NL Hafta

In this week’s podcast, Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Raman Kirpal, Anand Vardhan and Manisha Pande. Joining them over the phone is The News Minute's deputy news editor, Ragamalika Karthikeyan, to talk about the Pollachi case. The podcast begins with Ragamalika detailing the Pollachi sexual abuse and extortion case. The four men accused “seem to be doing it as a racket”, she says. She also mentions the controversy with the AIADMK since an FIR is registered against AIADMK functionary A Nagaraj over the assault of a victim’s brother. Manisha says she agrees with the Madras High Court's observations on Delhi media's lack of priority in covering the case, but Abhinandan says he's conflicted. He says: “This is a problem not just related to Chennai or Kerala … It is more true of the Northeast … If judges start commenting on everything then it just dilutes the impact when they something that is truly about justice rather than a social observation.” Ragamalika indicates the importance of giving incidents national coverage in order to formulate appropriate and more nuanced laws on sexual violence. Abhinandan talks about how newspapers in Assam went on a three-day boycott of all state government news, ads and photographs in protest against its alleged apathy. Anand mentions how India still imports newsprint which makes it quite expensive. Though local papers buy cheaper versions, it's not a sustainable model. “State governments control a lot of things through government ads,” he says. The discussion moves on to journalist Sunetra Choudhury’s exclusive on the UK’s efforts to extradite Nirav Modi and India’s absence of a response. While Anand examines the validity of Sunetra’s report, Abhinandan emphasises the need for extensive reports on Nirav Modi across media as it affects informed citizenry. The panel discusses the Meghalaya High Court’s sentence—which was stayed by the Supreme Court today—to Shillong Times editor Patricia Mukhim and publisher Shoba Chaudhuri. Manisha says, “We still have the thing called scandalising the court which exists in India, which you can be hauled up for just shocking the court.” Abhinandan goes on to discuss Chandrashekhar Azad who has announced he will contest against PM Modi from Varanasi. Anand says that there are no foregrounds to assume either’s victory. On the Election Commission’s announcement to monitor political content across social media, the panel jokes about the primitive understanding of technology by most EC officials. This and a whole lot more, so listen up!