This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by University of Michigan’s Associate Professor Joyojeet Pal and senior journalist Radhika Ramaseshan. 

The episode opens with a discussion on Joyojeet and his team’s research on the persuasion strategies used by social media influencers to talk about the benefits of cow urine.

“One of the most interesting things we noticed was the use of scientific terminology by influencers who talk about cow urine. They say things like ‘it has phosphorus,’ or ‘it releases dopamine.’ These are not verified claims. But the point isn’t whether they’re true. It’s about the performance of authority – using science-y language to sound legitimate,” Joyojeet says. 

Shifting to Bihar’s controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, Radhika points out that in many places of Bihar, BLOs are signing for the missing voters. 

She remarks, “I don’t believe this is a random or routine process. It appears to be targeted, focused on constituencies where the ruling alliance anticipates a weaker performance.”

Echoing her concerns, Raman added, “It’s supposed to be an intensive verification exercise, but that’s clearly not what’s happening in practice.”

Referring to the recent FIR against journalist Ajit Anjum, Abhinandan points to a troubling trend, “The nature of FIRs launched against journalists in the country is laughable. I don’t know if the police expect the citizens to take them seriously.”

Manisha calls out the BJP’s repeated and unproven claims of Bangladeshi and Rohingya voters in Bihar constituencies and says, “They create this perpetual state of insecurity and panic before elections. This seems to be one of BJP’s key electoral strategies.” 

Hafta letters: Public transport, electoral rolls, Air India probe report