Share
NL Hafta
Hafta 360: House sessions, Karnataka’s conversion law, Punjab lynchings, and HC remarks on duty to laugh
To make the most of next week before the deadline, we have a discount coupon for Hafta listeners. Use code <HAFTA360> to get a flat 20 percent discount on annual and three-year plans. Check out our Christmas offer here.
Timecodes:
3:45 - Headlines
6:35 - Parliamentary proceedings
40: 33 - Anti-conversion bill
1:17:12 - Punjab
1: 32: 40 - Duty to laugh
1: 35: 35 - Subscriber letters
2: 09: 46 - Recommendations
This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by Apar Gupta, writer and Executive Director of Internet Freedom Foundation, and Nitin Pai, columnist and co-founder of Takshashila Institution.
The discussion starts with the parliamentary proceedings and how much attention goes into passing a bill in India. Nitin comments that the only way parliament should decide on passing bills is by some sort of “feat of force like wrestling or tug of war because it has come to that”. “Do people meet up in state legislatures before clearing any bill? No, they are not voicing the concerns,” he says.
Apar points to facts. “Only one out of five bills is sent to the standing committee for approval. It’s inefficient and can be made better by all means.” Abhinandan compares the legislative procedure with precedents and opens the discussion with the “unhealthy process” that exists.
Jayashree adds, “All institutional checks and balances are just for show, when they (BJP) got tired with the show; they got it adjourned.”
The discussion then shifts to the anti-conversion bill passed by the Karnataka government and its implications, along with references to the recent attacks on churches, which Abhinandan calls “dog whistles for the cultural agenda of BJP, because this is all they have”. The panel sifts through the governance style and gains made through the same in south India.
The conversation moves to the issue of sacrilege in Punjab, the lynching cases and the recent blast in Ludhiana. The panel also talks about a statement by a Madras high court judge on the “duty to laugh”.
This and a lot more, only on NL Hafta.
Tune in!
More episodes
View all episodes
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
Chota Hafta 576
20:58|This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan are joined by filmmaker Sudhir Mishra and senior journalist Arati Jerath.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters.Produced by Amit PandeyAssistant production by AshishSound design by Anil Kumar