This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan are joined by Kriti Shah, associate fellow, strategic studies, Observer Research Foundation.

Talking about the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, Kriti argues that there was never an appropriate time for America to exit the country after 20 years of war. She, however, adds that “the manner in which Joe Biden has gone about it has been very surprising, given that his entire campaign has been around human rights”.

After Kriti points to an intelligence failure on part of the US, Manisha asks, “How is it that America did not anticipate how quickly the Taliban would take over Afghanistan? They have been there for so long.”

Kriti further points out that the Taliban had been making inroads in rural Afghanistan since the US ended combat operations in 2015. This enabled them to establish a base from which they recently launched a swift operation to capture the cities and ultimately the capital Kabul.

The panel also discuss the return of MJ Akbar to the newsroom, courtesy Zee Media, and Shashi Tharoor’s acquitted on charges of orchestrating his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death.

Listen.

Text by Utkarsh Tripathi.

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