Hi, NL Hafta Team, and a Happy Diwali to all of you!

Your coverage of Harvey Weinstein was particularly interesting. On the one hand the panel was shocked that NYT sat on an earlier version of the story for four years, but were quick to point out that The Wire‘s piece on Jay Shah warranted more detailed investigation and better reporting.

Of course, apples and oranges, but if a piece’s effectiveness is predicated on how much work a writer puts into investigating, and editing it, then the NYT article was effective because it knew how large the story was, and that it warranted much closer attention to make sure it was a watertight case. Unlike this piece which was written in 15 minutes.

The NYT article on Weinstein was particularly effective in securing his ouster because it had multiple testimonials from victims on record regarding his illicit behaviour, meaning that the harassed women showed agency instead of being seen/showcased as passive victims, as is often the narrative in Indian media, where the knight-in-shining armour is the news anchor who comes riding on horseback to demand justice.

The battle to secure space for women to lodge complaints against workplace sexual harassment, be heard, and it being defined as a form of discrimination, at least in the States, has been going on since the 1970s with the publication of Sexual Shakedown by Lin Farley.

It is an ongoing battle even now, so to argue that “ye India mein kabhi nahi hoga”, is rather defeatist. It’s a fight I see Gurmehar Kaur and Co fighting every day, and so I’d like to bring to your attention a blog post shared by an ex-employee of The High Spirits Cafe in Pune, Maharashtra, and her experience with workplace sexual harassment.

Crap, 300 words.

Regarding the Supreme Court’s ban on firecrackers in Delhi, I agree with Mr Vardhan that it is judicial overreach, but the issue of an ineffective executive still stands. I don’t think banning is the right way out, so here’s an alternative adopted from Vancouver. Put the onus on the consumer by reducing the ease of access to fireworks.

With Halloween round the corner, pyromaniacs here need to individually apply for a firework permit from the city council, show paperwork for fire insurance, and restrict bursting crackers to a specific time. The fireworks’ quality is regulated for noise and particulate pollution, and there are heavy environmental taxes added to buying crackers.

Because of the high costs associated with fireworks’ displays, private companies will sponsor one or two public firework displays by a professional event manager, and on certain dates such as Chinese New Year, Canada Day, etc. I realise this will smell like Nehruvian Permit Raj to Mrs Trehan, but if there ever was a valid reason to make someone run from one department to another, firecrackers would be one.

Finally, in the city I grew up in outside Bombay I saw a strange pattern emerge over a 10-year period. As average income in the area went up, Diwali firecrackers (which used to be a community-sponsored event) became a male member measuring contest, with each house trying to outdo the other.

Furthermore, because parents would spend all year working, Diwali was the one time they’d offload their guilt of ignoring their children by filling up car trunks with firecrackers. As a result, in my erstwhile kulony, Diwali became “an exasperating fusillade of exploding egotisms, followed by a comprehensive blanket of smog the next day masquerading as pious religiosity and doting affection”.

Dammit! 600 words. I failed you Mr Sekhri.

Ayush Datta

Hi, Newslaundry Hafta Team,

This is Vishnu J from Thiruvananthapuram and I’m not a subscriber yet. Just came to know about Newslaundry this past week. With so many biased media outlets in the market, it’s very hard to find the truth on any matter.

Gone are the days when we could believe something that came on TV news. I usually follow The Hindu, Rajya Sabha TV and now Newslaundry. Really liked the free Hafta aired this past week (yeah, I’m a mufatkhor).

Now this ongoing RSS versus Left feud in Kerala is just to mask the inefficiency and failure of the Pinarayi government. In my opinion, the CPI-M has spent more money on advertisements than social welfare.

Now on the Taj Mahal issue, even though Mughals and other rulers obviously committed grave crimes, we can’t rewrite history and say they are traitors; they did what every king (Hindu or Muslim) does – oppression of the peasant class to meet their luxurious lifestyles and extravagant buildings.

On another note, I would like the government to build a Partition Museum showcasing the worst episode in Indian history, which we have conveniently forgotten. We should model it on Auschwitz. We should memorialise the gross atrocities committed by fellow human beings on one another and learn from it so that we don’t repeat these mistakes ever again. And not build huge statues which have no utility other than being a Swachh Bharat toilet for birds.

Yours faithfully,

Vishnu J

P.S. Pardon the grammatical errors.

P.P.S. Will subscribe soon.

P.P.P.S. Please mention the Ayurveda clinic Madhu ma’am visited in Trivandrum.

Hello NL Team,

I’m a subscriber and a huge fan.

I just wanted to share a couple of things and ask your opinions on some issues:

1. What can people in the news media industry and journalists do regarding the language barrier that exists in our country? For example, an English newspaper breaks an important story, people who know English will be able to read it but the only way for that story to reach a person who doesn’t know English is if the local regional language media reports on it. And if they don’t report it for some reason, then the story doesn’t reach everyone (vice versa can also happen). To give you a real world example, the Anna Hazare movement was not covered by the Tamil media and so many Tamilians who didn’t follow English news or who didn’t know English came to know about it very late. Did you think about this issue when you launched Newslaundry?
2. There is a website called the theinformation.com which is a technology news website. Their business model is the same as Newslaundry‘s. There are no ads, it is subscription-only and there is a paywall. They have their own event which is free for subscribers and others have to pay, kind of like how media rumble was free for Newslaundry subscribers. Although they started only in December 2016, they have 10,000 subscribers who are paying $400 per year for the subscription. I was surprised people were willing to pay $400 just for tech news, considering the fact that many good tech news websites are available for free, such as Wired, The Verge, Recode, etc. My opinion is that the subscription-only model can succeed, but it seems it requires a cultural change.
3. Could you please explain a little more about what mistakes journalists involved in the Radia tapes did. I had been following the journalists before and after the incident to check if there was any incident where they showed some bias but I couldn’t find any. To me it just seemed like they were collecting information for the stories they were doing. I find the kind of stuff that journalists on Republic TV and Times Now do very disturbing.
4. My opinion on Rahul Gandhi has changed a lot recently. In 2014, I couldn’t imagine him as a politician. But today, after seeing the performance of the BJP, I would rather have Rahul as the PM. But this is not a sentiment which the majority of Indians share. The general public still sees Rahul as a product of the establishment and dynastic politics and a miracle will be needed to change that perception. It seems to me the only way the Congress can win in the future is if Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi stay away from politics. What do you think?

Regards,

Jefferson

Hi NL Team,

I have been a subscriber for about a year-and-a-half, and have been following Newslaundry for about four years now. I remember having a short talk with Abhinandan about 2-3 years ago, in case he needed any help with technology. The only thing that has kept me hooked to Newslaundry is the diversity. There are hardly any topics on which everyone agrees, which means more points of view to think about.

The reason I am writing a letter now is two-fold. One, over the last couple of months on Hafta there have been discussions which I could relate to very closely in my everyday life. Secondly, I believe there has been a fall in the quality of Newslaundry recently, and as a subscriber who wants free media to succeed, it should be pointed out.

Recently, Hafta 141 had a mail, from Deb, which I could relate to very deeply. I have been living out of Delhi, my birthplace, for over a decade. I go through the same conversations at home that Deb went through in one visit. To answer Abhinandan, yes, I am a fighter, so we do have a lot of quarrels at home. We discuss everything from religion to politics, with my family being on the extreme conservative side, and me at the other extreme. Some cousins are probably more liberal when alone, but quite shy when with family. That is why I don’t agree with Madhu’s advice that “you should go home for a week, have fun and leave”.

Indian homes are conservative to begin with, where the first thing you are taught is to not question your elders. Children are taught not to question but to follow, and thus resistance to change in India is extremely high. The debate begins at home. If you can’t debate and try to convince your near and dear ones, forget about changing the society. The other thing I related to was when Anand R mentioned his experience of marriage. I am getting married next month, and the amount of bullshit I have accepted to keep things less awkward is more than I would have liked.

Now for the suggestions for the NL Team:

1. Finish what you start or bring it to a logical end. Clothesline was one of the shows that did not get an end. It stopped for a while, then we had sporadic episodes and then none. You started Let’s Talk About, and then after a couple of topics it has nothing. While you are a subscriber-based model, a non-timeline-based model will be hard to scale up.
2. Abhinandan should cut off less people on Hafta.
3. Some more facts not just a discussion. In Hafta, at least on important topics, at least one person should be able to present some facts. On most topics, it’s just opinions, and quoting historians from 50 years ago. That is what even MSM is doing, except that instead of quotes they use real-life amateurs. That would be a real value addition.
4. Make a community to discuss policies. If you are also discussing the same topics that MSM is discussing, then you are falling for the trap. Where is the discussion on how GST should be implemented, what are the differences between this and other countries? What should be the topics India should actually be discussing?
5. Better job requirements – I just went through the About Us page, and saw that both tech job descriptions were almost the same. That is just poor drafting, especially for a media organisation. (Was not looking for that, was looking for contact information for email; as a suggestion, put that up to be found more easily.)

Mayank

Dear NL Hafta Team,

I am a Newslaundry subscriber and I eagerly await the Hafta at the end of every week. Thank you very much for doing it.

I listened with alarm last week as both Anands belittled Sangeet Som’s statement about Shah Jahan being a “traitor”. Both agreed that it was just a publicity stunt or an “off-the-cuff” remark. They then used this opportunity to revisit their long-time grievance with Indian historians.

The problem with Ranganathan is his inflated perception of his own expertise on history, which leads to him dismissing most professional historians. With Vardhan, it is his open sympathy for the BJP and resentment toward liberal academia. It is this resentment that leads to the ridiculous dismissal of Som’s statement as innocuous publicity-seeking, but finding textbooks written by professional historians as “NCERT fundamentalism”. Vardhan then claims that Som’s outbursts are a result of academic culture in India being hostile to differing views. Once again, he finds a way to turn a statement of vicious aggression into one of conservative victimhood.

It is clear that Som wasn’t just seeking publicity, nor was this a one-off for the ruling party. BJP has always used history to divide an electorate on the lines of religions, target Muslims, and consolidate Dalits into a Hindu votebank. I wouldn’t insult the Anands by pretending they weren’t aware of this.

Prof. Ranganathan sinks to new depths when he equates books by scholars like Prof. Audrey Truschke with the comments of Som. He asks: “Which is more dangerous? I don’t know.”

It is sad to see an academic equate the work of a fellow academic (who is an expert on the period and reads Persian, Sanskrit, Braj bhasha) with the unhinged ravings of Som. You may disagree with the scholarly interpretation, but you cannot equate it with the uninformed opinion of a partisan politician.

The real problem Ranganathan and Vardhan face is that they aren’t able to find any credible academics of medieval and early modern India to endorse their views.

Most professional historians of India are willing to admit that Mughal emperors destroyed temples and weren’t always even-handed in their policies towards all religions. What no scholar believes is what Ranganathan claims – that it was “genocide porn”, a period of unrivalled violence.

Prof Ranganathan is quite simply wrong. And no amount of quoting Som (a politician) or VS Naipaul (a novelist) is going to change the historical record. Scholarship has to be battled by scholarship.

As an aside, why is it that only Mughal rule troubles both Anands so much? During that same period, 16th to 19th century, upper-class Hindu men (like both Anands and myself) committed atrocities every day against lower castes. But Mughal rule angers them in a way that this doesn’t. Why is that? It is because one of these allows them to play the victim, and absolves them of complicity in past injustices.

Lastly, a suggestion: since debates about Indian history show up on Hafta so often, why not invite an actual historian to respond to Ranganathan and Vardhan (the two “representatives” from academia, but who have no historical training). You won’t have to look far – New Delhi has a wealth of them.

Nikhil Menon

Dear Abhinandan,

Thanks for reading my mail earlier, this is one more of my collective thoughts collected since some weeks ago. Please let some points be part of the NL Hafta discussion.

Cow vs moustache news coverage:

As the moustache attack in Gujarat has now been claimed as “fake news” as police has probed as reported here. But here is the Quint ground reportage about the victim’s mother backing out because of the fear of being deserted and violence against them.

Violence against the Wipro HR women for reporting the illegal cow slaughter should be condemned at every level. When the news was reported she claimed stoning the vehicle and ‘Pro-Pak’ slogans while they attacked which makes about second part suspicious. NDTV and Deccan Herald have reported on this mentioning after reporting and she went to the same area to confirm on the actions of police, during which it resulted in an accident damaging an auto and a shop. Here are the reports from police where the culprits are being arrested and she is also being booked for mischief.

Here I would like to bring to the panel discussion that the attack on the Dalit happened in the village and for the survival one needs to withdraw or claim own fault for further survival. As pursuing action from police would result in further damage to poor livelihood when media moves to next reports.

But in the Bangalore Nandini case, she can stick with the facts which she claims true even after police has ridiculed her claimed as shared in above articles. That is mostly because she is now receiving the political support and an organisation to back her claim. Even in the worst case, her daily livelihood would not be damaged and investigation will take its own time.

Recent example of Jharkhand issue where 11-year-old child died due to starvation, the mother is now facing the village ire and living in fear.

It’s the sad part, one claiming Newslaundry reported a fake news is disturbing, it is more about the actual reality of our villages compared to people living in cities with political support.

Same was the case with Akhlaq killing where the family was asked to withdraw cases but they have to leave the village for security reasons and now no one is in jail.

Fatwa

As elections near, there would be more ANI reports on some fatwa which would be part of the next ‘nationalist’ channels panel discussion. So the important part would be to consider the following points before fatwa-related issues are discussed in panel:

1. Fatwa is a non-binding OPINION given by maulvi on question/query asked by the Muslim individual.
2. It’s limited only to the individual only if he/she agrees. He can go to another maulvi for the same question, here the OPINION can be different.
3. The same OPINION can’t be used to regulate the whole community across India as Islam doesn’t have a Pope where once diktat will become a rule to follow for all.

In the debate, these questions are always missed and catch hold of the statements from maulvis as if it is applied to the whole Muslim community:

1. Who is the individual who asked the question?
2. Is the individual satisfied with the maulvi or going to the next maulvi?

And, of course, some random Muslim in the name of an activist is brought in the panel discussion and he will be the joker in the whole half-hour programme. That becomes the picture for the whole community.

NL HAFTA 141

Even in issues not related to Muslims, stereotype is created and panelist sees fantasy (even one individual real story for argument case) movie (NLHafta141 1hr:46 min) and believes that’s how aspiring Muslim women are treated in their household. Would like to know is it not the case with women in general regardless of one’s belief and now being more institutionalised? Is it not that every parent is guilty of pushing their kids into studies of their (parents) own ambitions?

Also, 14 per cent population is so backward, has the remaining 80 per cent + women are in prosperous stage. Again someone would say Saudi or Middle-East, please compare India vs these countries on any UN index on education, employment, health, property rights, childbirth etc.

Would like people not to treat Muslim as ‘Others’ with some special case in the discussion, if Muslims are bad in any way, let us know how other religions or atheists are doing better than us in every other indicator – social, music, sports, studies and how other women are being treated in India ?

I really hope you have Muslim friends, who can help to overcome this notion that ‘Muslims are different’. Every individual in my community is thriving for the same resources of education and jobs like any other Indian.

[It becomes hard to believe as my life as a Muslim and women I know have done what they desire; maybe studies, jobs, marriage with their will and wish and no man has dominated them. Yes, this can’t be considered an ideal case, but Madhuji saying is also not the ideal case.]

NL Hafta 142  – 44th  minute

Hear this discussion, Madhuji sharing a report on individual FB post led to arrest and assault in jail while panel was open for discussion Anand R brought in another case where Muslim mob protested demanded arrest of the individual, he was quoting from Opindia and AnandV brought the Bangalore mob issue which was still in preliminary reports, police had not shared the above statement yet .

The point here to highlight is, Madhuji was talking of how the state went ahead and arrested the individual on asking the question to the government on latest judgment. Here no crowd was there to demand the arrest. Anand R adding “Hindu individual”, “Muslim crowd”  to the main topic of the discussion goes to the balancing out, even Anand V making sure of “pro-Pak slogans”.

So, my question is why is it very important to bring other cases while the current on hold is not yet discussed in its entirety? It becomes more of a balancing tool, “Ek Muslim ka issue aur Ek Hindu ka issue – hisab barabar“, but all the three reports are very different from each other.

Is it not true that riots and riot-like situations have increased since completion of UP elections? Why should it be packaged as crime but not as failure by government in every front and these riots are only to keep the flames low?

Anand R and tweets

As you have clearly mentioned, it’s the individual Twitter account and independent of Newslaundry and one should respect its policy. I am with you completely on this one. Being an Anand R Twitter follower, I am introduced to Newslaundry, there may be many things I might agree and many more things i might not agree to.

What puzzled me about him this time is him sharing a Sanatana Dharma list of temples being destroyed and mosques being constructed? Really not sure if this is normal and accepted, as it looks like the list being mainstreamed in the form of asking genuine question. Will this be part of the next Hafta discussion?

News from other web portals

What’s your and the NL panel’s opinion on sites such as OpIndia and Swaraj site and other RW folks get their reports to claim “Hindu khatre main hain” (Recent Diwali one such incident).

How genuine are there reports and what’s the fake rate?

Newslaundry, The Hindu and Wire were able to have their own fake news instances, but they have corrected and acknowledged and came back with more detailed reporting.

Sorry for whole mail, these only thoughts collected since some weeks to bring up to your panel.

Thanks for listening.

Regards,

Sheik Ahmed