This week on NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Raman Kirpal are joined by Dhanya Rajendran, editor in chief of the News Minute, and Abhishek Baxi, a freelance tech journalist.

The discussion starts with what’s playing out in Karnataka – the hijab row, banning “religious texts” from schools, and the Twitter fight between actors Ajay Devgn and Kichcha Sudeep on whether or not Hindi is India’s “national language”.

Dhanya points out that India doesn’t have a national language, adding, “Most incidents from Karnataka are just noise turned into news by the media. But still, we can’t avoid it.”

Abhishek talks about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, saying he doesn’t think Musk is really a “free speech absolutist”. “He is not one...There were incidents in the past where he shut down the voices of his own Tesla employees,” Abhishek says. “He is mostly a self-professed one.”

The discussion spans the Hanuman Chalisa row in Maharashtra, and a lot more.

Listen.

Hafta letters: Demolition drives, India's renewable energy issues, criticism of NL app