Hi NL team,

Apologies as my email is going to be all over the place.

In Hafta 318, Manisha mentioned that she has no misconceptions about her role/media role being the opposition to the government. While I do appreciate her humbleness, I didn’t see the point behind it, when the government already has 33000 other avenues to publicise and spread its propaganda, if platforms like NL are not here to be the opposition (and I understand you can’t be the political opposition), what is the purpose for them?

Wonder what the media reaction would’ve been if something akin to the 2020 Delhi riots happened under UPA? Whether the home minister’s resignation wouldn’t have been demanded? Now we see even the critical media going from place to place trying to fix responsibilities from Arvind Kejriwal to Delhi police while the main mastermind of the masterstroke remains untouched.

As Abhinandan says, Jan Lokpal movement’s success was also because of the huge media coverage it received. So, when Rahul Gandhi says give me a neutral media and I’ll show this government its place, I don’t see anything wrong in it.

Keep up the good work! Love you guys.

Thanks,

Ashu

***

Hey NL Team,

Firstly I'd prefer if my name is not read out during Hafta.

I am a long time subscriber but emailing you for the first time.

On Hafta 318, you discussed E Sreedharan joining the BJP. Since then there has been a "clarification" from the BJP president that they in fact do not currently have a CM candidate in Kerala.

I am from Kerala and have always admired the many achievements of Sreedharan like the Pamban bridge, Konkan railways, and Delhi metro.

What I would like to know from the panel is how a person like Sreedharan could join the BJP in 2021 with all that is going on in the country right now. I am pretty sure he has to be a well read man to have reached that position in his career and so he cannot just plead ignorance.

Do let me know what you think.

***

Hi Team Hafta,

A couple of things:

1. There should be a process of opting out from receiving NL merchandise each time one contributes to NL Sena. It is unnecessary and wasteful both financially and environmentally.

2. When you skip a subscriber's mail, mention his/her name and the mail's gist in your own words.

Keep up the good work.

Best,

Sudarshana

***

The panel didn't do justice to the Prashant Kishore interview discussion last week.

Here is a man who keeps shifting between pride and humility, depending on the question asked. This takes some intelligence, and makes him a pretty bad candidate for a politician.

Some statements from the interview:

On resigning: I can't be the second best in what I do.

On his contribution: We can only help at the margins.

On being trolled: I have created some of this social media trolls, So I am not bothered.

On Being a public figure: We are hyped and cant be compared with these large figures.

Consulting in politics, like that in the corporate world, is the cool thing amongst youth, because you don't get hands dirty and still come out with the prize. Limited downside, and huge upside.

In fact, since youth leaders aren't so young, helping the youth aspire for politics is his biggest contribution to Indian politics.

Lastly: The argument about picking winners is pretty bad. It's post facto and is devoid of any reasoning.

Arun Singhal

***

Hello NL team,

I have been a huge admirer of Abhinandan from the days he used to do the I Agree with series. I highly enjoy Hafta and always look forward to listening to everybody's analysis including Manisha, Raman sir and especially Mehraj. I also listen to Atul sir, Shardul and Meghnad on NL Charcha. I especially love the informative comic series on the media, Kashmir, and naxalism by Sumit on your website and wonder why there weren't more.

I would really love to listen to historian and journalist Vijay Prashad on Hafta and your combined thoughts on the state of affairs in India and globally.

Regards,

Rubin Mathias

***

Hello,

My name is Apurva and I am a proud Newslaundry subscriber.

I've done my masters in Mathematics and have never studied law.

I'm a big fan of Manish's work. However, I do have a question about Manish's statement on Hafta 318, when she said, "Broadly the case is not quite a strong case, because there is a women who was promised marriage and then the man went and married someone else, and they had sex so she is considering it a rape. Obviously its not rape, its consensual sex."

My understanding is that they started having sex when the girl was a minor.

And if she was a minor then she cannot legally "give consent".

So doesn't that make this sex without consent and hence rape?

What am I missing here? Let me know.

Regards,

Apurva Mehta

***

Hi,

My name is Keyshav and I am a big fan and also a regular contributor to Newslaundry. I love the work you guys do. I am also someone who is influenced by Kancha Iliah Shepherd. Although he bashes the forward caste communities a lot, it is for good reason. Would it be possible to invite him for a discussion or an interview on caste? Maybe for Hafta itself? Would be good to see you guys discuss some real issues together.

Here is a recommendation to his recent article in Caravan: "The farm laws are an assault on Shudra power".

I do not remember this angle being discussed in Hafta.

Hoping you include this question and wish you all great health.

Warm Regards,

Keyshav Mor

***

Hi everyone.

I have been a subscriber for a couple of months now and love your Hafta podcast and always look forward to Newsance episodes (Manisha rocks). I wanted to ask you, have you reported on anything good done by the Narendra Modi Government or all their schemes are just hollow in nature. This is important because in recent conversations with some of my friends, they are convinced (despite me trying to convince them otherwise) that your channel is completely biased against Modi. That video about you receiving funding from George Soros and all other publications such as yourselves has made it difficult to get my point across. So it would be great if you could point out any positive measures taken by the government that actually resulted in the benefit of the people, if there are any, and your report on that issue.

Also, I am an atheist, so really looking forward to your religion podcast. For reference you should listen to lectures from Neil deGrasse Tyson, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, who are very outspoken on these issues, and consider their input.

Thank you.

Regards

Bharat Chellani

***

Hello Hafta team,

Writing in with regard to the comment by Mr Karnad downplaying the strength of the BJP in Karnataka. It is true that in a 3 way contest in the 2018 state elections, the BJP vote share was a percentage lower than that of the Congress. However in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP got more than 51 percent of the votes in a 2 way contest (Congress and JD(S) contested together). The BJP is the strongest and biggest party in Karnataka. Left liberals cannot wish that away. BJP is also the second strongest party in Telengana and Andhra Pradesh. It's time to bury the old idea that the BJP is a north Indian party. TN and Kerala do not make up or speak for the entire south.

Thanks

Harish Nair

***

Hi!

I am Yahaya Hassan from Ladakh. I subscribed to Newslaundry last month. I am a BA student. I like NL’s ground reporting by Nidhi Suresh, Basant and others. The recent Hafta episode was awesome. I think you should have discussed the IT raid on Tapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap in detail. I agree with you that the new social media and digital news portals rule are meant to curb the voice of independent media like Newslaundry, Wire, News Click and others. Although I like all NL shows, Newsance and Tippani are my favourites. I am proud to support independent news and I believe that when public pays, the public is served. When advertisers pay, they are served.

Yahaya Hassan

***

Hi team,

I have been meaning to write to Hafta for a while but could not. But hafta has been a constant part of my weekend since the lockdown started (muftkhor for a few months). I have been Subscriber since November and it's totally worth it. The new website is great and hope for better things in future as legacy media is hopeless.

I am also pleasantly surprised at the quality of subscriber emails and may be there is still hope for this country.

I would like the panel to discuss reservations. The Indian Express in a recent explainer mentioned how reservation in the private sector can lead to a reduction of unemployment (that's the objective of the Haryana government) but at the expense of demand, which is not good for overall output.

I resented the reservation policy when I was growing up as it felt "unfair" and I could not see where my privilege was being from a small town and facing basic problems with electricity and education. But in the last 10 years or so, I have realised that caste is a privilege and reservation is necessary. Especially for government funded institutions so that all communities are equally represented in power centres (civil services, professors). Obviously it hasn't happened to the degree which was anticipated. So two (+1) questions:

1. What changes are needed in the current system?

2. Is extending reservation to private markets a good idea where someone with capital wants the "best" resource available? What is their incentive to ensure representation?

2.1 Is there a middle way out with the politics of reservation and ensuring private players aren't squeezed into something counter-productive?

Link https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/haryana-jobs-quota-law-private-sector-reservation-explainspeaking-7218856/

AA

***

Hello Hafta team,

I've been a mufatkhor follower of Newslaundry since Sagarika Ghose was relevant enough to be mocked and finally bought a subscription last year. I love the work that you folks do, and am especially a fan of your on-ground electoral coverage. I just had two things related to the last Hafta, in case it exceeds the word limit, feel free to summarise (or read only one of the parts):

1) About the discussion on Prashant Kishore, it might be interesting for Newslaundry to do an in-depth article (maybe even an investigative piece) on the hidden political economy of electoral campaign management. This Huffington Post article detailing how IPAC turned a women's rights NGO into a secret propaganda machine might be a great place to build on.. Similar to the IPAC, the BJP also has its own political campaign machine, the Association of Brilliant Minds, which is also what makes the Bengal elections all the more important for Kishore to prove his worth. Fun fact: Giriraj Singh had hired IPAC for his election against Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusarai.

2) Mehraj's argument concerning Twitter's decision. I feel that the stand Mehraj takes is unfairly statist in that it leaves no scope for conscientious disagreements with the law. In the US, social media companies have often refused to respond to government requests violating the privacy or the freedom of speech of their users in direct contravention with the law. Similarly, news organisations have also refused to divulge their sources in contravention of the law. Mehraj's argument puts an unfair burden of legality on the citizen or the organisation, one in which implementation of the government order needs to come first and only then be followed by challenges in the court. It is the violation of an order that the government has to get fixed from the court especially in cases where a fundamental right like freedom of speech is in question and when there are no landmark legal judgements guiding conduct. I also felt that the comparison with an Adivasi taking up arms against the state was out of context in this case. Individuals and corporations break laws everyday, the implementation of those laws through the court must be the prerogative of the government. And sometimes, some laws are worth breaking

Keep up all the great work!

With regards,

Shantanu Kulshreshtha

***

Hello NL team,

I read Anand's article about the inability of the new media to capture fence sitters and heard his comments on that in Hafta as well.

Somewhere in Kanpur, a child died after a surgery and the allegations were that her abdomen was left open because they hadn't paid enough money. I am a surgeon and I know that leaving the abdomen open is a standard clinical practice in various conditions. It’s too much of a stretch to believe that the doctors left it open just for monetary reasons. Abdominal closure is neither very skill demanding nor time consuming.

However, I was surprised to see that even very reasonable and learned twitter handles tweeted “hang the doctor” when neither the diagnosis nor the surgery done were detailed.

These handles definitely affect my opinions, and to see that they weren't reasonable here made me wonder how factual they were in their respective fields. How many opinions of mine stand on such exaggerated, hyperbole grounds.

Am hopeful you provide us more nuanced views on all possible issues. More NL cheatsheet, more like Meghnad's Constitution..

Thanks for your work

Shehba Fathima

PS. I still wonder how an Anand of the present version could work with Newslaindry. I wish a explainer on that too

***

Hello Team NL,

I am writing in response to Hafta 317. Around the 40-minute mark Abhinandan mentioned Tejaswi Surya and posed the question : What is the reason he enjoys this support? (I'm paraphrasing).

I just wanted to share my thoughts.

The reason people like him enjoy support in a 'cosmopolitan' city like Bangalore, is the middle class. He is in fact the ideal candidate for a constituency with an upper-caste Hindu, technocratic population. It allows them to mask their desire for a Hindu cultural supremacy under the guise of "development" when they vote for him. This is reflected even in the way he presents himself in public, unlike the netas; he shows up in a shirt and trousers, making himself more appealing to his audience.

When I say the middle class, I mean a very specific demographic. It is the urban Hindu population, typically in well paying jobs, well educated (arguable). It is the kind of demographic for whom stating that they support the BJP because of their Hindu agenda is not palatable because of the circles they keep. For them, “development” becomes an ideal mask to hide behind.

It is important because since 2014, the BJP has carefully deployed the younger members of the party as specialised pawns and built a specific support base around them and their senior counterpart. In this line, Surya is effectively Fadnavis 2.0 or Arun Jaitley 2.0. Just like Kapil Mishra, who is Yogi Adityanath lite. So while Mishra captures the Hindi speaking, shakha going demographic; Surya manages to take the non-Hindi, upper middle class. And all votes lead to Narendra Modi.

P.S : Finally started subscribing after a year of mooching off of the free podcast. Love the work.

Thanks,

Akshay Aditya Yeleswarapu

***

Dear NL Hafta Team,

To start off, huge gratitude to Mehraj and Manisha for always bringing rationality to the podcast. Especially Mehraj, whom I believe exemplifies critical thinking. No two guesses for my admiration of Abhinandan as well. I particularly believe that he exemplifies subjective rationality (evident from the GD Bakshi interview). I could go on and on about how much I enjoy the podcast,however, since we are limited to 250 words let's be succinct.

Rahul Gandhi, I would urge you to listen to the subject matter conversations which as per me, atleast, give a horrid insight to what we are up against in today's India. The first step to correcting a problem is to clearly identify the root cause. Otherwise, we are just tending to the symptoms and not the actual disease itself. I will be the first one to point out that as a Kashmiri, the Congress has started many blunderous traditions that were taken to the next step by the bearded gentleman and his fat parallel ego. Again, I would also concede that the Congress reeks of nepotism, however, having said that, we should look at the ideas and the vision of Rahul Gandhi, Granted that he is not the brightest bulb, but he is far better than the lying, conniving and deceiving rulers we have on our hands today. We have to acknowledge that this is a war between David and Goliath and in the interest of saving our nation, we have to back a dynast David rather than a communal Goliath. We cannot discount the fact that even after propaganda such as Pulwama, Balakot, Modi TV, and so on, Congress still managed 13 crore votes. We have to be strategic.

Last Hafta, regarding the discussion on the AAP playing the BJP's game, I think it's downright disgusting to say the least. At the end of the day, as Ravish Kumar once put it, (paraphrased) It's not about who wins the war, sometimes it's about the side you were backing.

Shafaf Bhat

***