Hafta 251: Electoral Bonds, JNU, Pragya Thakur, and more

In this episode of Hafta, host Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Meghnad S are joined by freelance journalists, Nitin Sethi and Vrinda Gopinath. The panel discusses the big news of the week — electoral bonds, Pragya Thakur’s nomination on parliamentary defence panel, massive protests by JNU students, among other things.

Speaking on the issue of electoral bonds, Nitin Sethi says, “If you pay for journalism, journalism will respond to your requirements and desires and expectations. Similarly, for politics. This is why electoral bonds is such a big issue. Because if you want politics to be responsible to citizens then you can’t have corporates paying for politics. You need to have transparency. You need to have answerability to citizens.” Abhinandan says, “This pretty much implicates the government for lying to the Parliament, ministries and the Election Commission.”

On Pragya Thakur’s nomination to the Parliamentary Defence Committee, the panel wonders which committee the Bhopal MP should have been ideally given. Meghnad argues that the decision should not whip up outrage as he reasons, “This was a natural course of action that was supposed to happen.”

They also discuss the recent JNU protests. Manisha argues, “I think this just needs to be drummed into everyone, of all the tax that is collected only three per cent is personal income tax. 70-80% taxes are indirect taxes which everyone, even the poor pay for it. So, you are not running the country.” While Vrinda says,  “I think it’s very obvious that it’s JNU that they are after. There are hundreds of other universities but they want to finish JNU because they think it is the fountainhead of all your radical, rebellious, leftist thought.” 

The episode also features a discussion on the announcement of nation-wide NRC by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha, water impurity issue in Delhi, and more.

Hafta Letters: On Ayodhya verdict and more

Judging JNU for having ‘older’ students reeks of a lack of understanding of academia

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References

Ground-breaking story on Electoral bonds by Nitin Sethi

The Congress, with ₹500 crore in electoral bonds, says it opposes electoral bonds

‘The study should be repeated’: Central Pollution Control Board, experts question accuracy of BIS water study

EXCLUSIVE: RO companies are members of the organisation that declared Delhi’s water toxic

The solution to JNU fee hike issue: Let’s get rich to pay for the poor

Consti-tuition Episode 04: Committees

Why India doesn’t need NRC

What do the new revelations tell us about Modi Govt’s Electoral Bonds their legality and morality

Gautam Gambhir skipped meeting on Delhi pollution because he must support his family

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

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