Newslaundry Podcast

In this episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute.Starting off with the Tablighi Jamaat controversy, Dhanya explains how the event had hundreds of participants from the southern states, but governments took a long time to address the problem. Manisha asks why tourists from coronavirus-affected nations like Thailand and Malaysia were allowed to attend in the first place. Mehraj dispels Manisha’s theories of the Tablighi Jamaat being a radicalised group, explaining that it started as an Islamic revivalist movement that, like every other movement over time, became rigid in its thinking. “The Indian media only starts to care about Muslims when they have to demonise them,” he says.Abhinandan asks what we can really know about the Covid-19 spread in India if we’ve only conducted as few as 47,000 tests. Dhanya thinks this figure is not uniform across India; it’s just a handful of states wher

In this episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Madhu Trehan, and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Pratik Sinha, co-founder of AltNews.Discussing the interrogation of Arnab Goswami, Pratik says the issue comes down to “what is more primary: freedom of speech, or right to life”. Madhu believes free speech is important, and Goswami should be allowed to say whatever he did. But, she adds, “everybody else also has the freedom to follow up on it”. Pratik also explains how news channels are “becoming megaphones” for fake news, and that the pattern of misinformation is part of a well-organised effort. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Anand Vardhan and Shaoib Daniyal, associate editor at Scroll.Abhinandan asks Shoaib about the situation in West Bengal, regarding people’s distrust for the number of cases released by the government and the committee formed by Mamata Banerjee to tackle Covid-19. Shoiab says it isn’t clear what powers the committee will have and for now, we can assume it’s a “PR move” to “grab headlines”. Mehraj says the world over, countries use different methodologies to report deaths. What’s different here, he says, is India isn’t reporting infections in the first place. “And that’s where the problems begin.” Manisha says the south Indian states have been “great at giving out data”. About Bihar, Anand says the infection rate is “as low as one percent”, mostly from people who have returned from Gulf countries. He adds that Bihar has received thousands of testing kits, and the pace will pick up soon.Abhin

In this week’s episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kripal, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, and Anand Vardhan are joined by Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of Kashmir Times.Discussing the few journalists bringing out stories in Kashmir, Anuradha says, “The pandemic is being used as a cover to target them and harass them.” Mehraj agrees, saying: “Journalism has been declared a crime in Kashmir.” He adds that this has been the case for a while, and legal coercion is used to ensure that “self-censorship becomes pervasive”. Manisha talks about Arnab Goswami’s TV show on the Palghar lynchings. She says his introduction of a communal angle into the lynching, when rumours are actually to blame, is “criminally irresponsible, it’s not journalistic, it makes no sense.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kripal, Manisha Pande, and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Supriya Sharma, executive editor of Scroll.Abhinandan asks Supriya about the arrest of an ABP Majha journalist for allegedly spreading false information that might have prompted the gathering of migrant workers in Bandra, Mumbai. Was the arrest warranted, or is the journalist a scapegoat?Supriya calls it a “complete overreach”, suggesting authorities found a journalist to blame and that a lot doesn’t add up. Raman thinks the journalist “became an alibi for government miscommunication”. Mehraj says “blaming the person on the lowest rung” is wrong. Manisha says, “Histrionics aside, I don’t see where the reporter screwed up so massively as to warrant an arrest.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Anand Vardhan and Shaoib Daniyal, associate editor at Scroll.Abhinandan brings up Sonia Gandhi’s letter to the prime minister, focusing on her recommendation to scrap government advertising across all media. Shoiab asks if the press can be a “true watchdog of the government, if its financial pillars are dependent on government funding”. Raman says this recommendation will be the “death of the newspaper industry”. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute.Starting off with the Tablighi Jamaat controversy, Dhanya explains how the event had hundreds of participants from the southern states, but governments took a long time to address the problem. Abhinandan asks what we can really know about the Covid-19 spread in India if we’ve only conducted as few as 47,000 tests. Dhanya thinks this figure is not uniform across India; it’s just a handful of states where testing has been ramped up. Manisha feels the government is “completely opaque” with the numbers, except for a few state governments. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, and Mehraj D Lone are joined by data journalist Rukmini S.Abhinandan begins by bringing up Rukmini’s piece in The Print where she wrote that India could see up to 30,000 COVID-19 deaths by May. “Even with significant intervention, there will be not an ending, but a reduction [in cases],” Rukmini says.Discussing how the 21-day nationwide lockdown was imposed by Narendra Modi to enforce social distancing, both Raman and Mehraj think India won't be able to handle that many patients. Mehraj asks what measures exist for the homeless, and those dependent on daily wages. Manisha says she was stunned by Modi’s decision and the manner in which he communicated it to the public. “Someone who supposedly was a chaiwallah, who rose from nowhere, is so out of touch with how Indians live.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by Suhasini Haider, diplomatic editor of the Hindu newspaper, and Dr Arjun Dang, CEO of Dr Dang’s Labs.They discuss the coronavirus pandemic, how India is dealing with it and what impact it is likely to have. In this context, they talk about Narendra Modi’s address to the nation and why his prescriptions for containing the spread of the virus add up to little. The panel also discuss former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha, the political instability in Madhya Pradesh; the Press Council’s notice to the Telegraph for a headline that allegedly mocked India’s president; nepotism and mediocrity in the media industry, and much more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Arfa Khanum, senior editor at The Wire. They discuss the Delhi and Central government's involvement after the Delhi violence, how India is dealing with Coronavirus in India, the Scindia defection, the value of patriotism and more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Arfa Khanum, senior editor at The Wire.Kicking off with the Aam Aadmi Party’s involvement — or lack of it — in the aftermath of the Delhi violence, Arfa says she’s very surprised. She says she’s heard that the party “is punishing its voters who just voted them back to power for the third consecutive time”. Mehraj asks why the state government seems to have outsourced its own work to third parties. Manisha recalls many volunteers said they didn’t see many AAP workers on the ground in the early days after the violence.The panel then discusses patriotism. Abhinandan says he doesn’t see the value in patriotism. “It doesn’t have a place in the 21st century,” he says. Manisha describes patriotism as a “value of oneness”. Arfa says her country is her people, and standing up for minority rights that are being trampled is “real patriotism”. Mehraj points out how movements like the BJP and the Sangh Parivar have

In this episode of NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, and Anand Vardhan of Newslaundry are joined by journalist Faye D’souzaThey discuss the issue of Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah being slapped with the Public Safety Act. Mehraj gives the historical context of the draconian law and what its application entails. Faye says laws like the PSA are emergency laws and "we are obviously no longer in an emergency". “If you join all of these dots, the suggestion that because people are making statements in your opposition you’re going to keep them in detention is actually very worrying for a democracy,” she adds.Abhinandan expresses his concern over Prime Minister Narendra Modi using a quote from a satirical website to denounce Abdullah. "When the PM says something that's a headline on a satire website, it shows the level of politics we have gone into now,” he remarks.Faye points out that the government has not provided any evidence that the Kashmiri leaders intended to incite violence. Even

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall but we love our listeners. So here’s a little sneak peek into this week’s episode.In this episode, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Anand Vardhan and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by Kapil Komireddi, author and journalist. They discuss the Delhi violence and its aftermath; the coronavirus threat; the ruckus in the parliament that led to the suspension of seven Congress MPs; Justice S Muralidhar’s farewell; freedom of speech; among other things. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by author and journalist Samrat X.They begin with a discussion on the Citizenship Amendment Bill that has garnered massive attention in the media. Abhinandan questions whether the BJP had anticipated the reaction to the passage of the law. Mehraj responds, “Maybe they even figured this in their calculations and are fine with it. I mean like in Kashmir, they are fine with what happens in Kashmir as long as they get the votes elsewhere." Manisha points to the misconception that persecuted minorities in Afghanistan and Bangladesh can find refugee in India after this law comes into force. Manisha also says she was extremely disappointed that the opposition did not corner Amit Shah in the Parliament over the Citizenship Bill.Talking of the Anaj Mandi fire and its media coverage, Anand says, “I think it has to do with the media’s imagination of the public. In that imagination, the only profitable

In this episode of NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Meghnad S and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by Betwa Sharma, Politics Editor at HuffPost India.They begin with a discussion on the nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Talking about the timing of the protests, Betwa says, “If you had actually built that momentum, maybe the bill wasn’t gonna get passed in the first place.'' Meghnad echoes her view.On the violent police crackdown in Jamia Millia Islamia University and elsewhere, Mehraj points out, “Police are doing this because they know they are not going to be held accountable. In fact, some of them might get rewards and promotions.” He also wonders why anybody in a democracy should need the police’s permission to stage a protest.Raman, discussing the media’s reporting of popular movements, points out, “As reporters, we need to go back to the field and do a deep dive and that's what we have been doing.” As he narrates how Newslaundry reporter Veena Nair ended up on a

This episode of NL Hafta is hosted by Manisha Pande, who is joined by Mehraj D Lone, Raman Kirpal and Meghnad S of Newslaundry.Manisha starts by asking her colleagues about their highs and lows of the year gone by and their hopes for 2020. They all identify the protests against the new citizenship law as a high and mostly the police’s brutality against the protesters and the government’s indifference as a low. Manisha sums up her highlight of the year thus, “Ordinary people doing ordinary acts of resistance.” She cites as an example the many lawyers who gave legal support for the detained protesters.Talking about Narendra Modi’s speech where he urged Indians protesting against the citizenship law to protest against Pakistan instead, Meghnad exclaims, “We are heading towards a genocide because the signs are all there. We have seen in history how it works.” On Modi and his claims, Raman says, “In recent times, I have not seen any other leader speaking lies through his teeth.” Delving into why the government is

In this episode of NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, and Raman Kirpal of Newslaundry are joined by Neha Dixit, journalist and professor at Ashoka University.The podcast starts with a discussion on media reports on the Delhi riots. Neha believes the death toll will go up, saying, “Dead bodies have been dumped at the hospital with no identification made since the investigation officers are too busy to get the post-mortem started.” Mehraj explains how the police and judiciary responded to instances of communal violence since 1947. The panel also discusses the media coverage of Donald Trump’s visit to India, Harvey Weinstein’s conviction, #MeToo in India, and more. To listen to the full episode, subscribe to Newslaundry. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, Mehraj D Lone and Madhu Trehan are joined by Vivek Kaul, an author who’s been writing a series on the Union Budget for Newslaundry.Vivek starts the conversation with the 2020 Budget and the Economic Survey. “What used to be a remarkably esoteric document suddenly became very readable,” he says. Vivek says the invariable economic slowdown India is witnessing is a result of a lack of investments. He speculates that the reason for this might be the fact that it’s incredibly hard to carry out any economic activity in India right now, and blames this on operational issues.Mehraj brings up the huge tax cut the government gave mega corporations a few months ago, and wonders why this hasn’t resulted in a jump in investments. Vivek responds, “When a corporate invests, they hope to see a return on their investment, but there has been a consumption dip.”Madhu chimes in, “I’m wondering about the inconvenience that so many traders complain about when they talk abou

Hafta has gone behind the paywall. But since we love our listeners, here’s a sneak peek into this week’s episode.Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan, and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by Shelly Walia, senior editor at the Quint, to discuss Donald Trump’s impending visit to India, AAP’s embrace of religiosity after winning the Delhi election, the arrest of a young woman in Karnataka for chanting “Pakistan Zindabad”. They also discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing women permanent commission in the Army, the different aspects of free speech, the importance of formal education, and even litti chokha.To listen to the full episode, subscribe to Newslaundry :https://www.newslaundry.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan, and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by Advaita Kala, novelist and commentator.They talk about the impending Delhi election and the nomination process. In a strange turn of events, Chief Minister Arvind Kerjriwal’s nomination almost didn’t happen because of a backlog of almost a hundred people filing their papers before him. “I mean it was clearly a tactic to delay or harass him or try to ensure he doesn’t contest,” Abhinandan argues. On Kejriwal’s Times Now “town hall”, held earlier this week, Abhinandan wonders if it could be called that. “Did the audience get to ask questions?” he asks. “Someone should tell them that if you do it in a hall doesn’t make it a town hall.” Mehraj points out that criticising raving TV anchors such as RSS (Rahul Shivshankar), Navika Kumar and Arnab Goswami is easy. “These channels, these media organisations are owned by some very wealthy, very rich, very influential people. Why is nobody holding