In this week’s episode, South Asia editor of Asia Times, Saikat Datta joins the regular Hafta gang of Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan to discuss the home ministry authorising 10 central agencies to intercept information on computers, the misinformation surrounding it.
The discussion kicks off with Saikat explaining the home ministry order and his experience of examining the surveillance structure and the safeguards that are there. Is it possible to run an operation at such a huge level? Saikat talks about his experience with dealing with the Radia tapes and the cumbersome process of going through 200 phone calls.
The discussion then moves to the miners trapped inside a coalmine in Meghalaya and why it took so long for this to make it to the national news, the rescue operation and the politics around it. Saikat compares the situation of Meghalaya with the movie Kaala Patthar. The panel then moves on to discuss Mamta Banerjee not allowing BJP to carry out Rath Yatras in West Bengal.
The gang also indulges in lighthearted speculation about what could be the reason behind Nitin Gadkari’s statements like “leadership should own up to failures”. Is Gadkari testing the waters for the PM post? Listen up! There’s a lot more.
A review of NL Hafta by Dhiraj and Asli Batman.
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Saikat Datta
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