Hi NL team,

NL Haftas are awesome. The discussions, points of view of the panel are so in sync with me and the best segment is "suggestions". I listen to Hafta during my weekend walk and then try to cover content from suggestions before the next Hafta (except books 😊).

With the Olympics around the corner, I feel we will rewatch a similar sports episode which has been running for decades in this country: India will win one or two golds and there will be jubilation across the country and governments, businesses will shower the winners with money, houses, cars and whatnot. Forget about the argument that India has 1.3 billion people and it should win medals accordingly, it is just shameful that we aren’t even improving over years. I believe that sports is a great social tool if run properly since there can’t be any form of discrimination in it. It provides discipline, financial stability and jobs for athletes and much more in addition.

What do you think plagues Indian sports administration? Have you done or can you do a ground report or NL Sena project on sports administration in India or on any sport which is not cricket?

Praveen Surendra

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Dear Team NL,

We love you, but have a bone to pick.

In Hafta 334, Abhinandan proposed his case for owning land in hill states primarily on the basis of his sense of “belonging”, lamenting how legislative provisions prevent this. Actually, this aspiration is not as unfulfilled as Abhinandan implied. Plains-dwellers find numerous circuitous ways to achieve this (in any case, people are allowed to make their case for ownership to the state’s assembly) even at the expense of the environment, local communities, and their culture.

Furthermore, in a calm, reasonable discussion – as Abhinandan suggested – we’ll find that the case for such aspirations is exceptionally weak. Far too many want real estate in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, or Kashmir because they “belong to the mountains”, and the abstract, vacuous, travel-brochure notion of “my India, my land” conveniently glosses over the lives of pahadis who, working in restaurants and hotels, have already lost their livelihoods while appeasing people and business owners from Delhi, Punjab, UP, Bengal who assume everyone has a fair chance to buy and live to see the whole region turned into a shopping mall/resort. By this metric, why not give any industrialist tribal land? After all, it's his country too.

Somebody’s “right” to own land doesn’t exist in a vacuum and must be weighed against the cost that communities pay and the damage the environment suffers. Supposing all his Doon School classmates have this nostalgic whim, is the agricultural majority of the western Himalayas to be turned into individual plots for retirement?

Such classic free-market fundamentalism of the plains-dweller is racked with sentimentality about nature while destroying it luxuriously. Either the market is free or the people are.

Best,

Addison and Steele

PS: We attach further reading.

Who can & cannot buy land in Himachal

Odisha's Tribal Communities Are Reeling Under a Land Grab Project Masquerading as 'Afforestation'

Odisha: ‘Ease of Doing Business’ at Cost of Tribal Land and Livelihood

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Hi NL,

Thanks for reading my mail on the last Hafta.

This is an old one. Resending in less than 200 words.

I instantly subscribed to NL for a year after reading On A Godman’s Trail. This is how investigative reportage should be.

Mentioning Tamil Nadu finance minister PTR Thiagarajan’s comment, Manisha said someone had to put Jaggi Vasudev in his place. NL is actually helping put Jaggi in his place as the three-part series becomes a catalyst for activists, environmentalists to push the Tamil Nadu government to initiate investigations. The timing of Jaggi’s “free temples” campaign, the DMK coming to power and the NL series was perfect. He was getting into the psyche of people.

Regards,

Deebhan

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Hi Abhinandan ji,

Love listening to Hafta. Manisha's Newsance show is my favourite.

On Hafta 333, Rukmani S recommended a book by Dav Pilkey. I bought it for my 7-year old son. He just loved it. Same reaction came from my 9-year-old niece.

Now they are demanding more such books. Your recommendation is helping cultivate the reading habit in them. Please share some more recommendations for kids.

Chirag Kakkad