NL Hafta

In this episode of NL Hafta, our in-house team of Madhu Trehan, Abhinandan Sekhri, Anand Vardhan, Raman Kirpal and Manisha Pande is joined by NDTV news editor Madhusudan Srinivas.The team discusses the grisly case of rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu and another case of rape in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao in which a Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly is accused.Manisha, while pointing at the chilling details of the charge sheet in the Kathua case, says the case was reported by local media since January but took time to reach Delhi TV news studios. Raman Kirpal says, “The national media picked it up really late. If you see the local newspapers in Jammu, they were talking about it. they had been reporting since January. But not the national media.”Attempting to explain why that happened, Abhinandan says, “I think the national media actually took notice of it when a bunch of lawyers chanting Jai Sri Ram prevented a charge-sheet from being filed. That, I think, was the trigger.”Anand speaks on the scary statistics on child rape in India. Being the son of a police officer, he says, he has read up many police diaries that detail the horrific nature of crime in India. “All these cases have horrific details. It is just that we only know few.”Moving on, the team speaks on Mark Zuckerberg’s apology and how unaware the senators questioning him seemed to be. Madhu details how closely the media reported the scene -- focusing on the cushion Zuckerberg sat on, the clothes he wore, the way he drank water, when he smiled and when he smirked.Moving on, our panel talks of violence against journalists in West Bengal while covering Panchayat elections. Journalists from the Times of India and The Indian Express were assaulted, and one was even forcibly undressed.Prompted by a subscriber’s letter, the panel then ventures into a discussion on ‘generalisations’ and wonders if there’s any truth to them. Abhinandan says, "Every sort of humour device rests heavily on generalisations." Anand says that the important thing about generalisations is that they are always done by others.Abhinandan takes the discussion forward by talking about the Cauvery protest in Tamil Nadu. Anand says there is guilt at play on part of the media: “The whole year you don't report about farmers issues. IPL comes and then you juxtapose corporate jazz, owning IPL times.”Madhusudhan points out, "Even Rajnikanth didn't say I am at the gate, stop the damn thing. He just said it would be a nice idea to stop the IPL.”Talking about the fast held by the Congress, Madhu considers it as psychological manipulation. "Psychological trip of you not eating, really people should not care. It might be good at the British times but now its misuse has become ridiculous,” she says.All this and more in this episode of NL Hafta. Listen up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So, here's a little sneak peek of the complete episode where we discuss Kathua, Unnao and the politics around the two rape cases. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Samar Khan and Rahul Puri are back with their weekly roundup of sports. They discuss the Champions League, and share their analysis of teams playing in the Indian Premier League. Also, there is much talk about the controversy surrounding Harry Kane and performance of Indian athletes at the Commonwealth Games.Samar expresses his views on Liverpool's victory against Manchester City in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. “Hats off to Liverpool because they went out there, defended pretty well. They kind of mentally destroyed Manchester City.”Rahul calls Manchester City “arrogant” as Pep Guardiola kept mentioning how they need referees to protect them, referees to look after their players. “If you are going to be a really great team you have to take the smooth with the rough.”The duo feels Barcelona is evidently an ageing team. There is over-reliance on Lionel Messi.  “He had to come in the 80th minute to score the equaliser and then the winner,” says Samar.Moving on, they discuss how Harry Kane went on swearing on his daughter's life for one goal. They feel Harry was being desperate and question the importance of a goal and a trophy.Talking about IPL, while Rahul mentions how impressed he is with CSK, Samar appreciates KKR’s performance. They point out key features that were witnessed in this season -- how the team that is winning the toss is choosing to bowl first and then trying to chase down the score, bowlers winning the matches, teams other than Mumbai Indians winning at home.A look at the Commonwealth Games has Indians athletes, especially women, applauded by the duo. They discuss how “heartening” it is to see India winning in a variety of games.All this and more on this week's Just Sports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this podcast of Reporters Without Orders, the panel is joined by Ishan Kukreti, a reporter from Down to Earth magazine, to discuss the Kathua rape case, Kashmir killings, Salman Khan’s conviction and more.Nidhi comments on how the mainstream media did not have any coverage on the lawyers’ protest in the Kathua case, "When the charge sheet was filed by the crime branch, the lawyers protested against the same. There was no front-page coverage in the mainstream media. Only Times of India reported it on the front page, everybody else carried it in the inside pages."She also puts forth the fact that 3 killings in the last 7 months in the Kashmir valley have gone under-reported. She finds it “bizarre” that they have only reported the incidents and there have been no follow-ups and investigations.Ishaan discusses the farmers protesting against the Cauvery issue outside an IPL match between CSK-KKR and media's doing "lazy reporting as it is giving attention to IPL through the Cauvery issue”.Cherry also adds on to the Kathua rape case and feels that it deserved more coverage. “Considering the coverage that Salman Khan got wherein at least 9 leading dailies put it on their front page, how does a girl's repeated rape for at least a week does not get a front-page coverage except one column in TOI?” she questions.Manisha states that the probable reason for less coverage could be the 8-year-old victim’s disadvantaged background. “I guess this is also to do with the fact that the girl is from the Bakarwal community. If it happens to a middle-class family and an upper-middle-class person, there is media outrage.”While Nidhi feels Salman Khan’s conviction was all over the media, Cherry discusses excessive coverage given to Congress’ 'chola bathura' breakfast.In the Salman Khan case, Nidhi points out that there was no Bishnoi community representative in the prime-time debate panels. To which Manisha adds, “ As per a news report, two Bishnoi members came to stop Salman and he pointed his gun at them. Even under so much pressure, the Bishnoi members haven’t changed their testimony in 20 years. There should have been news of their struggle to get justice and not just Bandra people saying Salman is so great.”In relation to the non-filing of FIR against the SC/ST Atrocities Act (2015 amendment), Ishaan talks about how smartly mass land encroachment is happening in areas such as Raigarh.The panel also discusses, I&B ministry's April 4 order to set up a panel to frame regulations for online media. "Even if I want to express my opinion in a Facebook post or on Twitter, there are chances that the government might crack its whip it,” Cherry tells the panel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Awful and Awesome has a lot in store this week. A special treat for all book lovers is Rajyasree Sen’s interaction with Seema Goswami, author of ‘Race Course Road’, followed by a discussion on the IPL, Salman Khan, ‘Missing’, and Russell Crowe’s genius.Starting off with the book, Goswami’s past work experience with ABP and Sunday Magazine is reflected in her approach towards politics in this fictional political thriller, which starts off with the assassination of Prime Minister Birendra Pratap Singh, and goes on to answer the questions -- Who was behind it? Who will become the next PM?Although fictional, Rajyasree finds the characters mirroring many Indian politicians and doesn’t hesitate in naming them. According to her, these characters are obviously inspired by real-life personalities -- there’s an Arnab, a Barkha Dutt, and there is definitely, definitely a Mamata Banerjee. Sen feels that the book surpasses other thrillers by dealing with themes like the invasion of privacy, the treatment of women in politics, and the role of media.Moving on, we have our dear own Abhinandan Sekhri joining Sen. The ‘Awful and Awesome’ duo makes it a point to discuss as much of ‘awful’ as ‘awesome’ and comments on the glamorisation and commercialisation of cricket, which Sekhri does not even consider a sport (thank you, IPL!). The grand opening ceremony with performances by Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandes, and Mika Singh are not spared, with Hrithik Roshan being the only one praised by our hard-to-please reviewers. If all this isn’t enough, there are two awards -- ‘the most stylish player award’ (Gautam Gambhir seemed as disgusted receiving it as Sen and Sekhri felt discussing it), and the ‘Star Plus nayi soch award’ (what does that even mean?). Abhinandan had one answer to all this, “We just fuck up everything.”Further, Sen and Sekhri have both had their own shares of torture this week, watching ‘Midnight Sun’ and ‘Missing’ respectively. The former has nothing to offer except a cliché teen story where nothing bad happens. The latter, on the other hand, is a disappointing psychological thriller about a child who goes missing during a family ‘business trip’ to Mauritius. As Sen says, Missing can easily go ‘missing from the halls’.Next, they go on to discuss the new iPad advertisement that shows the gadget's use in homework for children -- much to Abhinandan’s distaste, and the commonwealth film by Edelweiss Group, which again fails to impress Mr Sekhri due to its ‘terrible writing’.Of course, this week had to have a discussion on the media coverage of the conviction of our beloved Bhai. It was, as Sekhri puts it, ‘news as entertainment about an entertainment superstar’. Apart from Khan’s non-discrimination among species and colour of skin, unnecessary details (his popularity in China, his earnings from Big Boss) given by the media are discussed. Priya Gupta, co-producer of movies like Blackmail, gets a special mention for her defences given for the superstar.Sen goes on to enlighten us about the innovative method that Russell Crowe has come up with to pay his divorce alimony of 20 million dollars by an auction called the ‘Art of Divorce’, that, ironically, he opened on the day of his wedding anniversary.All in all, the awful and awesome will take you through all this and more, including books, movies, advertisements, and mastering the art of divorcing your wife in style. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

डिजिटल मीडिया रेगुलेशन के लिए सूचना प्रसारण मंत्रालय द्वारा कमेटी का गठन, फेक न्यूज़ की स्थिति में पीआईबी कार्डधारक पत्रकारों की मान्यता रद्द करने की अधिसूचना, एससी-एसटी एक्ट में बदलाव के खिलाफ दलितों का भारत बंद, मध्य प्रदेश में बाबाओं को मंत्री का दर्जा और सलमान को सज़ा इस हफ्ते की न्यूज़लॉन्ड्री चर्चा के प्रमुख विषय रहे. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So, here's a little sneak peek of the complete episode where we discuss fake news, Salman Khan's conviction, ICICI-Videocon, Minister babas & more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of NL Hafta, the panel sits down to discuss all that dominated the news this week -- the Bharat Bandh protests, fake news guidelines issued by the I&B Ministry, Salman Khan’s conviction and more.This week's guest, Joyjeet Das, journalist with Catch News, spoke on the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan row. "If any of this is true, there will be a huge blow to trust, including investors' trust, which would not work out well in the Indian equities market," he said. Manisha adds that this story broke in 2016 when Intralive journalist Rashmi Singh reported on it. Speaking on whether this indeed qualifies as a scam, Raman says, "On the face of it, ICICI has not denied any allegations. They are simply saying that it doesn't amount to a conflict of interest."While discussing the issue of nationwide Dalit protests, Raman and Joydeep debate if the protests were hijacked by politicians or were a result of "impromptu anger."Abhinandan points out how, "Even though Bapu and Ambedkar were brilliant leaders...technology has allowed today's leaders a better understanding of what India is."Shivraj Singh Chouhan's move to make five religious leaders Ministers of State has our panel wondering what could have prompted the bizarre decision. "It must be a move to patronise these leaders' large following," Raman states.Abhinandan recalls his experience in West Bengal while discussing the recent events of communal violence there. "There was never a threat of violence, even if you abused each other," he says. Joyjeet, however, states, "this idea of violence is not new in Bengal...political violence has been around for long.""Munni ka toh pata nahi, par bhai toh badnaam ho gaya," Abhinandan jokes on the issue of Salman Khan's judgment. The panelists discuss the court's decision to acquit the others and jail Salman.Discussions of the hike in fuel prices have the team recall PMO's initial speeches where he promised to lower down fuel prices.The team also listens in to emails from our subscribers. Listen up, there is a song dedication in the end to our very dear Prime Minister. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

रॉबर्ट्सगंज लोकसभा से भाजपा सांसद छोटेलाल खरवार ने मुख्यमंत्री योगी आदित्यनाथ और पार्टी के अन्य लोगों पर अपमानित करने का आरोप लगाया है. खरवार अनुसूचित जनजाति से आते हैं. उनका कहना है कि उनकी छोटी जाति के कारण अगड़ी जाति वालों ने मिलकर उन्हें अपमानित किया. उनकी शिकायत पर मुख्यमंत्री ने ध्यान भी नहीं दिया और आरोपियों पर एफआईआर तक दर्ज नहीं करवाई गई.सांसद छोटेलाल खरवार से न्यूज़लॉन्ड्री की पूरी बातचीत यहां सुन सकते हैं. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Samar Khan and Rahul Puri are back with their weekly round-up of sports. The duo discusses Champions League, the amazing goal by Ronaldo that has rocked the world of football and the IPL madness. Samar Khan starts the discussion on Ronaldo by saying: “He might not be as masterful and crafty as Messi or as pleasing to the eye but he gets the goal and gets it in emphatic fashion.”Rahul Puri expresses his views on Ronaldo. He says, “I may not be Ronaldo’s biggest fan because of the team he has chosen to play for and there is biased attached but you can’t take away the fact that this man isn’t just a phenomenon. He’s not Messi and he doesn’t have that complete influence on a game from a sheer footballing point of view but look at the number of goals he scores.”Khan brings in the statistics. “Ronaldo has scored  119 goals in the Champions League, that’s actually more goals than Liverpool has scored in their entire history of Champions League.” Puri adds, “The most fascinating is that it boiled down into this rivalry where they both ended up in one country playing for these two great rivals and that further enhances this…but then again, what a goal!!” In the world of cricket, they talk about IPL. Khan puts forth his first point: "More than Steve Smith, David Warner would be a big miss for the Sunrisers Hyderabad because he has been an inspirational captain." Puri says: "They (Sunrisers Hyderabad) will now need more runs from the middle order engine."Talking about other teams Puri says: "I don't think either Delhi or Punjab have great strengths in bowling so they have to focus on their batting. Bangalore and Mumbai are very well run franchises that have got core players. Chennai Superkings have got good reputation and pedigree in IPL."All this and more on this week's Just Sports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.