This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan are joined by The Caravan’s Hartosh Singh Bal and Delhi University professor Tanvir Aeijaz. 

The panel begins the show by discussing Narendra Modi’s meeting with Donald Trump which Manisha terms “a test of statecraft” for Modi. The discussion then moves to the Delhi election result, which saw the BJP returning to power after 27 years. 

“This is a new BJP. It has gained strength since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” says Hartosh. “...These elections were not fought on Modi’s back. The party now has organisational strength. Even if Modi falls to the wayside, it does not make a difference to the BJP.” As the panel discusses the AAP and Congress’s performance, Abhinandan says, “One thing BJP has pulled off well is that they won Delhi without a [chief ministerial] face.”

Tanvir talks about the controversy surrounding the new UGC draft guidelines that give state governors a prominent role in selecting vice-chancellors. “This regulation comes in the backdrop of the idea that we need to have one curriculum, one education system across the country,” he says. “But education is a concurrent subject…everything in a monastic form creates a problem for federalism.”

This and a lot more. Tune in!

Hafta letters: Economies and ‘police states’, the question of ads, courts and parole

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Song: Another Brick In The Wall

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements

00:04:57 - Headlines

00:11:48 - Modi in America

00:18:20 - Delhi elections

00:45:13 - Manipur developments

00:51:20 - UGC guidelines 

01:22:16 - Tanvir’s recommendation

01:29:55 - Hartosh’s recommendation 

01:33:17 - Letters

01:46:01 - Recommendations 

References 

Support NL Sena - The Hindu Rashtra Project

Subscribe to Newslaundry

The Caravan

LTA on RSS 

Fight to Breathe campaign 

Modi-Trump press conference

Tanvir Aeijaz on the new UGC rules

Arun Shourie’s book on Savarkar

NL Hafta on revenue models 

Recommendations

Tanvir

Zoya Hassan - Democracy on Trial

Yanis Varoufakis - Technofeudalism 

Hartosh 

From Where The Orders Came | The Caravan 

Father tongue, mother land 

Manisha 

Samay Raina and BeerBiceps: There’s no formula to be safe in India

Lords of Earth and Sea: A History of the Chola Empire

Anand     

Nalanda by Abhay K 

Abhinandan 

Would You Rather Be Rich In 1900, Or Middle-Class Now?

Why economists got free trade with China so wrong

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.

Produced and recorded by Priyali Dhingra and Ashish Anand.

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