Chhota Hafta — Episode 224

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So, here’s a little sneak peek into the complete episode.

In this week’s episode, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Madhu Trehan, Manisha Pande, and investigative journalist Josy Joseph.

The podcast kicks off with Joseph talking about the ₹1,000-crore civil defamation suit that Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways filed against him after the release of his book, A Feast of Vultures: The Hidden Business of Democracy in India. The book, he says, is a product of 15 years of investigation into government records available in the public domain. In response to Abhinandan’s question about what he thought of the coverage of the Jet Airways crisis, he says, “I think the Jet Airways collapse and Naresh Goyal to me in many ways capture the crisis of Indian democracy…the crisis that we see when you have the Prime Minister of the country on a daily basis assaulting the basic constitutional commitment to scientific temperament.” He also believes that our country is not an imperfect democracy, rather a “democracy in crisis”.

The panel also discusses Narendra Modi’s interview with The Indian Express. Manisha says, “[It is] one of his best interviews that I have read…you really get a sense of this guy and he has so much disdain for the media, every answer is a potshot at the media…in that one interview you really get an insight into how much he hates the media.” Madhu also speaks of Modi’s “shenpa” and why he needs to get over it”.

You can listen to the full Hafta here.

Produced Kartik Nijhawan, edited by Umrav Singh and recorded by Rishabh.

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