This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor at The Hindu, and Dr Khinvraj Jangid, director and professor at the Centre for Israel Studies at OP Jindal Global University. 

Abhinandan asks Suhasini whether it was “embarrassing” for the Indian government to have permitted the press conference barring women journalists with Taliban’s Foreign Minister. He also asks what pressure took place for a second presser to take place with women journalists. 

“The Taliban doesn’t control the embassy in Delhi. The staff there still pledge allegiance to the previous, democratically elected government,” Suhasini says. “But when the foreign minister’s team invited journalists, only men were included. By the time everyone had gathered, it became clear that an all-male Taliban delegation was speaking to an all-male Indian journalist group. There were women journalists outside who weren’t allowed in, and it wasn’t just women who noticed – men also felt this was wrong, and some even sent apologies.”

The discussion moves to the Gaza peace agreement. Khinvraj says, “If you look at Trump, in this particular instance, he reversed his earlier, reckless proposal that Gaza be ‘wiped out’ and the idea that the people of Gaza didn’t deserve to live there. He achieved this deal through compromise, making what I see as a powerful course correction.” 

Jayashree is less optimistic. “Israel literally already occupies Gaza – it controls the movement of its citizens and what goes in and out. Yet it demands the surrender of arms as if a genocide hasn’t already been committed. We’re talking about hostages, but what about the thousands of Palestinians imprisoned and not called hostages simply because they’re not white?”

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements

00:03:07 - Headlines 

00:09:05 - Afghan FM’s visit to India 

00:45:57 - Suhasini Haidar’s recommendation

00:49:07 - Gaza peace agreement 

01:28:39 - Khinvraj’s recommendation 

01:31:29 - Letters

01:37:39 - Recommendations

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.

Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistant Priyali Dhingra and sound recordist Anil Kumar. 

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