NL Hafta

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10 Oct 2026 · 16 minNew

NL Hafta 610 Snippet : Democracy, With a Punchline: Why Those in Power Fear Satire

This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan are joined by political cartoonist Manjul, Rachita Taneja of Sanitary Panels fame, and comedian Sanjay Rajoura to ask whether Indian politics has lost its sense of humour. The discussion begins with a takedown of political cartoons on the Modi government’s direction. Abhinandan argues that satire has always mattered in democracies because it can say what serious commentary cannot. “Every autocrat, every dictator fears being mocked more than anything else,” he says. Manjul recalls that early in his career, even the PMO…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

1. 

   3 Oct 2026 · 14 min

   NL Hafta 609 Snippet: ‘Is Judiciary the Greatest Threat to Indian Democracy?’

   The Chief Justice of India’s remark that the polls in question were “only by-elections” in West Bengal is where this Hafta discussion begins. Abhinandan Sekhri calls it “a bit alarming”, and says similar casual comments have come up in earlier hearings. Neha Rathi, a Supreme Court lawyer and a petitioner in the SIR cases, says the Supreme Court was the right forum, but argues that the reason behind voter deletions in Bengal remains opaque. Of the “logical discrepancy” ground, she says, “there is no notification about that, it’s still a mystery.” Shahrukh Alam, a senior Supreme Court lawyer,…

2. 

   26 Sep 2026 · 14 min

   NL Hafta 608 Snippet :Ex-Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa Breaks Down the SIR Crisis

   Former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa challenges the framing of the Election Commission’s internal rift. Asked by Abhinandan Sekhri whether the “dissenting notes” amount to genuine dissent, Lavasa flips the premise, arguing that if two Election Commissioners share one view and a third disagrees, it is the third (the Chief Election Commissioner in this case) who is dissenting, not the two being labelled as such. The conversation then turns to the changes made to Form 6 during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Lavasa argues that the Commission overstepped its authority regardless of…

3. 

   19 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 54 min

   Hafta 607: Who Pays For UPI? Is The UCC Even ‘Uniform’?

   This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Rinchen Norbu are joined by Anupam Manur, Professor of Economics at the Takshashila Institution, and Mihira Sood, Supreme Court lawyer specialising in women’s rights. The panel opens the discussion by examining the government’s decision to introduce a 0.4% fee on UPI merchant transactions above Rs 2,000, asking what the move means for a payment system that has become central to everyday transactions in India. Anupam Manur acknowledges that UPI generates wider economic benefits, but argues that the current model also creates a problem:…

4. 

   12 Sep 2026 · 15 min

   NL Hafta 606 Snippet I Delhi’s Housing Crisis: Planning Failures and Unauthorised Construction

   This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan are joined by urban geographer and researcher Rashee Mehra to discuss Delhi's continuing housing crisis. Rashee traces the problem to a structural failure in planning. Using the example of Satya Niketan, a “regularised JJ colony”, she explains how a neighbourhood can be made legal while the construction within it remains unauthorised. “It is actually a very confusing governance structure that we have created in the city,” she says, pointing to the overlapping jurisdictions of the central government, state government and…

5. 

   5 Sep 2026 · 9 min

   Hafta 605 Snippet : GDP Ka Khel: Decoding India’s 7.8% Quarterly Growth Claim

   The discussion opens with Abhinandan Sekhri talking about the flood of commentary around India's quarterly GDP figures over the past two days. Much of it, he says, is “just completely wrong” – although still a healthier public debate than recent controversies over food or language politics. He calls it a small win for Indian media, even if the conversation isn’t always well-informed. Vivek Kaul addresses ex-finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg's viral ‘2.5% quarterly GDP growth rate' claim, saying Garg “did what the BJP has been doing to us all these years.” “He made a quick point, he made…

6. 

   29 Aug 2026 · 14 min

   NL Hafta 604 Snippet: Student Suicides, Coaching Culture, and the Reservation Debate | Hafta Panel Discusses

   This week’s Hafta panel tackled two connected threads: the anti-reservation protests and the suicide of an IIT Delhi student, Rishikesh Kumar. Joining the Hafta panel this week were Dr Aqsa Shaikh, one of India’s first transgender doctors and a member of the Supreme Court-appointed National Task Force on Student Suicide Prevention in Higher Education, and Dr Sameena Dalwai, a law professor, writer and researcher who specialises in gender, sexuality and law. Panellists pushed back on the “merit versus reservation” framing, arguing it obscures how privilege is already built into ‘merit’, and…

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