Hafta 112: Kya Ab Ram Mandir Banega?

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley snuck in 27 amendments in the 31-page long Finance Bill. Some of these remove the cap on political contributions from corporations, also doing away with the requirement to disclose the name of the party to which contributions are made. It also empowers IT officials to raid people without disclosing the reason and makes Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns. We have Meghnad S, a public policy analyst, who discusses the bill at length. Plus, we have the regular Hafta gang, Abhinandan Sekhri, Deepanjana Pal, Madhu Trehan, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan. We also talk about Yogi Adityanath, UP’s anti-Romeo squads, and the shuttering of illegal slaughterhouses. And finally, the question that’s been plaguing us all, will BJP finally build the Ram Mandir?

For references:

1. A Review of #NLHafta from Tanay Sukumar and Dibyasunder Nayak
2. Video on NL Hafta made by one of our subscribers, Sachin Baghel
3. The Indian Express: In the moment of his political triumph, Modi has chosen to defeat India
4. Newslaundry: How BJP’s IT Cell Waged War And Won In UP
5. LiveMint.com: The consequences of whining
6. Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov
7. Carnegie Mellon University: Information Avoidance: How People Select Their Own Reality
8. Radio Open Source‘s podcast: Welcome to Our Neoliberal World 

Listen to all our podcasts on the Newslaundry App.

iOS: http://apple.co/2iZhEq1

Android: http://bit.ly/2jTtG3x

Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.