NL Hafta

This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by Chander Shekhar Luthra, seasoned sports journalist and secretary of the Press Club of India. Talking about how sports journalism in India has been reduced to access journalism, Chander rues the passing of a time when “there was space for everyone”, from those writing about and investig...

This week on Hafta, the inhouse panel of Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan, and Jayashree Arunachalam talk about the Tokyo Olympics, monsoon session of the parliament, and the change of guard in Karnataka.  Talking about the Olympics, Anand explains the enthusiasm around hockey as compared to other sports. Raman remarks, “Hockey was a national sport...until the rul...

This week on NL Hafta, Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Mehraj Lone are joined by journalist Karma Paljor, editor-in-chief of EastMojo and co-founder of Atvi Infotainment. In the context of the recent Assam-Mizoram border conflict, the panel discusses the history of the border and the significance of the tribal identities of the Mizos. Karma says, “They’ve fought f...

Time Codes: 0:57 - Headlines 5:45 - Pegasus snooping 49:30 - Afghanistan crisis 1:24:15 - Tokyo Olympics 1:34:24 - Subscriber emails 1:54:13 - Recommendations  This week, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal and Manisha Pande are joined by Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of the Wire, and Happymon Jacob, author, commentator and JNU professor.  Siddharth talks about his organisation's re...

This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by Vivek Kaul, author and journalist.  Vivek discusses his NL Sena investigation on India’s Covid data, pointing to inefficient health systems and the suspiciously low positive case rates in states such as Uttar Pradesh.  To listen to the full episode , subscribe to Newslaundry . Hosted on...

This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, and Anand Vardhan of Newslaundry are joined by independent journalist Anumeha Yadav.  Anumeha analyses the various aspects of the Bhima Koregaon case in the wake of the activist Stan Swamy’s death in custody. Anand opines that "in this particular case, a lot of things have come down to freedom of expression". The conversat...

This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, Anand Vardhan and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Hartosh Singh Bal, political editor of the Caravan .  Hartosh begins the discussion by laying out the sociopolitical context of the communal campaign whipped up by politicians and sections of the media over the marriage of a Sikh woman with a Muslim man in Kasmir. Drawing parallel...

This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Jayashree Arunachalam of Newslaundry are joined by public health physician Jammi N Rao. Talking about the controversies surrounding Bharat Biotech's Covid vaccine, Covaxin, Jammi notes that the company hasn’t provided the final data yet, so “nobody can assess it".  Moving the discussion to the mega vaccination drives condu...

This week on NL Hafta, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by data journalist Rukmini S. Rukmini explains her recent findings about actual Covid death tolls in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Talking about the key insights she gleaned from looking at the data, she says, "Instead of hanging on to the notion of exceptionalism, India should have actually focused on...

This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by legal affairs expert Bhabna Das. They begin the discussion by reviewing a Goa court's judgement in the Tarun Tejpal rape case. Remarking on the court's observations about the behaviour of the former Tehelka editor's accuser soon after the incident, Bhabna asserts that "any j...

This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by filmmaker and writer Rajesh Rajamani. The discussion begins with the controversy over tennis player Naomi Osaka's refusal to do a press conference at the French Open, and the nuances of sports journalism. To listen to the full episode , subscribe to Newslaundry . Hosted on Acast. See acast...

This week on NL Hafta, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel of Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, and Anand Vardhan. The conversation starts with the unrest in Lakshadweep after a series of proposed laws were introduced by administrator Praful K Patel. On the draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation, Anand says, “If the implications are the way that it changes the c...

This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Leena Gita Reghunath, an independent journalist based in Kerala. Leena starts the discussion talking about Pinarayi Vijayan's new ministry, especially the controversy over KK Shailaja's exclusion despite her laudatory work as the health minister. While noting that she was dropped in line with the...

This week on NL Hafta, Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone and Anand Vardhan are joined by Dhanya Rajendran, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the News Minute . Dhanya begins with MK Stalin taking oath last week as chief minister of Tamil Nadu. She talks about how the ceremony took place even as the second wave of Covid has hit the country. Dhanya also talk...

This week on NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by journalist and writer Samrat X. Samrat begins by explaining the nuances of the recent post-poll violence in West Bengal. On the courts stepping in with respect to the poor handling of Covid in the country, Jayashree says, “It baffles me that it’s been four weeks and we still...

This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, and Anand Vardhan are joined by Banjot Kaur, a health reporter at Down to Earth . Banjot Kaur begins by explaining the scientific and public health aspects of the ongoing Covid surge in India. "The surge might start decreasing in mid-May, but due to healthcare collapse it won't be seen directly," she says. She also...

This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande are joined by Arunabh Saikia of Scroll. Arunabh elaborates upon his recent report on India's oxygen crisis and what caused it. The Narendra Modi government, he explains, planned to set up 150 oxygen generation over eight months ago but only a few of them are up and running. "They only take four to six weeks to set up and we coul...

This week on NL Hafta, Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, and Anand Vardhan are joined by Dr Madhu Gupta, a professor of community medicine at PGIMER, Chandigarh. The conversation begins with India’s Covid situation. On vaccine supplies, Abhinandan asks about India’s export of vaccines and whether developed nations are hoarding supplies. On the surge in Covid infection...

This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by Kavita Murlidharan, an independent journalist. Kavita speaks about what’s driving the assembly election campaign in Tamil Nadu. "It's difficult to understand the mood of the people this time because we don't have Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha. They have been driving the elections in Tamil Nadu for the last...

This week on Hafta, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Raman Kirpal, Anand Vardhan and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry , and Shoaib Daniyal of Scroll . Shoaib begins by discussing the ongoing Bengal election, which he’s covering for his news platform. The panellists also discuss the Myanmar coup and India's role as the crisis-struck country’s neighbour. "India has its part in not antagonizing the af...

This week on NL Hafta, it’s an all-Newslaundry panel of Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Raman Kirpal. In context of the recent Newsance episode , the panel discusses a recent ad of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna. Manisha, speaking to the woman in the advertisement, found out that she has not been given a house to live in. A picture of her was taken while she...

This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam, Anand Vardhan and Raman Kirpal are joined by veteran journalist and political commentator Aarti Jairath.  Aarti discusses the complexity of the Indian elections and the need for a “grey area” while reporting on it. “One of the temptations that should be resisted is to jump to the conclusion,” she says. The panel follows up on th...

This week on NL Hafta, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel of Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Raman Kirpal. In the light of Mithun Chakroborty joining BJP in Kolkata, Abhinandan lauds his “amazing success story”. “His entire rise has been phenomenal. Govinda was called the poor man’s Mithun,” he added. Manisha also points out how the BJP used left rally’s pic...

This week on NL Hafta, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel of Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan. Abhinandan explains India’s new digital media rules and their implications on organisations like Newslaundry . Manisha notes that such stringent laws are not in place for the television media, while Jayashree and Mehraj point out why these are “rules”...

This week on NL Hafta, Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, and Mehraj D Lone are joined by Raghu Karnad, author and contributing editor of the Wire . Reflecting back to the Delhi riots that took place last February, Raghu describes how he saw masked men chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, setting fires, and smashing vehicles, even as the police were in the vicinity. He also recalls...