Hello people of NL,

I read Prateek Goyal’s report on Gadchiroli. Kudos for the story. Great work.

I have read a lot of reports on the Naxal areas (as branded by the government). The reports are generally not on the main stream print media unless a Government Official or MP or MLA has been killed in a Naxal attack.

I would like to know why Naxalism is always reported as a supplementary to some other issue like elections or demonetisation.

What I have realised is, Naxalism—or the fight against it—just might be the longest running Civil War in any country. I understand there is a systematic clamp down on journalists who report on these areas. But how has the pain and suffering of people caught in the cross fire for decades not been an Issue. Be it Liberals or RW or even international news media—nobody talks about them. It just baffles me.

PS: Saba Naqvi’s reaction to the Hafta was amazingly cute. She just couldn’t wrap her head around how unstructured Hafta is. She couldn’t believe that not only people listen to it but that it’s also their gateway to Newslaundry.

PPS: As always, sorry for overrunning the subscribed email length.

Loyal Subscriber

Pranay Nikam

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Dear Abhinandan and NL Hafta team,

My name is Shuvham and I have been a mufatkhor for a very long time (3-4 years to be precise). However, your persistent appeal and the amount of free knowledge I have accumulated in the last four years compelled me to subscribe and repay back to NL. NL Hafta has helped me significantly in BA Politics and Global Studies course and also while writing my dissertation on Nehruvian Socialism. My dissertation would not have been the same if not for NL, its eminent panelists and a lot of knowledge I have extracted from hours of content.

One of the many reasons for not subscribing to NL initially was that I was born in Nepal and have been staying in the UK for the last 10 years. Indian politics did not affect my life directly and NL mostly dealt with Indians news and politics. Having said that, the nature of the content, the level of discussions and knowledge available on this portal was something I could not ignore as it has benefited me immensely academically during the research and writing process of my dissertation. And personally has helped me check my biases and my prejudices by listening to the discussions on various socio-political topics.

I have always been passionate about India, its culture, its history and its religion (Hinduism).Being a Hindu myself and hearing and watching stories from Mahabharata, Ramayana and Vishnu Puran on Nepal National Television has always fascinated me and led me in search of my cultural and religious roots in this huge magnanimous civilisational called Bharat or Sanatan Dharma as my grandparents use to call it.

I am a big admirer of how Abhinandan articulates and formulates his arguments and have shamelessly chappoed many of his arguments in my personal as well as academic circles, winning brownie points. So thanks a ton, Abhinandan. Similarly, I am besotted with Anand Vardhan and his style of analysing various topics in an academic structure and vocabulary with an air of nonchalance. Hope I can imbibe these qualities from Anand.

Finally, thank you again for all the knowledge and a fulfilling one-and-a-half hours I have had over the last many years listening to NL Hafta. I promise that I will repay all that I have acquired by being a NL subscriber as long as I have exploited it free of cost. Hoping and praying that NL will grow to become a big news organisation that will enrich more lives as it has enrich mine for the last couple of years.

P.S. If this mail gets read during the Hafta, I would like to request Hafta panelists and especially Anand Vardhan’s opinion/views about Hinduism in Nepal, its connection with India and why only India is credited with saving Hinduism in popular discourse from extinction when Nepal equally if not more has contributed for its survival and sustenance.

Kind regards,

Shuvham Bhandari