NL Hafta

Weekly wrap of events of the week peppered with context, commentary and opinion by a superstar panel. Click here to support Newslaundry: http://bit.ly/paytokeepnewsfree Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NL Hafta is a news podcast hosted by Newslaundry.com, with 1,000 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Newslaundry.com hosts NL Hafta, a news show with 1,000 episodes published.

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  NL Hafta 604 Snippet: Student Suicides, Coaching Culture, and the Reservation Debate | Hafta Panel Discusses

  Aug 29, 202614 min

  This week’s Hafta panel tackled two connected threads: the anti-reservation protests and the suicide of an IIT Delhi student, Rishikesh Kumar.  Joining the Hafta panel this week were Dr Aqsa Shaikh, one of India’s first transgender doctors and a member of the Supreme Court-appointed National Task Force on Student Suicide Prevention in Higher Education, and Dr Sameena Dalwai, a law professor, writer and researcher who specialises in gender, sexuality and law.  Panellists pushed back on the “merit versus reservation” framing, arguing it obscures how privilege is already built into ‘merit’, and noted how complicated affirmative action becomes in India’s caste and tribal contexts, unlike the US’s simpler racial binary. The discussion also delved into other reservation debates that include EWS, women, and transgender persons.  On student suicides, the panel cited data showing roughly 13,000 suicides a year nationally, with higher rates in hypercompetitive spaces like IITs and medical colleges. The panellists traced this pressure back to a coaching culture that begins in school. Subscribe to watch the full discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  NL Hafta 603 Snippet : BJP’s Gen Z ‘Outreach’ Problem | Hafta Panel Feat. Anurag Minus Verma

  Aug 22, 202612 min

  This week, the Hafta panel discussed the BJP’s push to expand its presence on Instagram, a shift Manisha Pande linked to the party being caught off guard by the memes and reels that emerged from the CJP protests. Anurag Minus Verma argued the BJP’s problem isn’t taking Instagram seriously – it’s that its content is unsuited to the platform. Right-wing pages, he said, largely cycle through three or four genres: doxing, threats, punching-down humour and “catching hypocrisy”.  “These things have a shelf life because these things are not cool,” he said, adding that Instagram runs on a post-irony aesthetic that demands ideological looseness rather than stiffness, something he argued right-wingers struggle with. Abhinandan Sekhri connected this to Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, suggesting being famous for sheer stupidity, as with Ravi Kishan’s viral moments, now functions as its own currency. Manisha argued that trolling, which works on X (formerly Twitter), doesn’t quite translate to Instagram because the latter is a visual, face-based medium, where putting a face to a thought requires courage in a way anonymous text does not.  She also said the BJP’s messaging remains stuck in a 2014 register, still invoking “urban Naxals” and Umar Khalid, and contrasted this with a Rajasthan schoolchild’s viral video on poor school infrastructure, arguing that dismissing such concerns as “dimaagi Naxal” sidesteps the real issue of young people demanding better education. Subscribe to watch the full discussion.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  NL Hafta 602 Snippet : The India That Was, The India That Could’ve Been

  Aug 15, 20269 min

  This Independence Day, NL Hafta’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Rinchen Norbu are joined by historian and author Sam Dalrymple.   The discussion began with the question: Was the India we inherited inevitable, or could history have taken a very different course? Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav .Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  NL Hafta 601 Snippet : Why Meta took down the PM’s video | Hafta panel on Modi, Meta and censorship

  Aug 8, 202614 min

  On Meta, Abhinandan Sekhri asked whether the platform has the bandwidth to process takedown requests in India at that scale, or whether “it’s actually a phase where it’s the Wild West”.  Independent tech journalist Abhishek Baxi agreed with that characterisation and explained that Meta’s automated moderation system – a response to takedown requests in India doubling year on year – was behind the technical glitch that pulled down PM Modi’s video from Facebook. Meta’s global affairs chief had to fly down to apologise to IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw directly. Manisha Pande pointed to a recent instance where an interview with a CJP protester, conducted by Priyanshi Sharma, a journalist with Peak TV ,  was repeatedly taken down from Instagram and reinstated without explanation, alongside three of Newslaundry ’s own videos that are restricted in India.  “I don’t think these platforms are going to fight the freedom of speech fight for us,” she said. “They want to continue doing business here.” On the ruling establishment’s inability to figure out Instagram like they did WhatsApp, Shardool added that it was “a sad fact that a government governing 1.4 billion people doesn't understand Instagram” and that “it takes one conversation with creators to understand how the platform works, but instead every viral trend is seen as a conspiracy.” Abhinandan went on to argue that US tech giants “don't have our interest in mind at all”, and would readily compromise on user protections if it meant preserving profit and market access, leaving Indians caught “between two [powers] who basically don't have your interest in mind.” Subscribe to watch the entire discussion.  Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters . Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav .Sound by Anil Kumar . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  NL Hafta -600 Snippet

  Aug 1, 20269 min

  Celebrating 600 uninterrupted episodes of NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri and Anand Vardhan are joined by former Hafta panelists Jayashree Arunachalam and Mehraj Lone for a special episode built around one simple idea: our most unpopular opinions . Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters . Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav .Sound by Anil Kumar . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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