NL Hafta

In this week’s podcast, our regular Hafta gang of Abhinandan Sekri, Madhu Trehan, Manisha Pande and Raman Kirpal are joined by Newslaundry subscriber Anushka Shah who is a researcher with MIT Media Lab. The podcast kicks off with a discussion on the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The team talks about how even today, media coverage of communal riots has been limited to political whataboutery where journalists only cover how a political party accuses the other. Anushka points out that in the last two years, the 1984 riots has been covered twice as much as 2002 Gujarat riots. They talk about the Delhi High Court’s judgement convicting Congress politician Sajjan Kumar for his role in the riots. Madhu says journalists should focus on writing descriptive accounts of court proceedings instead of limiting reports to the final court judgement. Moving on, Abhinandan mentions how political parties offer farm loan waivers to please their voters. Manisha says loan waivers are only a short-term solution and we need to look at the root causes of farmer distress. Anushka says 25 per cent of all news stories on agriculture are about loan waivers while stories on unemployment and agricultural unproductivity are less than 0.2 per cent. The panellists then discuss the court ruling on the Rafael deal. In the judgement, the court said it has no objection to any part of the deal. Madhu says one needs to recognise that courts are not investigating agencies. Raman replies, “Reliance has never been into aviation (sector) and they get such a huge project of around ₹30,000 crores. I personally feel this was a good enough reason for a probe.” The podcast also touches upon Rajiv Gandhi’s role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Abhinandan says that as a representative of the state apparatus, Rajiv Gandhi deserved to be tried for culpable homicide. Madhu says that one should note that Rajiv Gandhi was living an apolitical life, and was not ready to be in a position of power. She adds, “I don’t think Rajiv Gandhi ordered the killings of Sardars, it was the people who wanted to please the Gandhi family.” Towards the end, Abhinandan refers to Republic TV's Republic Summit that was held on December 18 and 19. He says that with guests like PM Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and businessman Mukesh Ambani, the summit seemed more like Annual General Meeting for the BJP. Listen up! There’s more.