In this week’s episode, Meghnad wears the host’s hat. He is joined by Manisha Pande, Madhu Trehan, Anand Vardhan and Raman Kirpal.
The discussion kicks off with the panel talking about the 2019 Budget. They speak about the good, the bad and the ugly. Manisha finds the five per cent duty on imported books weird and briefly discusses Air India’s privatisation as well.
The panel then moves on to discuss Rahul Gandhi’s resignation from his post as the Congress Party president. They also talk about who could be the next party chief. Madhu talks about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s tweet on his resignation and Meghnad says, “Congress basically now is just hollow, it has no ideology per se.”
The panel also talks about the Zaira Wasim controversy. The actress quit Bollywood citing her work’s interference with her religion. To the question of why she took this step, Anand says, “Maybe, she didn’t have the gift of articulation to put her position and she rationalised it in a wrong way.”
The panel talks about the vandalisation of a temple in Chandni Chowk and the misreporting that followed. Listen up, there’s more.
A review of NL Hafta by Harsh and Dhiraj
References:
Shiv Aroor’s tweet about Rahul’s resignation
#ChandniChowk: Media reports on a Muslim mob ‘abducting’ a boy turn out to be a dud
#ChandniChowk: How Delhi Police is working hard at calming tempers
Recommendations
Raman
A convenient dissent
Anand
What Really Happened to Malaysia’s Missing Airplane
Book: The life of Vivekanand and the Universal Gospel by Romain Rolland
Madhu
Autumn light: Season of fire and farewells by Piko Iyer
Manisha
On Zaira Wasim’s deep surrender and the question of choice
Meghnad
G: Relative Genius
Book: Parliamental
Produced by Kartik Nijhawan, edited by Umrav Singh and recorded by Anil Kumar.
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