This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by senior journalist Nirmalya Mukherjee and NewsX editorial director Priya Sahgal.

The panel first discusses communal unrest in West Bengal’s Murshidabad, where protests against the Waqf Amendment Act turned violent this week. Nirmalya says, “This is the first time that Bengal is going to face a situation where religion has become a very important issue.”

On the West Bengal CM’s response to the violence, he says, “Mamata first blamed the riots as a Congress conspiracy. Then, the blame shifted to the BSF, and now [it’s an] international relations conspiracy.”

“No riot can happen without the complicity of the state,” Jayashree notes.

The panel then talks about Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi being named in the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet in the National Herald case. Raman says, “If you dissect the case, it’s extremely vague right now. And misappropriation doesn’t carry a strong criminal connotation.” Priya mentions that it is important to take into consideration the timing of the ED chargesheet. “Most of the battles in India are perception,” she says.

This and a lot more. Tune in!

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Timecodes

00:00:00 – Introductions and announcements

00:03:09 – Headlines

00:13:24 – Murshidabad violence

00:45:38 – National Herald case

01:18:53 – How are Trump and Modi similar?

01:25:58 – Letters

01:43:47 – Recommendations

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters

Produced and recorded by Priyali Dhingra and Ashish Anand.

Production assistance by intern Pragya Chakroborty.

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