Newslaundry Podcast

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So here's a little sneak peek into the complete episode.In this episode of NL Hafta, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by the in-house panel of Manisha Pande, Madhu Trehan and Raman Kirpal, and Scroll staff writer Shoaib Daniyal. The conversation covers Harvest TV, the new 13-point roster for reservation of teaching posts, the National Sample Survey Office jobs report, George Fernandes’s legacy, the latest Cobrapost investigation, and more.Shoaib explains the 13-point roster order given by the Supreme Court. He says reservation on the recruitment of faculty will now be calculated by the department, not by the university as a whole. Raman draws the discussion to the latest Cobrapost story on the DHFL financial scam. He says: “I don’t see any scam in it! This is just a narrative that the money moved from this place to another. There could be a story..."Listen to the full episode here: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/02/01/hafta-209-13pointroster-h

In this episode of NL Hafta, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Hafta regulars Anand Vardhan and Manisha Pande, and special guests Arunabh Saikia, staff writer at Scroll, and economics journalist Vivek Kaul. The discussion revolves around the Citizenship Bill, the 10 per cent Reservation Bill, Alok Verma's reinstation, the All-India Marathi Literary Meet, and more.The discussion starts with Arunabh talking about the Citizenship Bill and its impact on Assamese politics. “Is it even possible that no Indian is left out?” Abhinandan asks. The bill allows people of all religions except Islam to enter India from Bangladesh. The panel calls it explicitly anti-Muslim, even more so than Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban”.Moving on to the Reservation Bill, Vivek says, “Reservation is useful when the government is creating jobs.” He says he's been dissatisfied with the government’s job creation over the past three years. “A cut-off has to be useful,” he points out about the new quota, saying the cut-off includes so many pe

In this episode of Reporters Without Orders, the panel discusses Cobrapost's recent exposé, Kapil Sibal's comments on Harvest TV, the ensuing controversy, CAG Rajiv Mehrishi’s alleged tax evasion and more. The panel includes Cherry Agarwal, Desk Writer Gaurav Sarkar, Head of Research Ayush Tiwari, and Special Correspondent Prateek Goyal. Gaurav kicks off the discussion with the Cobrapost investigation that he reported on. Ayush points out a lack of due process. “There were allegations that [Cobrapost] had sent its questionnaire with 64 questions to DHFL on the same morning as the press conference. That raises a lot of counter-questions from the perspective of DHFL.” Gaurav also notes: “What really stood out was that the presser started at 3 pm yesterday at the Press Club. Why hold it once the stock markets are shut?”Giving a background on the Harvest TV controversy, Ayush said, “What you can say of all these media houses, because HTN is not the only one coming out, there will be many more in the coming days.

In the 100th episode of Awful and Awesome, our hosts Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen go live to talk about the best and worst of pop-culture. They discussed Thackeray, the new Firstpost advertisement, Netflix’s Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, Jaipur Literature Festival and a lot more.The conversation begins with Thackeray, which Abhinandan describes as a metaphor for the Shiv Sena. "Simplistic, endorses violence, made by morons, for morons,” he says. Rajyasree quipped about the costume design of the film saying, “It casts Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and his nose, his prosthetic nose.” Later she also dismisses Manto saying, “I think Nawazuddin needs to stop acting as real people.”The duo then discusses the new Firstpost ad for the publication’s new weekly newspaper. Rajyasree pointed out the lack of humility in the fact that the paper claims itself to be “the last word in news”. Abhinandan further criticizes, “It is a flawed idea to have the last word in news, there ain’t no last word in news.”R

इस हफ्ते की चर्चा कांग्रेस द्वारा प्रियंका गांधी को पूर्वी उत्तर प्रदेश का प्रभारी बनाने पर केंद्रित रही. 2019 लोकसभा चुनावों से ठीक पहले प्रियंका गांधी को मैदान में उतारने के क्या अर्थ है और इसके क्या परिणाम संभावित हैं, इन सब विषयों पर चर्चा हुई साथ ही कोलकाता में ममता बनर्जी ने एक बड़ी विपक्ष की रैली आयोजित की जिसमें करीब 20 बड़े राजनैतिक दलों के नेता और उनके प्रतिनिधि शामिल हुए. इस पर बीजेपी की तरफ से एक प्रतिक्रिया आई कि यह भ्रष्ट और नामदार लोगो का गठबंधन है. क्या भाजपा के अंदर कोई बेचैनी पैदा हुई है, इस पर भी पैनल ने बहस की. बीते हफ्ते एक और बड़े घटनाक्रम के तहत सईद शुज़ा नाम के साइबर एक्सपर्ट ने लंदन में प्रेस कॉन्फ्रेंस करके दावा किया कि ईवीएम को हैक किया जा सकता है और 2014 के बाद से देश में हुए सारे चुनाव में ईवीएम के जरिए घपला किया गया है. ईवीएम में गड़बड़ी के ज़रिए चुनावी नतीजों को प्रभावित किया गया है. हालांकि शुजा के दावे में तथ्य कम और खामियां बहुत हैं. जो कि हमारी चर्चा का विषय रहा. साथ ही ऑक्सफेम के वह रिपोर्ट भी हमारी चर्चा में शामिल हुई जिसमें देश के 9 बड़े उद्योगपतियों के पास देश की आधी आबादी के ब

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So here's a little sneak peek into the complete episode.In this Hafta, Hartosh Singh Bal, Caravan's political editor magazine, joins Newslaundry managing editor Raman Kirpal, editor Manisha Pande, opinion writer Anand Vardhan and host Abhinandan Sekhri. The group discusses Priyanka Gandhi’s official entry into politics, the Mahagathbandhan, Ajit Doval’s son's defamation plea against the Caravan, EVM hacking and more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this week’s episode, South Asia editor of Asia Times, Saikat Datta, joins the regular Hafta gang of Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan to discuss the home ministry authorising 10 central agencies to intercept information on computers, the misinformation surrounding it.The discussion kicks off with Saikat explaining the home ministry order and his experience of examining the surveillance structure and the safeguards that are there. Is it possible to run an operation at such a huge level? Saikat talks about his experience with dealing with the Radia tapes and the cumbersome process of going through 200 phone calls. The discussion then moves to the miners trapped inside a coal mine in Meghalaya and why it took so long for this to make it to the national news, the rescue operation and the politics around it. Saikat compares the situation of Meghalaya with the movie Kaala Patthar. The panel then moves on to discuss Mamta Banerjee not allowing BJP to carry out Rath Yatras in West B

In this episode of Reporters Without Orders, Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava, award-winning journalist and contributing editor at Business Standard, joins the in-house gang of Gaurav Sarkar, Prateek Goyal, Ayush Tiwari and Cherry Agarwal. The panel discusses the chargesheet filed by the Delhi police against the former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others. They also discuss the challenges of beat reporting, the presser on EVM hacking, media’s coverage of land conflicts and more.Ayush begins the discussion by talking about the under-reportage of “Operation Lotus” in Karnataka. Gaurav adds, “Maybe one of the reasons it has been under-reported is also because Karnataka has been in shambles ever since the elections started...Maybe from an editorial point of view, it doesn’t hold water because it has been happening for quite some time.”Speaking about media’s coverage of #JNUSeditionCase, Gaurav dubbed media’s coverage as “over-the-top”. Cherry disagreed. “Sedition is

In the latest episode, Abhinandan Sekhri co-hosts with Samar Khan—director, producer and former journalist based in Mumbai. The duo discuss the portrayal of the Indian forces in cinema, the rise of TV and change in cinema in the Nineties, the Netflix documentary Fyre and more.Samar has worked on Shaurya, The Test Case and has attended the NDA. Abhinandan asks him: “Is it a coincidence that most of the things that you have created have to do with the forces?” Samar says, “That’s what interests me the most. I think there are so many stories to be told about the men in uniform which are just not war stories ... There are other stories that happen in the Army.”The hosts moved on to discuss the 1990s. Samar points out cultural changes marked by Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge: “[DDLJ] was the first film to talk to an urban audience. It was also the birth of a new director … It was almost like a changing of the guard." He says that was a time when you'd see a lot of movies influenced by the West, when a new generation

Brigadier BK Ponwar, the Director of the Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College in Chhattisgarh, compares the Naxal insurgency to fish in a pond. He explains this analogy by giving examples from insurgencies in other parts of India, particularly the Northeast. Amit Bhardwaj also questions him about the alleged incidents of sexual assault by security forces on civilians. Tune in to this snippet of Let's Talk About: Naxalism - Part 2 to listen to what he has to say.Subscribe to Newslaundry to listen to the full version here: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/01/23/lets-talk-about-naxalism-part-2 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

इस हफ्ते की चर्चा बीबीसी की उस रिपोर्ट को केंद्रित रही जिसमें भारत में पोर्न वीडियो, पोर्न वेबसाइट से सामाज में पड़ने वाले हिंसक प्रभावों की पड़ताल की गई. इसके अलावा कारवां पत्रिका की एक बड़ी खोजी रिपोर्ट में राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार अजीत डोवाल के बेटे विवेक डोवाल द्वारा कालेधन के लिए बदनाम केमन आइलैंड में कंपनी स्थापित करने का मामला, यकायक केंद्र सरकार के कई शीर्ष मंत्रियों, भाजपा नेताओं की बीमारी, उत्तर प्रदेश में सपा-बसपा के बीच हुआ गठबंधन आदि इस बार की चर्चा का मुख्य केंद्र रहे.चर्चा में इस बार दो नए मेहमान जुड़े, दिव्या आर्या जो की बीबीसी में वुमेन अफेयर, पत्रकार हैं साथ ही स्वतंत्र पत्रकार और लेखक अनिल यादव भी इस बार चर्चा का हिस्सा रहे. इसके अलावा न्यूज़लॉन्ड्री के स्तंभकर आनंद वर्धन भी चर्चा में शामिल हुए. चर्चा का संचालन न्यूज़लॉन्ड्री के कार्यकारी संपादक अतुल चौरसिया ने किया.चर्चा की शुरुआत बीबीसी की उस रिपोर्ट से हुई जिसमें पोर्न की समस्या और इसका महिलओं के प्रति होने वाली हिंसा से संबंध है. अतुल ने दिव्या से सवाल किया, “आपकी जो रिपोर्ट है, संक्षेप में आप हमारे श्रोताओं को बताए कि इसका विचार कहा से आ

In the latest episode of The Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap, Abhinandan is in conversation with Mayank Shekhar, entertainment head at Mid Day. The duo reviews The Accidental Prime Minister, Uri: The Surgical Strike and Gillette's latest commercial. They also discuss the portrayal of politics in Indian films, the evolution of film production in India and more. Mayank and Abhinandan also look back at the quality of last year’s films. “I genuinely believe that 2018 was the best year that I have had as a film reviewer watching films,” Mayank said.Speaking about a new genre of movies, Mayank said, “They are propaganda films...there is a new genre called pre-election films.” On The Accidental Prime Minister, he said, “What really suffers the most is the production design...the prime minister’s office looks like a shaadi hall in the movie.” Abhinandan added, “I have heard that it does not look like a story, there are just scenes that are unconnected, it does not flow like a story...it’s just a bunch of scenes

In this week’s podcast, our regular Hafta gang of Abhinandan Sekri, Madhu Trehan, Manisha Pande and Raman Kirpal are joined by Newslaundry subscriber Anushka Shah who is a researcher with MIT Media Lab. The podcast kicks off with a discussion on the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The team talks about how even today, media coverage of communal riots has been limited to political whataboutery where journalists only cover how a political party accuses the other. Anushka points out that in the last two years, the 1984 riots has been covered twice as much as 2002 Gujarat riots.They talk about the Delhi High Court’s judgement convicting Congress politician Sajjan Kumar for his role in the riots. Madhu says journalists should focus on writing descriptive accounts of court proceedings instead of limiting reports to the final court judgement.Moving on, Abhinandan mentions how political parties offer farm loan waivers to please their voters. Manisha says loan waivers are only a short-term

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So here's a little sneak peek into the complete episode.Host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by the usual gang of Raman Kripal, Anand Vardhan and Manisha Pande, and special guest Amit Varma, writer and columnist, and host of the podcast The Seen and the Unseen. The conversation ranges from the unending CBI saga to the JNU sedition chargesheet to Modi winning the first ever Philip Kotler Award, and more.The rumours of Arun Jaitley’s cancer treatment sparked a discussion on the ethics of reporting a public figure’s illnesses. Amit says, “Private lives are private lives, we should not get too much into them … it is when the taxpayers’ money is involved that I am concerned and want to hold those speakers accountable.” Anand then talks about PM Narendra Modi winning the Philip Kotler Awards, saying no one really knows if it’s an authentic award or not.Manisha recalls the media coverage of the JNU sedition case in the context of the chargesheet being file

In the latest episode of Reporters Without Orders Cherry Agarwal is in conversation with Arvind Gunasekar, a CBI beat reporter, Vakasha Sachdev, The Quint's associate editor-legal, Rohin Verma, former Newslaundry journalist, and Ayush Tiwari. The panel discusses the controversy surrounding the Central Bureau of Investigation, former Supreme Court Justice HS Bedi’s report on alleged fake encounters in Gujarat between 2002 and 2006, brutal gang-rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in Gaya, JNU sedition case and more.The discussion kicks off with the panel sharing their thoughts on the media's recent coverage of pertinent news pieces. Speaking of Alok Verma's resignation and the larger CBI controversy, Arvind talks about the source of the conflict. The panel also talks about the role of the Central Vigilance Commission, Supreme Court-appointed supervisor retired Supreme Court judge Justice AK Patnaik, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection panel.Coming to the government's role, Vakasha speaks abo

की जरूरत थी जो कि महज 48 घंटे में संसद के दोनों सदनों में पास हो गया. किसी भी बिल को पास करने की एक लंबी चौड़ी प्रक्रिया होती है, घंटों बहस चलती है उस पर विचार विमर्श किया जाता है, ज्यादा से ज्यादा लोगों के विचार उसमें शामिल होते हैं. लेकिन यहां एक हड़बड़ी नजर आती है. संविधान संशोधन में इतनी जल्दबाजी ठीक है?”इसका जवाब देते हुए आनंद ने कहा, “आरक्षण पर अंबेडकर ने कहा था कि आरक्षण तात्कालिक है और इसका प्रतिशत कम ही होना चाहिए. कुछ राज्यों में इसे बढ़ाया गया जैसे तमिलनाडु में जनसंख्या के आधार पर आरक्षण 50% से बढ़ाकर 67% कर दिया गया, लेकिन केंद्र सरकार द्वारा 10% आरक्षण बढ़ाना पैंडोरा बॉक्स खुलने जैसा है. अब केंद्र सरकार ने एक शुरुआत कर दी है. इससे बाकी समुदायों में भी आरक्षण पाने की होड़ लग सकती है. इसके अलावा ऐसा नहीं है कि आरक्षण मिलने से नौकरी मिल जाएगी. 10% आरक्षण के लिए जो क्राइटेरिया तय किया गया है उसके हिसाब से भारत की 95% आबादी आरक्षण के लिए योग्य है. अब उसमें तो प्रतिस्पर्धा बनी ही रहेगी यह सवर्णों के लिए खुद बहुत कंफ्यूज करने वाली स्थिति है.”चर्चा को आगे बढ़ाते हुए अतुल ने सिद्धांत से सवाल किया, “आरक्षण

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So here's a little sneak peek into the complete episode.In this episode of NL Hafta, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Hafta regulars Anand Vardhan and Manisha Pande, and special guests Arunabh Saikia, staff writer at Scroll, and economics journalist Vivek Kaul. The discussion revolves around the Citizenship Bill, the Reservation Bill, Alok Verma's reinstation and more.Arunabh talks about the Citizenship Bill and its impact on Assamese politics. “Is it even possible that no Indian is left out?” Abhinandan asks. Moving on to the Reservation Bill, Vivek says, “Reservation is useful when the government is creating jobs.”Manisha talks about the laws surrounding private radio news broadcasting and the pro-government bulletins (or lack thereof) on AIR. The panel debates whether the general public is interested in the #CBIvsCBI case, and HS Phoolka's resignation from the Aam Aadmi Party.Listen to the full episode here: https://www.newslaundry.com/201

In the latest episode of The Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap, hosts Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen discuss BCCI’s notice to Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul for their appearance on Koffee with Karan, the Golden Globes, the new Uber Eats advertisement, The Mule, the Gully Boy trailer, and Backstreet Boys being back—again!The discussion begins with a quick tussle between our hosts over Rajyasree’s accusation that Koffee with Karan is a Graham Norton Show rip-off. Rajyasree also points out the irony of BCCI being the moral police in light of the complaints against BCCI’s CEO. Both agree that the degree of reaction to Pandya’s alleged misogyny is unwarranted and that it's more important to call out Karan Johar’s “infantile humour”.Rajyasree then talks about Clint Eastwood’s The Mule, based on the true story of Leo Sharp. They praise the cast, especially Eastwood and his “grasp on cinema”, nominating him for a lifetime achievement award at age 90. Abhinandan was put off by the “easiness” of the film and the “g

This week Reporters Without Orders features Cherry Agarwal in conversation with Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari, The Print's Amrita Nayak Dutta and Economic & Political Weekly’s Tejas Harad. In this episode, among other things, the panel discusses the #QuotaBill, which allows for 10 per cent reservation for economically weak sections of people belonging to the general category in jobs and education.The podcast kicks off with Ayush talking about Greater Kashmir’s misinterpretation of Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s interview. Amrita speaks about media's coverage of the Indian Science Congress, where outlandish claims were made, while Cherry talks about media's coverage of the #CitizenshipAmendmentBill.Tejas doubts that the #QuotaBill “will stand judicial scrutiny”. He explains the long judicial and legislative process required to bring such a quota into effect. He says it is not being opposed by other political stakeholders because it would eliminate the upper-caste vote. The panel also discusses the Supre

In this episode of NL Hafta 202, the regular Hafta gang of Manisha Pande, Abhinandan Sekhri, and Anand Vardhan is joined by Saurabh Dwivedi, founder-editor of Lallantop.Saurabh, who travelled for a month in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in the run-up to the elections, has some great insights to share. The team discusses the reasons for Congress’ victory in the Hindi heartland and whether it will have any bearing on the 2019 general election.Saurabh explains how PM Modi failed as a communicator in Chhattisgarh and why his speeches didn’t click with the masses.Anand tells us why political analysis as we see in news media is overrated. Abhinandan says the Assembly results were not Rahul Gandhi’s Pappu-pass-ho-gaya moment, but more a failure of the BJP government.The Hafta gang also discusses the resignation of RBI chief Urjit Patel and his successor Shaktikanta Das. Abhinandan says: "...the way everyone is dismissing him on his degree, I disagree with that...I will not diss him on that."Finally, the