NL Hafta

Hafta is back! The gang reunites with host Abhinandan Sekhri along with Manisha Pande, Madhu Trehan and Anand Vardhan. Joining us this week is the newest addition to the Newslaundry team, Mehraj Lone. This week’s podcast begins with the panel discussing Mohan Bhagwat’s recent speech at a Vijayadashami function. They scrutinise his comments on lynching being a "Western construct" while trying to come up with a Hindi word for "lynching". Mehraj questions the accuracy of Bhagwat's claims that lynching is a subject in all other religious texts except Hinduism.The conversation shifts to the big news of the week: the murder of an RSS worker and his family in West Bengal, the serial murders by a Kerala woman, and the Modi-Xi meet in Tamil Nadu. Madhu has a lot to say about the state of present-day journalism. She says, "Journalism is going behind the incident and finding out what really happened." Abhinandan argues that journalism can be "positive or negative". But, he adds, it has to be unexpected. The panel discusses the paradigm shift in journalism and the significance of present-day reporting.Listen up! 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 of Newslaundry Hafta, host Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Madhu Trehan and Mehraj Lone are joined by Diksha Madhok, Editor and Director of Quartz India. They discuss the recently concluded assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, the release of National Crime Records Bureau data, the epidemic of protests all across the globe, and other issues.Listen to the complete episode here: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/10/26/hafta-247-maharashtra-and-haryana-elections-national-crime-records-data-and-more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Newslaundry Hafta is back with Abhinandan, Raman, Manisha are joined by Joyjeet Das who is a Consulting Editor a Down to Earth magazine. The podcast kicks off with the panel discussing the climate crisis and the Global Climate Strike that was held around the world this week. Talking about Greta Thunberg’s commitment towards the cause, Joyjeet says, “What if she was not there and this was just another United Nations communication”. He questions, “How much shit would people have given?” He says her contribution has been a major source for drawing public attention towards the cause.The panel also talks about the tragic death of two Dalit children who were beaten up for open defecation. In Abhinandan’s words, “It is one of the most ghastly stories I have read in a very long time.” Apart from all this, Howdy Modi continues to be in the limelight as the panel discusses media coverage of the event all over the world.For more, listen to the whole episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Journalist Maya Mirchandani, senior fellow at ORF and an assistant professor at Ashoka University joins Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Meghnad in this week’s episode of Newslaundry Hafta. Maya, who recently visited Kashmir, begins by shedding light on the ostensible state of normalcy in the Valley. She has much to say about the hopelessness and dejection Kashmiris are experiencing right now. The mainstream media’s unchecked and relentless narrative of the so-called normalcy in Kashmir seems to have birthed a crisis of real reportage from the Valley. Maya narrates how Kashmiris who feel let down by mainstream media are in a state of ‘civil-disobedience’ where they’re even avoiding talking to the media.The discussion moves to the government’s recent ban on e-cigarettes and how it is being executed. The panel simply does not buy the reasons provided by the government for the same, and everyone tries to read between the lines. They move on to discuss Modi’s birthday and the unprecedented importance it was given by some TV news channels. Apart from talking about present trends in broadcast media and its future prospects, the panel also discusses the violence at Jadavpur University and the death of protest culture. 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 Hafta features host Manisha Pande, Madhu Trehan, Mehraj Lone and Raman Kirpal. Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava, Contributing Editor with Business Standard joins in as a special guest.Manisha kicks off the discussion by asking Sambhav why we don’t hear as many land conflict cases now. Sambhav responds saying, “A lot of big projects are not coming up because of the shape of the economy that we are in right now and have been in the past few years.”. The panel also discusses the Ayodhya dispute’s final hearing, Manisha talks about how media houses painted the common practice of shredding papers in the court as blasphemy against the Hindu religion. The panel also talked about the outright violation of News Broadcast Standards Authority’ s guidelines by TV channels on the very day it was published. Apart from this, they also discussed the decline of institutions such as the CBI, RBI and Supreme Court, and much more. For more, listen up to the complete episode here: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/10/19/hafta-246-land-acquisition-act-ayodhya-and-more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Besides Manisha Pande and host Abhinandan Sekhri, this episode of Hafta includes Jaskirat Singh Bawa, Senior Editor at The Quint and Vivek Kaul, author and a columnist for Newslaundry.The episode begins with Manisha briefing the panel with the week’s headlines, including Faye D’Souza stepping down as Mirror Now’s executive editor, recent arrests of journalists, and Tabrez Ansari’s case, amongst others.Abhinandan talks about Modi’s speech on the prevention of livestock diseases in Mathura and the follow up it received on primetime debates. “ I am dumbstruck at how far we have come,” says Abhinandan wondering if the speech was a ‘dog whistle’ by Modi. Vivek Kaul is of the view that these are regular deviations. He says, “They have all these distractions planted regularly at different points of time to deviate attention from what should essentially be the issue we should be talking about.” Manisha too thinks these prime-time debates are completely ‘made-up’.The discussion moves to Piyush Goyal’s statements on Maths, Einstein, and Gravity. Manisha says these incidents “demonstrate how these guys are so not used to being questioned.”The panel also talks about the series of arrests of journalists. On being asked if he worries about the safety of his journalists now, Jaskirat says, “Not just now; some sort of a layer or feeling of insecurity has been there.”The podcast includes conversations on a series of other issues including the rise in traffic fines, news coverage of Chandrayaan 2, Pallav Baghla and Ram Jethmalani’s death.For more, listen up to the whole podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NL Hafta returns with host Abhinandan Sekhri along with Manisha Pande, Madhu Trehan and Anand Vardhan. Joining us this week is the newest addition to the Newslaundry team, Mehraj Lone.This week’s podcast begins with the panel discussing Mohan Bhagwat’s recent speech at a Vijayadashami function. They scrutinise his comments on lynching being a "Western construct" while trying to come up with a Hindi word for "lynching". The conversation then shifts to the big news of the week: the murder of an RSS worker and his family in West Bengal, the serial murders by a Kerala woman, and the Modi-Xi meet in Tamil Nadu. The panel also has a lot to say about the state of present-day journalism.Vote in the Asia Podcast Awards here: https://asiapodcastawards.com/Listen to the full episode here: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/10/12/hafta-245-mohan-bhagwat-on-lynching-modi-xi-meet-the-state-of-journalism-and-more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Newslaundry Hafta is back with Abhinandan, Raman and Manisha, and this week they are joined by Arunabh Saikia, who reports from the Northeast for the news website Scroll, and Amit Varma, editor of Pragati and host of the podcast The Seen and the Unseen. They discuss Assam’s National Register of Citizens and its likely consequences. Referring to the government’s proposal to extend the NRC to the whole of India, Abhinandan says, “There’ll be these camps around the country like some dystopian Mad Max film with little townships of people who are not Indian citizens, who do not have the rights but they cannot get out of there.” Since India marked Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary this week, the panellists duly talk Gandhi as a person, politician, and public figure. Raman remarks that Gandhi has received “strategic attention” from the Narendra Modi government. “They are trying to appropriate Gandhi for their theme of nationalism because Gandhi is the one common binding factor of this country,” he explains.They also discuss climate change and why it is not receiving adequate coverage in the Indian media, the FIR filed against a group of eminent persons for writing a letter to the prime minister over mob lynchings that have been taking place in India, and exchange views on how Modi and Donald Trump are representing their respective countries.This week was also celebrated as the International Podcast Week. In the spirit of celebration, we are not putting this episode of Hafta behind the paywall. It is free. 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. In this episode, Abhinandan, Raman, Manisha are joined by Joyjeet Das who is a Consulting Editor at Down to Earth magazine. The podcast begins with a discussion on the climate crisis and eventually comes to Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg. Joyjeet thinks her contribution has been a major contribution towards drawing public attention towards the cause. The panel also talks about the tragic incident where two Dalit children were beaten to death for open defecation. Apart from this, the panel also discusses media’s continued coverage of Howdy Modi. For more, listen up to the complete episode here: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/09/28/hafta-243-climatestrike-howdymodi-and-more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Newslaundry Hafta, The Caravan’s Staff Writer Praveen Donthi and Independent Journalist Makepeace Sitlhou join host, Abhinandan Sekhri, Newslaundry’s Managing Editor, Raman Kirpal and Correspondent, Gaurav Sarkar.Abhinandan begins the podcast with the National Register of Citizens (NRC). He asks if NRC is “some sort of a political masterstroke”. Makepeace, who covers stories from Northeast India and has been covering NRC, draws out the details of the situation. She says the enactment of NRC and the issues of foreigners has been a “long-burning issue.” Praveen talks about the obsession with the number 50 lakh concerning the register.The panel moves on to talk about recent developments in Kashmir. They discuss the Kashmir Press Club’s denouncement of the curb on journalists in the valley, the communication clampdown and a piece by Indian Express that questioned the methods of proceedings concerning the revocation of Article 370. Abhinandan talks about the international coverage of the issue and moves on to question Praveen on how the Kashmiris are taking the decision. He asks, “Are there people in Kashmir who are okay with this?” Praveen examines the points of views of separatists and mainstream politicians. He says “The mainstream politicians have never had a history of agitating against Indian state.” Raman points to the radicalization of the Kashmiri youth saying, “There were internal reports claiming that seventy percent of Kashmiri youth has been radicalized in the past four-five years.”Later, Gaurav Sarkar, who has been covering the Chidambaram case joins the conversation. Abhinandan asks him to spill the beans on the informal happenings in the court that did not make into the report. Gaurav narrates a funny incident from the proceedings. He also talks about the specificities of the cases on Chidambaram and his arrest.Abhinandan also talked about Ravish Kumar’s acceptance speech for the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the rise of fake news and the choice and plight of young journalists.For this and more, listen in! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.