NL Hafta

In the latest episode of NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by the usual gang of Anand Vardhan, Manisha Pande and Madhu Trehan, as well as Niha Masih, India correspondent for Washington Post. The conversation covers #MamataVsCBI in West Bengal, Robert Vadra being questioned by the ED, the Supreme Court’s contempt notice to Prashant Bhushan, the Right-wing's protest against Twitter, and a lot more. Niha kicks things off by talking about the face-off between Mamata Banerjee and the Centre. Mentioning the media's shortcomings in reporting on the issue, she says, "Something that I found wanting, which I actually found from an alternative legal media website called The Leaflet, was exactly the legality of what the CBI was trying to do and what the state government was alleging, because it is very easy to give into the political back and forth ... but what were the legalities of what the CBI did?” The conversation moves to the list of questions Justice Markandey Katju directed to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. Abhinandan attempts to explain why this story was not picked up by the Indian media: “Most media really likes this Chief Justice because this was the man who stood up to Modi. But I think it is more than that ... They will go after Modi, they will go after Rahul, they will go after Ambani. No one will go after the Chief Justice.” He asks the panel what they think—does the media love Gogoi or are they too scared? Anand says: "I think it has a two-day-story shelf life, nothing more. I think that point is more valid: that it didn’t have substantial meat to it.” The discussion shifts to the Supreme Court's contempt notice to Prashant Bhushan. Madhu says, “Filing contempt against Prashant Bhushan—he takes it as a compliment, he gets more press, he is very happy with it.” But Manisha says it's scary since the contempt notice is over tweets. "I don't think it sets a good precedent. Whatever he may have said.” Madhu still feels contempt cases are relatively benign: "They don’t do much ... that law has to be questioned, it has to be redefined to fit contemporary India where everyone is accountable, including the judge.” This and much more, so listen up!