Hafta 245: Mohan Bhagwat on lynching, Modi-Xi meet, the state of journalism, and more

Hafta is back! The gang reunites with host Abhinandan Sekhri along with Manisha Pande, Madhu Trehan and Anand Vardhan. Joining us this week is the newest addition to the Newslaundry team, Mehraj D Lone.  

This week’s podcast begins with the panel discussing Mohan Bhagwat’s recent speech at a Vijayadashami function. They scrutinise his comments on lynching being a “Western construct” while trying to come up with a Hindi word for “lynching”. Mehraj questions the accuracy of Bhagwat’s claims that lynching is a subject in all other religious texts except Hinduism.

The conversation shifts to the big news of the week: the murder of an RSS worker and his family in West Bengal, the serial murders by a Kerala woman, and the Modi-Xi meet in Tamil Nadu. Madhu has a lot to say about the state of present-day journalism. She says, “Journalism is going behind the incident and finding out what really happened.” Abhinandan argues that journalism can be “positive or negative”. But, he adds, it has to be unexpected. The panel discusses the paradigm shift in journalism and the significance of present-day reporting.

Listen up!

A review of NL Hafta by Bharat and Suraj

Vote in the Asia Podcast Awards here.

References

Modi-Xi Summit: The story behind Mamallapuram’s Chinese connection

Gaurav Sawant aired a CRPF constable’s hate speech. But here’s what he didn’t tell you

Kerala woman held: Allegedly confessed to giving cyanide to husband and five relatives

A picture in contrast: Festive mood, security blanket drape Mamallapuram ahead of Modi-Xi meet

Recommendations

Madhu

The Spy on Netflix

Serial authoritarianism picks out targets one by one, and tires out challenges

Anand

Citizenship Bill aims to give dignity denied to Partition victims in east

Mehraj

An Unbelievable Story of Rape

Know Your Enemy

Manisha

Brass Tracks with Zakka Jacob 

Produced by Kartik Nijhawan, edited by Umrav Singh and recorded by Anil Kumar. 

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