NL Hafta

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri and Raman Kirpal are joined by journalists Girish Kuber, Sunita Aron, and Sudipto Mondal. 

On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech accusing the Congress of receiving money from industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, Sudipto says this news is not headline material but rather “gossip material”. He adds that the talk on the ground is “nahi mila kya is baar”, suggesting that t...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, and Anand Vardhan are joined by in-house reporter Tanishka Sodhi and The News Minute’s Anisha Sheth.

On the alleged sexual abuse tapes involving JDS’s Prajwal Revanna, Anisha says the scale of violence is unheard of in Karnataka, “even though the state has had its share of sexual scandals”. Anand notes that several victims were party workers, and there is a...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by The News Minute’s Pooja Prasanna and lawyer Vakasha Sachdev.

On the Karnataka polls, Pooja says the JDS and BJP are “better allies” than the Congress and JDS since “their target base does not overlap. Both parties bring something new and fresh to the table”. She adds that the “myth of the Vokkaligas being secular is nonsense”.

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Anand Vardhan are joined by political analyst Suhas Palshikar, tech expert Madhav Deshpande, and professor Shruti Kapila.

On the robustness of the election voting machines, Suhas Palshikar says EVMs have “definitely lost the credibility that they initially had”. He cites Lokniti-CSDS data. Madhav says “major technological change” in 2013, with the introduction of VVP...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by policy researcher Yamini Aiyar and senior journalist Rasheed Kidwai. 

On the challenges facing think tanks in India, Yamini says working in policy has “moved from jholawala inputs to suit-boot inputs” over the years, referring to the increased corporatisation.  

The panel then discusses the Congress manifesto,...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, and Manisha Pande are joined by ex-Chief Election Commissioner Dr SY Quraishi, and academic Professor R Manivannan.

Dr Quraishi says that ensuring a level-playing field is the Election Commission’s “dharma”. He says it is necessary for conducting free and fair elections which are “a basic structure of the Constitution”. He adds that the EC follows the principle of “what c...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, and Anand Vardan are joined by music producer and public health consultant Dr Aiswarya Rao.

On the controversy around TM Krishna being conferred the Sangita Kalanidhi award by the Madras Music Academy and the Carnatic music fraternity’s response, Rao says it is an “intra-Brahmin musician dispute”. One faction wants to “take Carnatic music to the masses”, while the other w...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardan are joined by Dhanya Rajendran, co-founder of The News Minute.

On electoral bonds, and the Trinamool Congress being its second-largest recipient, Anand says, “One factor [which determines this] is which party is seen as remaining in power for more time. Power magnets in a region.”

The conversation moves on to the seat-sharing arrangements for the Lok Sa...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Shardool Katyayan and JayashreeArunachalam are joined by Jagdeep Chhokar, founder and member of the Association for Democratic Reforms.

On electoral bonds, Jagdeep says the exercise of matching the bonds data can never be conclusive, but “we should remember that the window between a bond being purchased and it being redeemed is 15 days”.

The panel then discusses the BJP’s second lis...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan are joined by journalist Radhika Ramaseshan.

On the BJP’s first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, Anand says the party has announced candidates for its “weak seats” first. Radhika points out that Uttar Pradesh will be a tough battle for the Opposition despite the Congress-SP alliance. 

The panel then discusses the arrest of TMC strongman...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by The News Minute’s executive editor Sudipto Mondal.

On the cross-voting during Rajya Sabha polls in Karnataka, Sudipto points to the similarity in ideological stance of the state’s three major political parties. “There is no difference between the average BJP guy, the average JDS guy and the average Congress guy,” he says. Raman ...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by journalist Monideepa Banerjie and agricultural policy expert Devinder Sharma.

On the situation in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali, Monideepa gives a timeline of what happened. She explains that after being accused of exploiting local women, TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh has been absconding for the last 50 days and hasn’t returne...

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by Association of Democratic Reforms chief Anil Verma, The Hindu’s deputy editor AM Jigeesh and Newslaundry reporter Sumedha Mittal. 

Anil, one of the litigants who moved the Supreme Court against the electoral bonds scheme, delves into the significance of the top court’s verdict declaring it “unconstitutional”, and ...

This week, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, Shardool Katyayan and Anand Vardhan are joined by senior journalist Saeed Naqvi.

We have a new Sena project on Ram Mandir’s impact on Ayodhya’s residents. Contribute today.

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This week, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by author, translator and journalist Sugata Srinivasaraju and journalist Rishika Pardikar.

We have a new Sena project on Ram Mandir’s impact on Ayodhya’s residents. Contribute today.

Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. 

Download the Newslaundry app.

This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan are joined by Sanjay Hegde, a senior advocate at the Supreme Court. 

We have a new Sena project on Ram Mandir’s impact on Ayodhya’s residents. Contribute today.

Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Celebrate Christmas with us with exciting hampers.

Download the Newslaundry app.