Hafta 238: Article 370, #ChidambaramArrest, Ravidas Temple and more

In this week’s episode, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Madhu Trehan, Raman Kirpal, the political editor of The Caravan magazine Hartosh Singh Bal, and a Newslaundry subscriber of Kashmiri origin.

The podcast kicks off with the Newslaundry subscriber expressing her sentiments on the abrogation of Article 370 and the heavy deployment of troops in the region. She says, “For us, it is a progression of the loss in the faith in the Indian Constitution.” The panel talks about why Ladakh and Jammu will soon ask the government to ban people from other states from buying land in the region, and the chances of a plebiscite. Hartosh notes the impact of the Modi-Shah-Doval trinity on the minds of the Indian people.

The panel goes on to discuss how members of the Congress who didn’t even want to share space with P Chidambaram earlier are now supporting him inside and outside court. Raman wonders if political influence caused the CBI to dramatise the arrest and questions the credibility of Indrani Mukerjea’s statement. Abhinandan tries to understand the reason behind primetime reporters spitting venom against the former finance minister.

The deficient media coverage this week on recent protests over the Ravidas Temple demolition urges the panel to thrash out why this wasn’t given space on primetime news. The panel also discusses this movement’s rise in Punjab. Hartosh says, “The thing angering them the most was that green zone exceptions have been made for hundreds of thousands of reasons and it couldn’t be made for this?”

The group also discusses fake news and why people don’t mind spreading it, before moving on to remember legendary music composer Mohammed Zahur Khayyam Hashmi.

For this and more, listen up!

#HaftaLetters: A critique of Anand Vardhan’s Article 370 piece

A review of NL Hafta by Arvind, Vikas and Anand

References

What the commentary on Article 370 isn’t telling you

क्या चल रहा है घाटी के अल्पसंख्यकों (कश्मीरी पंडित, सिख और बकरवाल-गुर्जर) के मन में

The seen and the unseen 

NL Cheatsheet: All you need to know about #ChidambaramArrest & INX Media case

Maria Ressa in conversation with Hartosh Bal

Recommendations

Madhu 

Paul Auster: Collected Prose 

What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt

Whose faith will be privileged in the public sphere?

Data on demonetisation’s link to economic slowdown may have been suppressed

Hartosh 

Caravan: “One Solution, Gun Solution”

Raman

‘My child is not a prop for normalcy’: Kashmiri parents aren’t sending their kids to school

#Article370: Curfew and curses in Srinagar’s Downtown area

Greater Kashmir journalist detained, his family says they have not been informed why

How the call to protect Kashmiris comes from the Sikhs

Abhinandan

The seen and the unseen 

Kashmir Ki Kahani

Produced by Kartik Nijhawan, edited by Satish Kumar and recorded by Anil Kumar. 

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