Share

cover art for Hafta 195: CBI vs CBI, Anil Ambani, Smriti Irani and more

NL Hafta

Hafta 195: CBI vs CBI, Anil Ambani, Smriti Irani and more

It's been an exciting week in news, and we have an exciting panel in this episode of NL Hafta! We're joined by NDTV’s political editor and anchor of Reality Check, Sunetra Choudhary, with the regular Hafta gang of Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and also Madhu Trehan, our editor-in-chief. The episode kicks off with the CBI versus CBI drama. Sunetra has been covering the CBI for a long time and gives us some insight into this case. We find out why this case is important and how it’s got all the ingredients that make up a good news story. Sunetra also tells us about talented BJP spokespersons who make appearances on NDTV. The panel then moves on to discuss Smriti Irani’s bizarre comment based on a piece of fake news. Madhu tells us how the Sabarimala issue has gotten out of hand and why no political party wants to irk the Ayyappa devotees in exchange for votes. This Hafta episode also continues the discussion on #MeToo and talks about Tavleen Singh and Seema Mustafa’s take on the issue. Is there no space for nuance in this movement? From Kashoggi’s gruesome murder to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s fake outrage and the West’s reaction to the case—Abhinandan shares his thoughts. In the context of Anil Ambani suing NDTV for ₹10,000 crore, Madhu is reminded of a Netflix documentary, Nobody Speak. The team also discusses Abhijit Iyer-Mitra’s recent arrest for his comments, and the irony of the entire episode. Finally, the Hafta gang discusses the dilemma of separating art from artist considering the recent developments in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Should we stop watching Woody Allen movies after he has been called out? Tune in to find out!

More episodes

View all episodes

  • Chota Hafta 585

    17:08|
    This week on Hafta, Manisha Pande and Raman Kirpal are joined by Anuradha Nagaraj, founder of The Migration Story, and Arghya Sengupta, Founder and Research Director at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.  Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
  • Chota Hafta 584

    18:20|
    This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Anand Vardhan are joined by Bashir Ali Abbas, Research Associate at Council for Strategic and Defence Research (CSDR) and Amit Kumar, executive editor of East Mojo.  Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
  • Chota Hafta 583

    15:07|
    This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by senior journalist Sreenivasan Jain and Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute. The panel dives into the high-stakes 2026 assembly elections across Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Priyali Dhingra and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
  • Chota Hafta 582

    01:44:30|
    This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Manisha Pande are joined by The New York Times journalist Mujib Mashal and Aishwaria Sonavane, research analyst for Pakistan studies at the Takshashila Institution.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Priyali Dhingra and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
  • Chota Hafta 581

    19:28|
    This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by independent journalist Nidhi Suresh and Mridul Dudeja, a freelance technologist who has been engaged with queer-trans community spaces in Mumbai and across India for over 15 years. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav Ranjan and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
  • Chota Hafta 580

    01:50:57|
    This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan discuss three big themes: Nitish Kumar’s succession politics in Bihar, religion creeping into sport, and the ethics of euthanasia.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Saif Ekram and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Naresh.
  • Chota Hafta 579

    22:46|
    This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri,  Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by AFP’s chief US correspondent Shaun Tandon and Aditya Ramanathan, research fellow at Takshila Institution. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with Production assistant by Saif Ekram. Sound by Anil Kumar 
  • Chota Hafta 578

    19:50|
    This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan are joined by academic and columnist Fahad Zuberi and Kallol Bhattacherjee, the foreign affairs editor of The Hindu.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters.Produced by Amit Pandey & Priyali DhingraSound by Anil Kumar 
  • Chota Hafta 577

    17:02|
    This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Amba Kak, a tech policy expert and researcher, and Alex Travelli, the South Asia business correspondent for The New York Times.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters.Produced by Ashish Anand & Amit Pandey. Sound by Anil Kumar