This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Nitin Pai, co-founder and director of the Takshashila Institution, and senior journalist Hridayesh Joshi from Uttarkashi. 

The episode opens with a discussion on Trump’s recent announcement to double the tariff on India from 25 percent to 50 percent. Nitin argues that there is nothing wrong with India buying oil from Russia “To claim that, ‘Oh, you're buying gas from a country which is at war and you're killing’ is absurd…If the yardstick is that you’re supplying or buying from people who are killing others, then the United States has to sanction itself to death,” he says.

Manisha asks Nitin what India should do next. He underlines a crucial strategic point: that the United States remains India’s most important partner for long-term growth and development. “We've got to work with these guys and figure out how we can make use of the US economy and US military power to help us grow and be secure,” he says.

For the discussion on the Uttarkashi disaster, Hridayesh joins from ground zero. He says the death toll could increase and explains that the tragedy was not the result of a cloudburst, despite multiple claims that this was the case. 

“According to the definition [of cloudbursts], you require 100 millimetres of rainfall in one hour in a particular area. So it has not happened [in Uttarkashi]. And the other theories that are coming in say that there may be some obstruction in the upper reaches, and it may have formed a temporary lake. And that lake burst because of some landslide from above or by its own volume or pressure because it was raining continuously,” he says. 

Manisha adds that the Uttarakhand government’s focus should be on such national disasters, but their priority instead is ‘land jihad’, ‘love jihad’, and the registration of live-in relationships. 

Shardool points out that you can negotiate with every human problem, but you cannot negotiate with nature. “Like an overflowing river, it does not care who you are and what you are, and what your problems are. Nature is very brutal in its judgement,” he says.

Hafta letters: Engaging with the other side, paying for news, solving problems