Newslaundry Podcast

On this week’s NL Hafta, Abhinandan is joined by Madhu Trehan, Raman Kirpal and guest Ajoy Ashirwad, Deputy Editor at The Wire. Journalist TS Sudhir from India Today joins the panel on the phone to discuss the Karnataka results.The talk kicks off with the elections, with Sudhir sharing the possible political manoeuvrings that can be adopted by the BJP to prove its majority in the Assembly. Enumerating on the vulnerable spots in the JD(S) and Congress, he says: “Caste and Cash, these are the two things that are being used to kind of ensure a majority for the BJP government.” Abhinandan brings in the Karnataka governor’s decision to call the BJP first to form the government. Madhu weighs in with a pertinent reference to 1996. The Suresh Mehta-led government in Gujarat, under which the present Karnataka governor held a cabinet portfolio, was dismissed by then Prime Minister Deve Gowda. She remarks, “So, this was his Karmic chance.” Ajoy says: “The governor was facing a kind of complicated situation where he had