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Hafta 197: Air pollution, Trump’s press conference, the killing of Avni, and more
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NL Hafta is back with a bang with our in-house panel comprising Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan and Madhu Trehan. The panel discusses a variety of topics ranging from air pollution and firecrackers in Delhi to Sabarimala protests in Kerala, Trump’s press conference in the White House to Arnab Goswami being appointed a member of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library in Lutyens’ Delhi.
The discussion starts off with Madhu weighing in on the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry to Sabarimala for women of all ages. She questions the ruling BJP for not supporting the verdict of the Supreme Court.
The Hafta gang then discusses the various angles of the firecracker ban in India in relation to the air pollution which has been hitting the saturation point, and how the people of Delhi flouted the Supreme Court order on the eve of Diwali, helping Delhi’s AQI levels go through the roof. The discussion then moves on to US President Donald Trump’s chaotic post-midterms press conference which took up plenty of space on social media, and how in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn’t done even a single press conference since he took office.
The conversation then proceeds to the installation of the Museum on Prime Ministers of India, and the gang discusses the validity of such an institution in India. They talk about the killing of Avni, the "man-eater" tigress from Yavatmal district in Maharashtra. The panel brings in contrasting views about the concept of "human versus animal" in connection with the issue. The discussion also steers its way to the recent developments in the Ram Temple issue in Ayodhya.
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