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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.

4 days ago

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

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.
15 Aug

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

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.
8 Aug

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

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.
1 Aug

Are Liberals Snowflakes? NL Hafta's Unpopular Opinions Special

For the 600th episode of NL Hafta, the panel – Abhinandan Sekhri and Anand Vardhan – are joined by Hafta alumni Jayashree Arunachalam and Mehraj Lone, who set the usual rules aside for an “unpopular opinions” special. Abhinandan’s own unpopular opinion is that the liberal “snowflake” stereotype often holds up in practice, with an inability among some liberals, particularly in journalist and writer circles active on social media, to sit with positions or people they disagree with. Mehraj traces the “snowflake” problem to what he describes as the hyper-individualisation at the heart of modern liberalism, i.e. the elevation of individual grievance and “triggers” above community consensus. He links this to the broader Western backlash against “wokeism” and what some commentators are calling a post-liberal turn. Jayashree closes out the segment on “cancel culture”, arguing it’s often just accountability rebranded. Getting arrested for something illegal isn’t cancellation, she argues. “Being blacklisted for saying a certain thing isn’t being cancelled. It’s just facing a consequence.” 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.
25 Jul

NL Hafta Snippet : Chetan Bhagat On Gen Z, The CJP Protest And Online Anger | NL Hafta

This Hafta episode features author Chetan Bhagat unpacking why a youth-led street protest snowballed the way it did, and what it reveals about how anger travels online. Abhinandan Sekhri opens with a mea culpa on having dismissed “Gen Z” too readily. Bhagat is explicit in his assertion that the protest itself “would have been limited” were it not for visuals like that of a Delhi Police officer in riot gear and a helmet, wielding a baton, chasing a 16-year-old girl. It was footage like this, not the underlying policy grievances, that he calls the “content gold” – the emotionally engaging visual that made the protest go viral. Drawing on examples from Gujarat, Satara, and a bouncer-contractor's Instagram post racking up 400,000 likes, Bhagat argues this generation instinctively performs for the camera – as captured in a viral Mumbai clip where teenagers laugh off a cop threatening to plant drugs on them. His point is that virality isn’t accidental; an audience-literate generation produces it. A recurring metaphor – an argument that "it isn't really about a dirty plate" – is used to explain why the protest isn’t really about paper leaks, even if that's the government's chosen frame. Finally, Bhagat also reflects on being called a “Modi bhakt” then later a critic, and his defence of centrism as pragmatism rather than fence-sitting. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Hassan .Sound by Naresh. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
18 Jul

NL Hafta Snippet | Can a Protest Movement Succeed Without a Clear Ideology?

In the latest episode of Hafta, the panel discusses whether political protest movements need ideological anchoring to succeed, sparked by a debate over the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) lack of clear ideological convictions. Poornima Joshi, the resident editor of The Hindu Businessline, argues that successful mass movements of the last decade – even ostensibly issue-based ones – have tended to carry ideological undertones. In addition to ideological moorings, Rinchen Norbu notes that mass protest movements also crucially push for structural, systemic demands that outlast a minister’s resignation or reshuffle. The CJP’s demands, he argues, don’t meet that bar. The Anna Hazare movement comes up as a test case, with Abhinandan Sekhri disputing the claim that it had RSS backing, saying the initial support came from trade unions and communist parties, not the Sangh. A similar dynamic is drawn out through the farmers’ protest, which Joshi argues benefited from ideological and organisational anchoring – support from farm unions gave it both structural backing and a wider anti-corporate framing beyond the farm laws themselves. The conversation also touches on how ideology can double as both an asset (organisational strength) and a constraint (limiting appeal). Anand Vardhan notes that once a movement positions itself in the opposition camp, its stated commitments – secularism, socialism, anti-corruption – tend to overlap with those of every other party making the same pitch, leaving it with a harder question to answer: what, then, is its actual product differentiation? Separately, Abhinandan notes that Newslaundry is lining up a follow-up round table with panellists holding more critical views of Hartosh Singh Bal’s position on the film Satluj. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11 Jul

NL Hafta Snippet : Who was Jaswant Singh Khalra? | Hafta panel discusses Satluj

This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Hartosh Singh Bal, Executive Editor of The Caravan, and sports broadcaster Arjun Pandit. The discussion begins with Hartosh’s critique of the film Satluj (previously known as Punjab 95), which he labels as propaganda carrying partial truths. Hartosh, who has reported on Punjab for years, is also the nephew of KPS Gill – the highly controversial officer who helmed the state police at the height of militancy. This was the very force that Jaswant Singh Khalra, the central figure of the film, was investigating, and whose actions ultimately led to Khalra’s killing in custody. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters. Produced by Ashish Anand with production assistance from Sourav. Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4 Jul

NL Hafta Snippet : Do Coalition Governments Make Democracies More Resilient?

This week on Hafta, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, Anand Vardhan and Rinchen Norbu are joined by historian Ramachandra Guha. 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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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.