on both people and both sides have to prove this claim. What the Supreme court has said is quite puzzling.” He points out that the Muslims had been offering namaaz on that particular piece of land since 1857 and that one could not deny their claim to the particular part of that property. Speaking on the Sabarimala issue, he suggests, “You cannot, by law, impose a certain kind of religious prohibition that goes against the constitutional principles.”Speaking about an email by a subscriber about political advertising on Twitter, Mehraj comments, “One person shouldn't have the power to decide what goes and doesn’t go on social media platforms”. He thinks it is ‘undemocratic’.The panel then moves on to discuss the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance in Maharashtra and the political logistics of the coalition. The discussion was sparked by an opinion piece that suggested the trio has fallen into a trap laid down by Amit Shah. The panel disagrees. The panel also discusses the air pollution in Delhi and JNU protests among other things. Listen in! There’s more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The British author and journalist tackles all the criticism that has come his way since his Overseas Citizen of India status was revoked.Early in November, the Narendra Modi government revoked British author and journalist Aatish Taseer’s Overseas Citizen of India status. Aatish stated that this was the government’s way of punishing him for some of his recent journalistic work — chiefly, the Time magazine piece that described Modi as “India’s Divider-in-Chief”. In a Skype conversation with Manisha Pande, Aatish talks about the government’s decision and the impact it’s had on his life. He also takes on a range of criticism that has come his way since the controversy erupted: why does he keep his father’s surname? What about the piece he wrote celebrating his American Green Card? Listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So here's a little sneak peek into the complete episode. This week’s episode features host Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Meghnad S who are joined by Sudhir Suryawanshi, the man behind Katta News -- the news outlet that predicted the Ajit Pawar-Fandavis coup two days before it occured. The panel discusses the big news of the week, from the Maharashtra political drama and Pragya Thakur’s recent remark on Nathuram Godse to the controversial Transgender Persons Bill, among other things. The panel also discusses the Draft Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill 2019.Listen to the complete episode here: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/11/30/hafta-252-maharashtra-pragya-singh-thakur-trans-bill-2019-and-more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So here's a little sneak peek into the complete episode.This week’s episode features host Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Meghnad S who are joined by freelance journalists, Nitin Sethi and Vrinda Gopinath. The panel discusses the big news of the week -- electoral bonds, Pragya Thakur’s nomination on parliamentary defence panel, massive protests by JNU students, among other things. Nitin talks at length the issue of electoral bonds and his investigative series on the same. The panel also talks about the announcement of a nation-wide NRC by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha, water impurity issue in Delhi, and more.Listen to the complete episode here: https://www.newslaundry.com/subscription-data/2019/11/23/hafta-251-electoral-bonds-jnu-pragya-thakur-and-more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So here's a little sneak peek into the complete episode. In this episode, host Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, Anand Vardhan, Madhu Trehan from the Newslaundry team are joined by guest Alok Prasanna Kumar, to discuss the brewing topics from this week. Speaking about the Ayodhya verdict,Mehraj asks,”Should the Supreme Court of the Republic of India be adjudicating disputes that are from before the formation of the Republic?”The panellists also talk about the Sabarimala issue, government formation in Maharashtra, JNU protests, Aatish Taseer and more. Listen to the complete episode, here: https://www.newslaundry.com/subscription-data/2019/11/16/hafta-250-ayodhya-sabarimala-jnu-protests-and-more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Residents of Sector 7, Faridabad, National Capital Region, are in a state of shock. On the afternoon of November 9, four members of a family were found dead in their home. The bodies of Dr Praveen Mediratta, his wife Sudesh, their daughter Priyanka and son-in-law Saurabh Kataria were lying in a pool of blood in House Number 19. The police have confirmed that they were stabbed to death.Read it here: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/11/13/faridabad-murders-mediratta-investigation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Hafta, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Newslaundry’s Madhu Trehan, Manisha Pande and Mehraj D Lone as well as two guests, Shreeshan Venkatesh, editorial head at CarbonCopy, and Vivek, a Newslaundry subscriber who is a journalist based in Chennai.The discussion kicks off on the recent study by Climate Central, a news organisation in the United States, which estimates that coastal cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai will be underwater by 2050. “It is not a new projection, rather it is a new estimate of the impacts of earlier projections,” notes Shreeshan. He points out that this scenario is with “moderate cuts” to emissions, when the real picture is much worse. Speaking about the ongoing clash between police and lawyers in Delhi, Madhu says, “Why do the lawyers believe they need special treatment? The way they have taken the law into their hands, beaten up cops, they really seem to think they are above the law.” Manisha adds, “Police brutality is a fact. But I don’t know if those cops who are protesting have indulged in it, so I would be sympathetic to them. I won’t judge them by the actions of their entire tribe.”Speaking about India’s decision to pull out of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Vivek says, “I think there is a sense of uncompetitive behaviour in the Indian industry because we are protecting them from the competition.” Mehraj points to the ideological aspect of such trade deals. “If you go back in history, there have been similar agreements like NAFTA that have been disastrous. Such deals are the reason for Latin America’s backlash against neoliberalism that has destroyed their economies.”The panel also discuss the revocation of the writer Aatish Taseer’s Overseas Citizenship of India card, North India’s air pollution, and more. Tune in! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.