Episode notes
This week on Hafta, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, Anand Vardhan and Rinchen Norbu are joined by historian Ramachandra Guha. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters . Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav.Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from NL Hafta All episodes →
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8 Aug 2026 · 14 min
NL Hafta 601 Snippet : Why Meta took down the PM’s video | Hafta panel on Modi, Meta and censorship
On Meta, Abhinandan Sekhri asked whether the platform has the bandwidth to process takedown requests in India at that scale, or whether “it’s actually a phase where it’s the Wild West”. Independent tech journalist Abhishek Baxi agreed with that characterisation and explained that Meta’s automated moderation system – a response to takedown requests in India doubling year on year – was behind the technical glitch that pulled down PM Modi’s video from Facebook. Meta’s global affairs chief had to fly down to apologise to IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw directly. Manisha Pande pointed to a recent…
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1 Aug 2026 · 9 min
Are Liberals Snowflakes? NL Hafta's Unpopular Opinions Special
For the 600th episode of NL Hafta, the panel – Abhinandan Sekhri and Anand Vardhan – are joined by Hafta alumni Jayashree Arunachalam and Mehraj Lone, who set the usual rules aside for an “unpopular opinions” special. Abhinandan’s own unpopular opinion is that the liberal “snowflake” stereotype often holds up in practice, with an inability among some liberals, particularly in journalist and writer circles active on social media, to sit with positions or people they disagree with. Mehraj traces the “snowflake” problem to what he describes as the hyper-individualisation at the heart of modern…
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25 Jul 2026 · 8 min
NL Hafta Snippet : Chetan Bhagat On Gen Z, The CJP Protest And Online Anger | NL Hafta
This Hafta episode features author Chetan Bhagat unpacking why a youth-led street protest snowballed the way it did, and what it reveals about how anger travels online. Abhinandan Sekhri opens with a mea culpa on having dismissed “Gen Z” too readily. Bhagat is explicit in his assertion that the protest itself “would have been limited” were it not for visuals like that of a Delhi Police officer in riot gear and a helmet, wielding a baton, chasing a 16-year-old girl. It was footage like this, not the underlying policy grievances, that he calls the “content gold” – the emotionally engaging…
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18 Jul 2026 · 9 min
NL Hafta Snippet | Can a Protest Movement Succeed Without a Clear Ideology?
In the latest episode of Hafta, the panel discusses whether political protest movements need ideological anchoring to succeed, sparked by a debate over the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) lack of clear ideological convictions. Poornima Joshi, the resident editor of The Hindu Businessline , argues that successful mass movements of the last decade – even ostensibly issue-based ones – have tended to carry ideological undertones. In addition to ideological moorings, Rinchen Norbu notes that mass protest movements also crucially push for structural, systemic demands that outlast a minister’s…
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11 Jul 2026 · 13 min
NL Hafta Snippet : Who was Jaswant Singh Khalra? | Hafta panel discusses Satluj
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Hartosh Singh Bal, Executive Editor of The Caravan , and sports broadcaster Arjun Pandit. The discussion begins with Hartosh’s critique of the film Satluj (previously known as Punjab 95 ), which he labels as propaganda carrying partial truths. Hartosh, who has reported on Punjab for years, is also the nephew of KPS Gill – the highly controversial officer who helmed the state police at the height of militancy. This was the very force that Jaswant Singh Khalra, the central figure of the film, was…
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27 Jun 2026 · 14 min
NL Hafta Snippet : Who Stole From the Ram Mandir?
The alleged theft of donations from the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya has opened a window into the opaque finances of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. Our Hafta panel discusses the SIT investigation into missing funds from donation boxes, the unanswered questions around the crores collected during the temple construction drive, and the land purchase controversy that implicated trustee Anil Mishra – with no consequences. The panel examines who Champat Rai (the general secretary of the trust) is, why allegations are being made against him, and what Nripendra Misra – former principal…
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20 Jun 2026 · 12 min
NL Hafta 594 Snippet
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan, and Rinchen Norbu are joined by a very special guest – our former colleague Jayashree Arunachalam. Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav. Research inter Manya Garg .Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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13 Jun 2026 · 11 min
NL Hafta 593 Snippet
This week on Hafta, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal and Shardool Katyayan are joined by journalist, author and former Amnesty India executive director Aakar Patel. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters . Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Abhay. Sound by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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6 Jun 2026 · 9 min
NL Hafta Snippet
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Anand Vardhan and Rinchen Norbu are joined by veteran journalist Neerja Chowdhury. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters . Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav . Sound by Anil Kumar. Research Intern Manya Garg. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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23 May 2026 · 1 hr 32 min
Hafta 590: The Norway question that shook Modi’s tour and Press Freedom
This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan are joined by Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor at The Hindu . In this week’s episode, the discussion moves from PM Modi’s Europe tour, particularly his visit to Norway, to press freedom. Suhasini Haidar, who was present at the venue in Oslo, describes how shocked Norwegian journalists were to learn that the Indian Prime Minister would not be taking questions at all. She says, “We have so normalised in the Indian media this idea that the prime minister doesn’t take unscripted questions, that we didn’t even clock…
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