NL Hafta

This week, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Shardool Katyayan and Raman Kirpal are joined by Medianama founder and editor Nikhil Pahwa and senior journalist Maya Mirchandani.Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. 

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Anand Vardhan are joined by content creator Meghnad S and Pooja Prasanna of The News Minute.Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. 

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by journalist and author Rahul Pandita and The News Minute’s Sudipto Mondal.The discussion begins with Rahul’s new novel, Our Friends in Good Houses, and then turns to the recent killing of Maoist commander Madvi Hidma in Andhra Pradesh.Rahul recalls meeting the man who recruited Hidma as a child. He then talks about the “tragedy” of the Maoists and the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). “One reason why we are witnessing this downfall now of the CPM office is that this somehow, in the passage of this time, steered away from what they had set out to do, which is to basically protect the adivasis and their natural resources. But during this course, I think they became obsessive about fighting the state…and became, in their own ways, stakeholders in these natural resources. That is the tragedy of the CPM.”Sudipto says, “The worst part about the Maoist movement is that it follows one basic principle of armed conflict, which is that the people sending people to war are old men. The people going to war are young boys."The conversation then moves to the Red Fort blasts. Abhinandan asks the panel about the video of a key suspect in the case justifying suicide attacks, seeking their views on whether airing such footage is irresponsible or journalistically necessary.This and a lot more. Tune in!Timecodes00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements00:03:37 - Discussion on Rahul Pandita’s Book00:11:40 - Headlines 00:18:33 - Killing of Madvi Hidma01:00:38  - Red Fort Blasts Aftermath01:21:36 - Sudipto & Rahul Pandita’s Recommendations01:24:58 - Letters01:36:40- RecommendationsCheck out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with Ashish Anand & Sourav Ranjan. Sound Recordist Anil 

In this special NL Hafta Live episode, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan and Raman Kirpal were joined by The Hindu’s Sobhana K Nair and senior journalist Neerja Chowdhury to decode the Bihar poll results.On the sweeping mandate for the NDA, Anand spoke about Nitish Kumar’s enduring appeal, noting that he “maximises his EBC base better than anyone else. He knows how to balance administrative acumen with realpolitik.”Sobhana weighed in on Prashant Kishor’s poor performance, saying, “It is not a surprise to me that Jan Suraaj did not get even a single seat. There was a lot of disinterest in the rural regions of Bihar. A lot of distrust also. There were questions being asked about where he was getting so much money to put up such a big campaign.”Neerja highlighted the unusual nature of the mandate. “I have not seen this kind of a pro-incumbency wave in India despite 20 years in power. It is unprecedented.”On Nitish Kumar’s future in Bihar, she pointed to his biggest vulnerability: “The minus point of Nitish Kumar is that he doesn’t have a second line of leadership. Nor has he named a successor. At one point he considered Prashant Kishor but the story would have been different had they not fallen out.”This and a lot more. Tune in!Timecodes00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements00:01:25 - Headlines 00:13:28 - Discussion on Bihar Election results 01:34:17 - Neerja’s Recommendations01:37:07 - Concluding remarks 01:46:06- RecommendationsCheck out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by NL Team.

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by The Hindu journalist Sobhana K Nair and screenwriter, producer and professor Sabrina Dhawan.Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. 

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by journalist Sreenivasan Jain and Ritu Rao, writer, INTACH consultant, and researcher on water sustainability. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. 

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by journalist Arati Jerath and Sunil Dahiya, founder of Envirocatalysts. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. 

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor at The Hindu, and Dr Khinvraj Jangid, director and professor at the Centre for Israel Studies at OP Jindal Global University. Abhinandan asks Suhasini whether it was “embarrassing” for the Indian government to have permitted the press conference barring women journalists with Taliban’s Foreign Minister. He also asks what pressure took place for a second presser to take place with women journalists. “The Taliban doesn’t control the embassy in Delhi. The staff there still pledge allegiance to the previous, democratically elected government,” Suhasini says. “But when the foreign minister’s team invited journalists, only men were included. By the time everyone had gathered, it became clear that an all-male Taliban delegation was speaking to an all-male Indian journalist group. There were women journalists outside who weren’t allowed in, and it wasn’t just women who noticed – men also felt this was wrong, and some even sent apologies.”The discussion moves to the Gaza peace agreement. Khinvraj says, “If you look at Trump, in this particular instance, he reversed his earlier, reckless proposal that Gaza be ‘wiped out’ and the idea that the people of Gaza didn’t deserve to live there. He achieved this deal through compromise, making what I see as a powerful course correction.” Jayashree is less optimistic. “Israel literally already occupies Gaza – it controls the movement of its citizens and what goes in and out. Yet it demands the surrender of arms as if a genocide hasn’t already been committed. We’re talking about hostages, but what about the thousands of Palestinians imprisoned and not called hostages simply because they’re not white?”Timecodes00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements00:03:07 - Headlines 00:09:05 - Afghan FM’s visit to India 00:45:57 - Suhasini Haidar’s recommendation00:49:07 - Gaza peace agreement 01:28:39 - Khinvraj’s recommendation 01:31:29 - Letters01:37:39 - RecommendationsCheck out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistant Priyali Dhingra and sound recordist Anil Kumar. 

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, and Anand Vardhan are joined by senior journalist Nirupama Subramaniam and lawyer and author Prashant Reddy. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app.