NL Hafta

Reporters Without Orders is back this week to discuss what made news, what didn’t, and what should have made headlines. This week’s show features host Cherry Agarwal along with our guests Sruthisagar Yamunan, a Legal Correspondent at Scroll.in, Chitranshul Sinha, a Supreme Court Advocate, along with in-house panellists Rohin Verma and Amit Bhardwaj. The conversation starts with the discussion of dissenting voices in the Aadhaar, Sabarimala, and Bhima-Koregaon cases. The panel discusses how judges in courtrooms have a different opinion on the same topics that they come across. “The judges will keep their personal views out of the court,” expressed Sinha. He explains that this could be due to class, caste, or even economic or social background. The panel discusses the legalities of the Aadhaar case in detail and what they mean. “The assumption is that Aadhaar benefits the poor,” added Sinha. “It might if it is implemented properly. Fundamentally, people do not understand the opposition to Aadhaar.” Rohin sheds light on the preliminary report on the retrenchment at the Press Trust of India and talks about the number of employees who were sacked, while Amit talks about the protest that was organised by the Federation of PTI Employees in Delhi and the demands made. He also explains in detail about the farmer’s protest that broke out at the Delhi-UP border and elaborates on the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and the issues raised by the farmers. “Government after government have not paid attention to the agrarian economy. We have not made enough efforts to make it profitable. It remains a burden,” he said. Cherry goes on to ask Amit about how and why the details of the farmer’s protest remained underreported. Rohin says that the reports on the farmer’s protests are similar in nature and that the same pattern is repeated, thereby attracting a specific kind of audience. Sruthisagar agrees with Rohin but also adds that he found the recent reports on the protest better than the last one, but they still need to be better and a lot more. Tune in to find out.