NL Hafta

“I have not seen a liar Chief Minister like him [Shivraj Singh Chouhan] in my entire lifetime,” Shiv Kumar Sharma said. The farmer leader has reason to be upset and angry at the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister: The Chouhan government, he said, has made hundreds of announcements in the past but never implemented it.Sharma is the 66-year-old who has led the farmers’ protest in Madhya Pradesh, which turned violent. Also known as Kakkaji in MP, Sharma called Chouhan a “darpok (coward)” CM.The chief of the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangh (RKMS), Sharma charged that the Shivraj government has failed to address the agrarian crisis in the state over the last 14 years. And as a result, “due to this building pressure on farmers, the cooker had burst.”On his radar are both the BJP government and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)’s farmer body Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS). According to Sharma, the BKS struck a deal with the state government and unanimously called off the protest. By doing so, they have cheated the farming community, he said.Sharma himself was once the BKS chief and was thrown out of the organisation, when in 2010, he spearheaded the farmers’ agitation in December 2010 against the “own” BJP government and gheraoed Bhopal with tractors. “I was thrown out of BKS when we gheraoed Bhopal with tractors during our agitation- Operation 10.12 in 2010. I was immediately arrested and sent to jail. ” His associates told Newslaundry that in a career of 40 years, Sharma has gone to jail 44 times for the raising the farmers’ cause.Sharma rejects claims that farmers turned violent during the protest which took over Madhya Pradesh for the last 15 days. According to him, this was a strategy of the state government to provoke agitators and discredit them once it turned violent.The farmers of Malwa region in Madhya Pradesh began protesting against the BJP-led government on June 1. A higher minimum support price for their crops and loan waivers were amongst their 20 demands. However, on June 6, six farmers were shot dead in the police farming.Meanwhile, CM Chouhan who sat on an “indefinite” hunger strike broke his fast on the very second day. Sharma has called Chauhan’s fasts a “nautanki (drama)”.While the RKMS is not satisfied with the announcements made by the Chouhan government, they said the protest will continue. It has identified national highways across the country which will be blocked for three hours on June 16. On June 23, the RKMS is planning to hold protests by doing the shavasana - where farmers will lie like dead bodies in front of posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. June 21 is the International Day of Yoga.This 66-year-old farmer leader from Hoshangabad district debunks the arguments that loan waivers for farmers will hurt taxpayers. “It is the farmers of this country who give subsidy to entire nation,” Sharma told Newslaundry. “Farmers’ get 30-40 per cent less than the minimum support price… The moong dal which costs Rs 5,500 is bought at Rs 2,500, we get 85 paise per kg of potato,” said Sharma.On June 13, the RKMS filed a complaint with the National Human Rights’ Commission (NHRC) accusing CM Chouhan for the killings of farmers on June 6. For Sharma, Chouhan is a “hatyara (murderer) Chief Minister.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vivek Kaul, author & economist, speaks to Anand Ranganathan about his new book, India's Big Government: The Intrusive State & How It's Hurting Us. Kaul talks about the Indian economy, employment and labour reforms. He also speaks on loan waivers to farmers -- is it a feasible solution?Also, how much of the maxim "government has no business to be in business" holds true today? 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 peak of the complete episode where we discuss Amit Shah's chatur Baniya remark, farmers protests, loan waivers announced by the state governments and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amit Shah, Bharatiya Janata Party's president, called Gandhi a 'chatur baniya' and that kicked up quite a storm in the media. Did Shah's remark get unnecessary media attention or was it important to discuss the implications of it considering the position he holds? T R Vivek, journalist and author, joins the Hafta gang to discuss this, along with Ramachandra Guha's column in The Indian Express stating that Gandhi had transcended caste and a rebuttal to his piece by Newslaundry columnist Tejas Harad. Abhinandan Sekhri, Anand Ranganathan, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan, along with our guest, Vivek, discuss the Cauvery issue, farmers protests in Madhya Pradesh and loan waivers announced by the state governments. Are loan waivers a feasible solution? The team also discusses Information & Broadcasting ministry's decision to deny certificate to three films for screening at Kerala festival and more. And there are two song dedications too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Rajyasree Sen and Abhinandan Sekhri discuss the Rajkummar Rao and Shruti Haasan starrer, Behen Hogi Teri. Is it worth a watch? They also discuss the trailers of Akshay Kumar's Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Kushan Nandy's Babumoshai Bandookbaaz and Marvel's Black Panther. CNN dumping Reza Aslan for his anti-Trump tweet also finds a mention. All this and more discussed and dissected in this episode of the Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Samar Khan and Rahul Puri are back with their weekly round-up of sports. Samar feels that Rafael Nadal is only a clay court legend but Rahul feels he is one of the all time greats. In the world of cricket, they think South Africa, as a team just dont seem to deliver. Their differ when it comes to the winner of ICC Champions Trophy. Samar bets on India while Rahul backs England. All this and more on this week's Just Sports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On June 11, after more than 10 days of protests by farmers, the Maharashtra government announced it would waive all farm loans. Farmers demanding loan waivers have been agitating in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh as well, where the protests turned violent resulting in the death of five farmers in a police shooting.In light of these developments, Newslaundry spoke to economist and former professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Arun Kumar on the reasons behind demands of farm loan waivers, the impact of demonetisation on the agrarian economy and the “asymmetry” in response to farm loans and corporate loans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Historian Rana Safvi talks to Newslaundry about Dastan-e-Ghadar, an eyewitness account of the Revolt of 1857 by Zahir Dehlvi, who was an established poet as well as an official of the Emperor’s court. Safvi describes the communal harmony in the city prior to the revolt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quartz Asia bureau chief Tripti Lahiri speaks to Vivek Gopal about her book 'Maid in India’ that explores the murky, unregulated world of domestic work in India. She discusses the shift in prevailing attitudes regarding labour, its often gendered recognition and ways in which power dynamics are internalised. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.