In Rajasthan’s Alwar, a diary farmer, Pehlu Khan was killed by a cow vigilante group affiliated to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, on the suspicion that he was smuggling cows. Yet ministers like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi are refuting the existence of such groups or incidents-why is that? Ullekh NP, Executive Editor, of Open, joins the Hafta gang Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan, Anand Ranganathan and Anand Vardhan to discuss beef politics and how he managed to write about the personal life of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his latest book The Untold Vajpayee. We also discuss the working conditions of doctors in India, and if they should be striking at all. And finally, the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to waive off farmer loans worth Rs 36,359-crore. How good or bad is this decision? Is Urijit Patel right in criticising the idea? This and much more discussed and dissected on this episode of Hafta. Listen Up!

For reference:

1. A review of #NL Hafta from Shaunak Kulkarni, Amrith Krishna and Dhiraj
2. Lalit Kumar Modi’s Twitter status on IPL
3. Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America’s Role in the World by Robert D. Kaplan
4. The Wire: The Professor Who Had to Spend Half His Life to Make the Drug India Needs
5. LiveMint.com: The homeless amateur Indian
6. Newslaundry: The fall and rise of Kejriwal
7. New podcast from Serial and This American Life: S.town
8. Scroll.in: The Ram Jethmalani interview: Jaitley ‘controls the media’ and Modi ‘made a fool of me’
9. Newslaundry: #DalitAtrocity: We aren’t brave enough to face the truth

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