Hafta 174: Major Gogoi, #TejpalTapes, Cobrapost​​ and Assam’s Citizenship Bill

This Hafta episode unpacks major developments and incidents that have rocked the media over the past week. While Major Gogoi topped the panel’s agenda, Tejpal tapes aired by Times Now also caught their attention. Cobrapost‘s Operation: 136 is also discussed because it seems to have “made headlines only on social media”. Pranab Mukherjee’s tentative visit to RSS headquarters as well as backlash in Assam against the Citizenship Bill feature in this Hafta.

Taking up the issue of Major Gogoi, Abhinandan asks the panel, “What do you make of it?”. Our guest, Samrat, a journalist based out of Shillong, says, “In places like Kashmir, you have to be sure what exactly is going on.” He also adds, “If one of the persons involved was a minor then it is a problem…[otherwise it is the] business of those two individuals and nobody else.” Madhu shares her concerns over honey trapping of our Army men in all these high-security areas. She adds, “I really don’t get excited about stories like this…identity of the girl for me is important.”

The Tarun Tejpal tapes from 2013 surfaced in the media two days after Cobrapost‘s sting. The tapes were released by Times Now. Madhu feels, “Showing it [the tapes] like this, by slanting the [perception of the] viewers…this is the worst thing to do.” Manisha adds, “It is not fair to the girl also.” Samrat states “these sort of stories are always reported so sensationally”. Abhinandan comments, “Times Now has found a new low.”

The groundbreaking discoveries revealed by the Cobrapost sting Operation: 136 has the entire panel pondering about what is yet to come. Manisha gives a clear context of the sting. She states, “Basically he [Pushp Sharma, Cobrapost‘s reporter] had 3-point agenda. The first phase was obviously soft-Hindutva, the second was to attack Opposition leaders and the third was to polarise and communalise.” Speaking of the sting, Abhinandan talks about Paytm’s involvement in the entire debacle and how “that’s huge”.

Shekhar Gupta’s recent article on sting operations being different than journalism ensues a debate amongst the panel. Abhinandan asks, “I want to know why because I think stings are journalism.” Madhu clarifies, “Sting journalism is fine with the caveat that it’s a story that you wouldn’t be able to prove otherwise”. Samrat concurs with Madhu and adds, “A widely-known truth that, unfortunately, can only be brought to the attention of a larger audience by these means, so in that case, I think its alright.”

Abhinandan and Samrat talk about the controversial Citizenship Bill in Assam.  Samrat says, “The Citizenship Bill, basically, tries to ease the process by which members of religious communities other than Muslims from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh can obtain Indian citizenship.”  He adds, “It exempts people of Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Christian groups from these communities from being cheated as illegal immigrants. The reason you’re getting a pushback from the other end of the country (Assam) is because alleged illegal migration from Bangladesh has been part of the politics of Assam since before partition.”

He adds, “The Assam agitation was basically about chasing out the Bengalis. Now what has happened, with the BJP making in-roads there, is that they are trying to re-configure the politics from linguistic basis to religious basis.” Abhinandan asks, “It changes the voting percentage, right? You have a very large amount of Bangladeshi immigrants who’ve come and settled there.” Responding to Abhinandan, Samrat says, “That is again a contentious matter. Foreigners Tribunal has been at work in Assam since 1985.”  He adds, “Till 2012, there was a white-paper put out by Assam government and the actual number of certified foreigners that they were able to identify was 6,590!”

The panel talks about Pranab Mukherjee’s scheduled visit to RSS HQ in Nagpur.  Abhinandan asks the panellists, “Is it a big deal? What do you make of it?” Manisha says, “Pranab Mukherjee was never really the Congress-loyalist so to speak anyway. He always had his issues with Sonia Gandhi. He had his brief period of revolt also.” She adds, “In fact, it was kind of large-hearted of RSS to call Pranab Mukherjee. It’s nice to reach out to someone from the opposition camp.”

Speaking about Pranab Mukherjee’s tenure as the President, Madhu says, “I think what they’ve done in terms of the museum, the restoring of historical artefacts in the Rashtrapati Bhawan…everything was lying in a mess! They have sorted it out.” The panel also discusses the recent comments made by Germaine Greer, an Australian writer on ‘Rape’. This and more on this episode of NL Hafta.

Recommendations: 

Abhinandan Sekri

The Indicator: Earnings Calls Gone Wild

Madhu Trehan
Book: Factfullness

Samrat

Book: The Spy Chronicles

Manisha Pande

Indian Express’ column on Cobrapost

Others
Scroll on government’s media monitoring plans
Ramdev Baba and Sreenivas interview
Un-edited  Ramdev Baba and Sreenivas interview
Salman Rushdie on why a burqa is wrong
Germaine Greer rape comments criticised
New York Post: Slammed for Its ‘Kim Thong Un’ Cover
Book: From Godman to Tycoon
Book: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

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Produced by Shubham Mishra (@ShubhamMishra__ )

Recorded by Anil Kumar

Audio switching by Samarendra K 

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