This week on NL Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kripal and Manisha Pande of Newslaundry are joined by Suhasini Haidar, diplomatic affairs editor of the Hindu.

They discuss the situation in Afghanistan and how media platforms have been covering it. Suhasini points out that considering the risks involved in going to the ground, most foreign journalists have been relying on activists and a few reporters who are still in the country to get a sense of what’s happening. Some foreign journalists such as Lyse Doucet and Sikander Krimani, however, have been able to report from the ground with the aid of security companies and advisors, she says.

Analysing the consequences of the Taliban takeover for India, Suhasini says, “Being immediate neighbours, what happens in Afghanistan will have a spillover effect on India.”

The discussion then veers to the farmer protests in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar and Haryana’s Karnal, and how primetime TV news starved them of attention and then tried to malign them. “Farmers are not politically inclined, however they hate Modi,” Raman argues.

Abhinandan remarks in this context how the Modi government controls the media narratives to its advantage.

Listen.

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