NL Hafta

In this week’s episode, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Madhu Trehan, Raman Kirpal, Anand Vardhan, and journalist and author Puja Mehra. The podcast kicks off with a deconstruction of Mehra’s book, The Lost Decade (2008-18): How India's Growth Story Devolved into Growth Without a Story. Abhinandan asks Puja why she believed that the decade was indeed lost. In response, she says both Prime Ministers (Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi) were equally responsible for ineffectively dealing with the crisis. She also states that temporary emergency measures were relied upon to compensate for a mammoth crisis that demanded a permanent solution. She adds, “When an economy grows at that rate [8.8 per cent GDP growth] and is hit by a crisis, a shock, to bring it back to that level you need to take some steps. That follow-through was not undertaken.” When Abhinandan asks her if she believed that the Modi government’s economic agenda was cemented in a cultural singularity, she says that the government’s attitude is more symptomatic of a policy inattention than anything else. She describes her book as a documentation of governance in the last ten years that analyses the policies adopted while also discussing the policies that should have been. Talking about its essence, she says, “The whole argument of my book is that our politicians just don’t listen to expert advice and they assume that an economy as large as India, as complex as India, can be driven by policies that are crafted keeping political objectives in mind with complete disregard for underlying economics.” The discussion then moves to sexual harassment allegations levied against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. Madhu makes a compelling case of the escalating hubris of the Supreme Court. She says, “The Indian judiciary, for decades, has avoided any accountability. Every time they are asked for accountability, they behave like [they] are above the law. Well [they’re] not. It’s a democracy.” Puja says she prefers a system governed by rules rather her perception of the credibility of individuals in it so that one’s faith in the system remains uninfluenced by fallible individuals. Sadhvi Pragya’s media portrayal was next on the panel's list. Anand says, “In this age when you have preconceived ideas about political inclinations of a journalist, it becomes very easy to pigeonhole them and say that this will be this kind of interview…in that case it is important that [the journalist] asks controversial questions…but it is not a debate to be settled in an interview.” The panel also discusses the granularity of demonetisation, the significance of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra not contesting from Varanasi and a lot more. Tune in!