This week, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Raman Kirpal are joined by Indian journalist, activist and author Aakar Patel.

The conversation starts with the ban on the BBC documentary critical of prime minister Narendra Modi. On the effect of the ban on the 2024 election, Aakar says, “Tyrants should be effective in what they do, if they want a ban no one should be able to see it. But if you ban something and the opposition is tweeting its links, that is a sign of weakness.” The panel also discusses how Modi through the years has been able to control the narrative around him in the national media.

The conversation moves to Mike Pompeo’s book Never give an Inch, his remarks on India’s former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, the comparisons he made between Swaraj and Jaishankar, and Jaishankar’s reply to Pompeo. Abhinandan has a very important question, “Will this book be banned?”

The panel also discusses the Hindenburg Research report which claims that Adani Group had “engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”, and how it led to a fall in Adani’s share price.

Tune in!

Hafta letters: Past NL content, questions on NL Sena, Abhinandan’s critics