Dear NL Hafta Team,

There are a lot of things I’d like to review, especially Tanay Sukumar’s review of the previous Hafta, if that’s not too meta.

I really enjoyed the latest Hafta you guys put out, and I’d also like to congratulate Meghnad S on finding a way to make Parliamentary affairs readable. As your hafta pointed out, the speed with which Jaitley & Co. have been pushing through legislative reforms, and that too in a Money Bill, would have made for a great Indian version of House of Cards, had it not been so terrifying. And had Robert’s Rules not been so boring to begin with.

The lack of uproar around the reforms, be it changing the nature of tribunals overnight, reducing the power of already powerless legislative committees, and government strong arming on the issue of Aadhar cards should have brought mass protests against such abuse of power. After all, wasn’t this abuse of power and massive centralization what Advaniji most bitterly complained about regarding Indira Gandhi’s dictatorship? On the other hand, if Modi were making moves to reform the IAS bureaucracy and expand the size of the Foreign Ministry to befit a growing power, then I’d be less critical of his ‘acche din’. Clearly even Hindutva can’t remove the Indian deep state.

Switching lanes here, Tanmay argued that the ability of the BJP to win, and win big in UP which left pollsters looking dumb is the, “…The propaganda of a Hindu nation, served with the topping of development and the spicy sadistic facade of hurting the rich…”

While this might make for an excellent BJP Kitchen King (Veg) Biryani, I don’t quite agree. It is the myth of development, BIG GDP, BIG jobs, BIG(ly) economic growth which forms the base of the dish the BJP is serving; Hindutva, Hindu Nation, and Cocaine fulled Nationalism is the dahi which placates any form of dissent from unsure Hindus, and helps quash dissent from minority voices -be it liberal secularism, far-left socialism, or Mr. Sekhri’s post ideolog-ism as anti-national.

It’s something we living in the cosmopolitan bubble of the cities seem to forget, or worse ignore. Mr. Dwivedi (and Mr. Vardhan) has rightly pointed out that for a majority of India, caste and religious identity (if not system) is as common as asking ‘ICSE ya CBSE’, as is the distrust Hindus have for Muslims, Christians or any other minority communities, so prevalent in India’s hinterland. And lets not pat ourselves on the back; these opinions reside even amongst the well-heeled intellectual elite of the cities. It’s just that these opinions never see light of the day in polite conversation. The same log kya sochenge which turns us all into varying shades of liberals in major cities, is exacted in the opposite direction in places like UP, Bihar or even Bengal for that matter.

The distinction between how Hindi and English news media have covered Yogi Adityanath’s rise to power should have been obvious; they pander to two very different communities, with (much to Mr. Sekrhi’s chagrin) very different and well set ideologies. This is the point where Mr. Sekhri might argue that he was speaking of economic ideologies, in which case bhai bal ki khaal nikalna koi aapse seekhe.

My only fear is that India is hurtling towards the forms of government so ripe in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the name of development, we begin to lose the very foundations of our liberal democracy, and under the guise of development anyone who does not affirm to the model Indian Hindu citizen will gradually see their protections chipped away. As Mrs. Trehan has rightly argued, we are like frogs in a slowly simmering pot of water -at one point it will begin to boil and by then we shall be too late to change anything.

Maybe this is just the paranoia of the minority liberal secularists still left in the country. But what we need is a louder moderating voice in the center, the students and young professionals who have one foot in Old India, and the other in new India. A form of compromise between the Great Hindu Historical Myth and the Great Secular Futuristic Dream.

In closing, I’d like to thank Deepanjana for the fabulous recommendation. Cuckold was brilliantly written and I highly enjoyed the read. I only have a recommendation for Ranga uncle, one that speaks to his desire to see a Muslim political reformation.

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

Ayush

Hello team NL,

A few pertinent issues were taken up in HAFTA 112 with nice viewpoints from the panel. But I felt extremely disgusted by your apathy as the HAFTA kept playing and ended without even a passing mention of the DOCTORS’ agitation/strike/dharna. You couldn’t spare 10 minutes on the condition of healthcare system in India but went onto eulogise yourselves as the dying breed of liberals! Apni khud ki aur kitni laal karoge?

Apart from Ravish (who frankly, I only used to perceive as a scaremongering cynic), none of the media houses actually tried to understand the problems of healthcare or try and give a balanced view on the present problem..

A certain Mr. Nirgudkar from Zee 24 taas even went on to say- “God heals, but the doctor charges the fees!”

But most of the media preferred to give it a royal ignorance and that includes the almighty, holier-than-thou team NL..

Dr. Mhamunkar almost lost his eye; He may still lose it, in fact..

His orbital bone got fractured; which frankly cannot be broken without a very very significant trauma.. and it’s not a stray incident- more 50 such incidents of physical assault has taken place in the last year alone.. The agitation for demanding a functional level of security at work is merely a short term perk the doctors are asking for- so that they can continue to work and not paralyse the already crumbling healthcare system in the country..

the final solution still remains as the complete overhaul of this system- more spending and demanding more accountability..

but I am sure it won’t happen..

it won’t happen because we, the people, don’t care about the healthcare problem till the very last moment- We depend on the advice of everyone from Dr. OZ like I-cure-all YogaGurus and wellness experts to Pados-waali-Auntyji and the Supergod Taantriks till the moment they really can’t survive without an ICU..

they also don’t care because the media doesn’t care enough for our healthcare to expose the deficiencies of the existing system and spark a debate or inspire people to question the authorities..

Doctors (and nurses), who are the face of this decaying system, end up presenting themselves as soft targets to public anger and frustration towards the system.. this agitation just a way of the Medics saying, “we refuse to present us a punching bag for you all.. public and doctors want the same thing- a system that works for all.. but we are not going to fight it alone anymore.. if people want better health, you all need to demand it from the authorities- the media is supposed to help in portraying this- but then…..”

it basically isn’t Doctors v/s Patients; it never was and it will never be.. but just think about the future the way it is going- you won’t have credible doctors left in the country (or at least the public sector) to beat up..

The govt boasts of spending a huge amount of money on medical education which is an outright and blatant lie.. all they spend is in maintaining a hospital with various departments- and you might well judge how much are they spending in that!

Medical education in India merely a byproduct of running a public hospital (because apart from 3-4 departments which are purely academic, the staff and facilities of all the other departments are mainly utilised in the patient care; no free lectures there, you see)..

Then, based on this beefed up figure of spending per medical student, the newly graduated doctors are made to sign a service bond in a village- as a way to repay the society.. Now, I have no issue in repaying the society or our rural folks and a majority of us do enter those places with zero security, almost no facilities and provide substandard health services to totally neglected folks.. but it is only logical to think whether the govt doesn’t spend on the IITs, the engineering institutes, the law colleges and so on? Should they not be expected to work in rural area to upgrade the supporting infrastructure for the healthcare to flourish? Should not the media question all this? Shouldn’t the media help in rationalising the common people’s expectations from the person trying to make-do with whatever is available and help the patient in his best possible way?

I had huge hopes from NL, but you couldn’t spare 10 minutes on this situation.. Even that bloody Fawad Khan was discussed on at least 2 HAFTAs, for god’s sake (or Science’s sake for Ranga uncle)..

Frankly I’m fed up of such hyped up intellectual bullshit.. Go on, make heroes and villains of the political figures, I am not going to bother you more with this rant now.. in fact, I am not going to bother with NL at all from now on..

More than a subscriber, you have lost a follower- a believer in NL..

Alvida,
Rahul.