NL Hafta

In this week’s episode, Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by the regular gang of Madhu Trehan, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan, and special guest Saurabh Dwivedi, journalist and founder of news website The Lallantop. The discussion kicks off with Abhinandan asking Saurabh whether there was a Modi wave before the elections. Saurabh recounts realities he noticed on the ground in states like Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, saying people have glorified Modi to a point where they don't know their own candidates. He says they've spun stories around Modi similar to those about Indira Gandhi. On the other hand, voters laughed when asked about Rahul Gandhi. Anand talks about the possibility of underestimation bias and its associated risks. Manisha critiques the media for not having focused adequately on the schemes rolled out by the government and the responses to them. Saurabh quickly pins it down to the “gyaan ka bojh” of the journalists that keeps them from preparing before going to report on the field. The panel tries to analyse whether the media influences voters and the narrative. Madhu refers to Tavleen Singh’s article and Swati Parashar’s article in Indian Express, both of which talk about the need for the upper classes to accept that this is the new India and the realities associated with it. She stresses the need to “decolonise the mind” and not try to manufacture a mandate that pleases Western ideals of liberalism. Abhinandan points out the fallacy in taking one argument and positioning it to be “the definitive argument” while ignoring the existence of the spectrum. Manisha thinks the media has mass reach which is why politicians want it under their control. Anand believes that the news is an “accelerator” of pre-established views. Listen up, there’s more!