This week on NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by Scroll editor Mehraj Lone and Professor Ravikant Kisana aka Buffalo Intellectual.

The conversation begins on the Bihar caste survey. Ravikant compares India’s social institutions to a “hidden apartheid system”. Abhinandan says the data makes it difficult to argue against reservations while Mehraj asks, “Does this survey put  BJP’s recreation of the permanent Hindu majority in danger?” 

On the NewsClick case, the panel dissects all that could have prompted the police searches and the subsequent arrests. Jayashree says the police action draws McCarthian parallels, and that patterns of repression are growing sophisticated. Manisha compares this reality to a Vivek Agnihotri film, and highlights the arbitrary nature of the terror charges.

Mehraj then explains everything that’s happening in Kashmir and why it’s absent from the news cycle – the rise of “hybrid militancy”, the collapse of local media, and the state of surveillance. 

This and a lot more, tune in!