The podcast where we discuss the news of the week.
This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by The News Minute’s Pooja Prasanna and lawyer Vakasha Sachdev.
On the Karnataka polls, Pooja says the JDS and BJP are “better allies” than the Congress and JDS since “their target base does not overlap. Both parties bring something new and fresh to the table”. She adds that the “myth of the Vokkaligas being secular is nonsense”.
The panel discusses the inheritance tax debate, with Vakasha saying the tax has a solid rationale behind it “from a social justice perspective”. Jayashree says the matter escalated into a controversy because people are “conflating a lot of things, like what Modi said about the Congress taking away people’s money”. Shardool adds, “Most of the people arguing about this tax won’t have to pay it because it applies to the creamy layer of society.”
Vakasha then explains why the PMLA is problematic. On the state of the Indian judiciary, he says over the years, “we’ve had our justice system constantly become a voice for the establishment”, adding that there is a lack of critique of the courts. Abhinandan says people are possibly “afraid of critiquing the court because of contempt of court...so courts have completely gone out of scrutiny”.
This and a whole lot more. Tune in!
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Song: Band Aankh Se Dekh Tamasha
Timecodes
00: 04:31 - Headlines
00: 12:49 - Lok Sabha elections: Karnataka
00: 26:30 - Inheritance tax
01: 00:00 - Prevention of Money Laundering Act
01: 28:55 - Letters
01: 57:30 - Recommendations
References
How BJP ‘won’ in Surat: Unravelling 24 hours of peculiarities
Inheritance and gift tax rates
Recommendations
Vakasha
Dune series
Shardool
Mind ki Baat, Ep 10: Autism spectrum disorder
Jayashree
Bullets and Beats: How a radical militant group wooed Manipuri youth
Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder
Abhinandan
The secret to upward mobility: Friends
Chasing the American Dream at Outback Steakhouse
Check out our previous Hafta recommendations.
Produced and recorded by Aryan Mahtta, edited by Hassan Bilal.