I'm only able to send this letter via your website because I'm a subscriber. So please accept my letter. I have given a fake email to remain anonymous.

Do you guys think India Today would have been so brazen in going after you if Madhu Trehan was still actively involved in Newslaundry? She still has good relations with her brother's family and is very rich and powerful herself through her husband. Did you lose some level of protection after she left?

Also, a thought experiment: what do you think would happen if Modi nationalised all the big private companies and started implementing communist economic policies? Do you think his popularity would increase or decrease?

I think it would increase because India is a very leftwing country which has failed to have a bottom up revolution, but that doesn't mean people don't want leftwing economics (not talking about the top 10-20 percent; also I don't support communism, but that's because I'm in the top 1-2 percent).

Anonymous

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Here's something for upcoming Independence Day.

So, what holds us together as a country?

Given India's diversity, union isn't inevitable. The liberal view is apparently of a transactional relationship only as long as we all consent. The Congress thinks the memory of the freedom struggle will keep us together. Surely this must weaken as the memory of British rule fades? On the other hand for some, nations may be artificial and other categories (Christianity, Islam, proletariat) count for more.

Should the BJP/RSS's project be seen this way? As a need to forge a nationalism based on some cultural/religious unity? National symbols, Hinduism, Modi's fancy dress, Hindi, Aryan migration, diatribes against "anti-nationals"? Seems like liberals hear these arguments and tend to jeer without offering a less bigoted alternative. Which is dangerous, because it plays up those apprehensions.

Would be grateful to hear Anand and Mehraj's thoughts as well. Mentioning them only because they're more often away.

Vijay

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Hi Hafta team,

NL team is doing a great job with your journalism. However, your app has a definite flaw and so does your pricing/product team.

Why?

App: I have recently switched job and with extra little money thought of upgrading my subscription to Gamechanger. And boy, you guys haven't made it easy. It should be the first option to see on the Manage Account page.

Pricing/product: Easiest thing to do to get more from existing subscribers is to give them an option to upgrade with just the differential amount between the two products' prices. Not there. Will wait for this option to upgrade.

Both of the above are not a great situation for an organisation which is driven by subscription.

Now on Hafta #391: The telco expert said data is cheap in India purely due to Jio. It’s not the complete story but how Jio did it is. You might want to look deeper into it. I can help as I’ve worked in that industry for 11 years. Would be glad to contribute.

More in next letter. Keep it up.

Cheers,

Vikash

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Dear NL team,

Thank you for also offering graphic novels. Have ordered Naxalbari and Kashmir ki Kahani, looking forward to reading them.

Abhinandan, you mentioned that you would be visiting Germany. May I ask if you're planning a subscriber meet?

Love the new app. It works like a delight, don't know why people keep complaining if they don't manage updating their software. #updatekarochupraho.

Best wishes to all your team members for 75 years of India.

#idreamofnuclearfusion

PS: Not a scientist, just a nuclear fusion enthusiast.

Somsubhro

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I have been listening to Hafta for close to a decade. The star of the show has always been Abhinandan. Whenever he misses the Hafta, the listenership must surely dip.

The show started as an exercise in editorial transparency but later became a weekly digest of news. Unfortunately, the show has become very one-sided with MT and AR leaving along the way. Anand Vardhan is not fluent and hence not as impactful. It would be a good idea to get credible voices from the rightwing, even nutcases. Nutcases need to be exposed logically, not with intellectual contempt.

And please get pronunciations of words right. It's stopped being funny.

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Greetings NL team,

Glad to be a paying subscriber for a while and do my tiny bit to keep the culture of accountability alive. Hafta has always been a fantastic immersive experience, and many times I'm about to interrupt and counter someone only to realise I'm only but a listener. But it also inspires me to do (crazy)things like putting up a placard of "Free Zubair" outside the Indian High Commission here in Munich, so that's that!

Just a word about the Manusmriti discussion. The text explicitly prohibits wealth accumulation for the lowered caste. It is as simple as that, the primary reason that caste capital over the centuries converted in class capital is nothing but that so the only utility of studying the text is for its sociological, linguistic, etc impact. Any other "contexts" as such have negligible value.

Would love to have Ayush, Nidhi, etc sometimes on Hafta to discuss their stories. Keep up the absolutely necessary good work!

Kartik

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PM Modi asked a question in Venkaiah Naidu's farewell speech. "Corona se kisse bahut taklif hua?" Please play just that bit (time 08:10) and have a discussion on it. Are we really out of difficulties posed by Covid? Is everything back to normal or at any place is it still not normal?

Sarath

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Hi!

I see that every week you get emails saying how shitty your app is. This is not constructive criticism anymore. It's nagging and downright condescension. I am sure most of these people are Indian IT professionals. I have worked with IT peeps and they are the hardest people to work with. Since they spend most of their life sitting in front of a computer, they don't understand commerce, people and their motivations. They tend to compare your app to a Facebook, Uber or Snapchat. Not realising what your business model is, what your organisation is about, how much resources you have, and what your motivations are. When they see your app, they JUST see your app. Your app is decent for the money we pay. You are not in this business to develop software. Please take my advice and ignore these narcissists.

Rohan

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Hi team,

I have noticed that politicians in their statements/comments never name any person in the opposing party, OR they are referred to in third person without ever naming thing, OR worse, many add very colourful identifiers which make it hard to not guess who they are talking about.

Question: Is it the fear of the law and hence a defamation case a reason for this template? Or is it because they just like to be dramatic all the time?

Abhinav