This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan are joined by journalist Madhavan Narayanan. 

The conversation begins with the frenzy around the opening of the two flagship Apple stores in Mumbai and Delhi this week. Abhinandan expresses his surprise at the media coverage of the “spectacle-like” openings while Madhavan equates it to a modern-day pilgrimage. “Research in the west shows that consumerism has become a latter day religion,” he says.

On the murder of gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed on live television, Manisha says it’s the most dramatic story to have played out on TV screens. Madhavan says, “We had the chief minister [Adityanath] in the assembly talking about revenge like a Bollywood hero.”

The conversation then moves to Satya Pal Malik’s explosive interview with the Wire, where the former Jammu and Kashmir governor revealed intimate details about the 2019 Pulwama attack and alleged state and central mishandling of the incident. “Since he spoke only about his administrative experiences, he needs to be taken seriously,” Raman adds. 

Tune in!

Hafta letters: Kannada conversation, calling out fake news, fantasy cricket