Hafta 248: EU delegation’s Kashmir visit, Delhi pollution, WhatsApp snooping, and more

In this episode of Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan, Manisha Pande and Mehraj D Lone of Newslaundry are joined by Suhasini Haidar, national editor and diplomatic affairs editor of The Hindu. The panel discusses a range of issues that made news this week.

They start with the controversial visit of a delegation of the European Members of Parliament to Kashmir earlier this week. “I think it was a case of misplaced priorities as far as the government is concerned,” Suhasini says. She questions why the government used an obscure think tank rather than one of its own agencies to invite the delegation. 

Could it be that Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn’t care about what the international press says about him? Suhasini disagrees, “I don’t think that is true. I definitely think they were tracking very closely what happened in the international media, particularly before Modi went to the US because they were worried about the kind of coverage that was coming out.”

They move on to discuss the WhatsApp snooping row. Mehraj is of the view that Ravi Shankar Prasad, who said the government has sought a response from WhatsApp, is “passing the buck” when the messaging platform itself is a victim in this instance. Suhasini says, “I think WhatsApp has been passing the buck as well. Why do they have a software that is so easy to hack?” 

Speaking about the deteriorating air quality in Delhi and its coverage in the media, Manisha says, “When journalists are only going to talk about this as an issue around Diwali, then you are just minimising the scope of the problem.” Suhasini and Mehraj point towards the systemic causes of the problem that are rarely talked about. 

Hafta Letters: On the media’s role, angry Indian protesters, Telangana strike, and more

References

Bela Bhatia, Anand Teltumbde, Shalini Gera among Indians snooped on using Israeli spyware

Who’s behind the obscure NGO sponsoring the European Union delegation to Kashmir?

Indian journalists got a chance to grill controversial MEPs touring Kashmir. They asked about Pakistan, western media

Meet ANI’s ‘European experts’ on Kashmir. They’re experts all right — just not on Kashmir

Employment falls first time — by 9 million in 6 years: Study

Bloodlust TV

Recommendations

Madhu

The  Black Cube Chronicles: The Private Investigators

Suhasini

What Is Populism?

Mehraj

Are the Naga peace talks headed for a violent breakdown?

Punjab farmers want to stop burning stubble that causes Delhi pollution – but they have few options

Manisha

Facebook Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar. A New Report on Hate Speech Shows It Hasn’t Learned Enough Since Then

Behind the BBC equal pay case is an assumption about whom we cherish

Abhinandan

The Promise and Peril of Vaping

The Promise of Vaping and the Rise of Juul

The Golden Age of TV Is Over

Produced by Kartik Nijhawan, recorded by Anil Kumar, edited by Samarendra K Dash.

You can also listen to all our podcasts on the Newslaundry App and get updates about all our podcasts via Twitter and Facebook.