This week on NL Hafta, it’s an all-Newslaundry panel of Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan.

Abhinandan explains India’s new digital media rules and their implications on organisations like Newslaundry. Manisha notes that such stringent laws are not in place for the television media, while Jayashree and Mehraj point out why these are “rules” and not “laws”, because the government did not get them ratified in the Parliament. Mehraj quotes from Caravan’s story on a government report on how the Centre “consulted” with journalists and editors while identifying its media strategy.

The panel discusses two observations by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, one on marital rape and the other asking a man accused of raping a minor whether he would marry the victim. Jayashree and Abhinandan talk about petitions and demands for Bobde to step down. Abhinandan reflects on various bizarre observations made by Indian judges. The panel also discusses how a better caste and gender composition of the courts will help.

The conversation spans E Sreedharan as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Kerala (though the BJP has flip-flopped on its stance since the recording of this podcast), Prashant Kishor, and a lot more.

Tune in!

Hafta letters: Cognitive biases, discussions on religion, how Abhinandan doesn't age