After having a conversation with a few BJP supporters, I have come to realise that it’s not just fandom of Modi or hate for Muslims; it’s their “idea of India”, which is different from the others’. There’s this thought process of “since we’re more in number, we get priority for everything”. I might be wrong in my judgement here, so I wanted to know what you guys think: 

• What is the “idea of India” for Narendra Modi (based of whatever you've been able to understand)

• How do you think it differs from what the country was built on (one of whose cornerstones was equal rights for everyone)

Also, just a suggestion. Your Let’s Talk About series is amazing but you’re underselling it right now. PS: Itna mehnat kiya hai, shorts clips banake daal do Instagram and YouTube pe. The depth of the content deserves more eyes and ears. 

Anonymous

***

The line of work I’m in, I do interact with a lot of people overseas. Since Kejriwal’s arrest, I’ve had multiple acquaintances come up to me and ask what’s going on in India? 

Are these things starting to create a splash abroad? Do you think it raises alarms in the West if India starts shedding its “democracy” tag?

More importantly, why is Modi acting like this pre-election? Has he seen hints that the trends are not in his favour? Or is it just arrogance?

Anonymous

***

This letter has been a few weeks coming. I thought I would write it on your 12-year anniversary, but I guess “what the hell?” is a stronger motivator than “well said”. 

Manisha, I have been an admirer through and through, and I love your takes on everything. But in the last Hafta episode, the ‘if not Modi, who?’ argument was appalling. To cut short, I know Rahul received a lot of chances thanks to nepotism. We must not forget that no one else has been hounded like he has been, with continuous scorn and contempt 24*7 on social media and news for more than 10 years now. People fumble, make mistakes, but the attention has been astounding when it comes to him. He may not be fit to be a PM, but we have a PM who says on camera that he doesn’t care to go through the files (as a CM). Also, isn’t it the job of a PM to be guided by the advisors to devise policy, in which respect he or anyone else may do far better than the current pair playing footsie with our democracy. 

Love to the Hafta Team. Thank you for keeping me sane!

Onika

***

Hi NL team, I have been a subscriber from mid-2021 and cannot thank you all enough for your high quality ground reports, content, and especially podcasts (Hafta and Charcha) that I have consumed.

Also wanted to share this website named ebscam that I came across on reddit, which shows EB data in a nice manner. It has both political party profiles and company profiles with a timeline and reference to news articles. Thought it might be useful for references.

Keep up the good work.

Anonymous

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I think the bias of both Abhinandan and Manisha is so evident that it has been pointed out by subscribers. Abhinandan thinks that Kejriwal is more acceptable nationwide, and Manisha thinks everything that's wrong with the country is because of Rahul Gandhi . Maybe we all need to be more mindful and watch our biases.

Anonymous

***

Hey Team,

Just wanted to drop a quick note to say how much I’m enjoying NL Hafta. I get a kick out of listening to Abhinandan on the podcast, even though we often see things differently. It’s like a mental sparring match during my long drive from Gurgaon to Dehradun. Keeps me wide awake as I ponder how I’d counter his arguments if we were face-to-face.

Recently, I stumbled upon the CPI manifesto and it really caught me off guard (eg, withdrawal from the strategic alliance of the US). Can’t tell if it’s legit or just AI-generated in this day and age. If it is real, I’m curious about your take on it and how the party plans to pitch these ideas to voters. Also, I was wondering if you guys are planning a deep-dive into the manifestos of other major parties.

On a side note, when is Anand coming back?

Anonymous 

***

Hello Hafta Team

Was reading an article linked in one of Mr Abhinandan’s retweets.

How much should the nation state be concerned about the growing socio-economic divide between north and south along with the resentment about it in the south. Hoping for this discussion between The News Minute and NL Hafta teams.

For the Hafta team, who are mainly from the north – how much do you agree with the below quotes from the article?

“The north has been denied development for so long it has stopped believing in it” and “The citizen in the north is content to have become a ‘labharthi’”. 

DevD

***

This is regarding Hafta 277. 

I have lived in three cities – Bombay, Delhi, and Bhopal. I think most Indians for some reason do not know about other Indian states. Delhi people may know about Hindi neighbouring states as they may have relatives there, etc. But they don’t know anything about south India. Mumbai people do not even know where Bhopal is, and in Bhopal, educated people ask questions like “tu South Indian hai na to gora kaisa hai”. In my native place Kerala, everyone including the UP wallahs and Bihari are referred to as Bengalis for some reason. Maybe because India is so diverse, people are ignorant not just about party politics but also about socio-cultural aspects in other regions.

Prasad Vasudevan 

***

Hello,

I have been your subscriber for a while but this is the first time I am writing to you. My husband and I are huge fans of Newslaundry, especially NL Hafta. (Please, please, please read this letter during a hafta episode and make my day! ) Love the whole NL team, but especially a big fan of Abhinandan.

We are proud to be contributing to free news and your podcasts are the best part of my day. I had a question. I have recently become an NRI. How can I keep paying for subscriptions and contribute to NL Sena projects without causing any issues for you guys? Some organisations cannot accept money from anyone but Indian citizens and residents.

Additionally, Abhinandan travels to so many countries. Why not come to New Zealand? It's beautiful and we will be honoured to hear you in person. Also, we are tired of being surrounded by a diaspora so communal and bigoted. We sometimes go out of our way to avoid befriending other Indians. If you hold an event in Auckland, I might actually get to see people who see India as more than the land glorified by the sacrifices of our Dear Dictator. I know I sound selfish here but it would be nice to feel a bit optimistic at times.

Deepti Maini

***

Dear NL team,

I would like to thank you all for your efforts in this era of lapdog media. I would like to commend you all for providing useful insights and thoughtful critiques to consumers of media like us. I have been following Newslaundry for quite a few years now and I would not hesitate to say that I was stupid enough not to subscribe to you for so long until after “Charcha” went behind the paywall. I really love it.

Anyhow, I would like to say that the previous Hafta episode #479 was probably one of the best Hafta episodes to be aired. It was so delightful to hear Dr SY Quraishi. I really got to know a lot about the elections in our country and its magnanimous scale. I would never have imagined that given my limited school of thoughts regarding elections. His remarks about the three takeaways from the Rajasthan assembly election when BJP’s CP Joshi lost really ignited the spark in me to vote again. The question here being, is there any way an Indian citizen while living abroad can vote (like in the nearest Indian embassy)? I fell into horseshit of propaganda and disinformation as a first time voter years ago and I want to rectify it.

Lastly, your podcasts are really thought provoking and full of knowledge. They really put my mind to work when I’m driving long haul (I drive road trains). Newslaundry has been my companion on the roads for so many years now and will surely be for the upcoming years as well.

A general feedback is that I still miss Daily Dose episodes. 

A big wholehearted “Hi” to Manisha from the land of kangaroos. Best wishes to everyone and keep up the good ethical work unlike mainstream journalists. Also, can you please play this video on your show the next time so that some extreme followers have an idea of not portraying an elected representative like a ‘d’ucking GOD? 

Yalgaar ho!

Warm regards,

Sandeep Singh

***

First of all, compliments on the excellent work that you're doing, and I look forward to your upcoming election coverage. I just want the panel’s opinion on the general elections which are pretty much a done deal if you believe Godi media. Personally, I feel some positive momentum building towards the INDIA alliance, and I have a gut feeling that the election will be closer than we had thought. I would like to hear the panel's thoughts on this.

Vivek Munshi

***

PS: Here are some letters we missed in the past weeks.

Hi Abhinandan, 

While I’m not a BJP supporter, I believe in making informed decisions. Why do you not discuss the Hindu-Muslim issue openly? Is it too insignificant to address?

Every region faces challenges; just as Europe grapples with black and white issues (notably in countries like Germany), South Asia has its own dynamic with Muslim-majority areas. Is this a mere narrative or a real concern? How do we explain the rise of Muslim-dominated regions in South Asia? 

Some left-leaning journalists argue that Hindu-Muslim discourse is a distraction from more critical issues like employment and education. Can the right-wing not counter-argue? 

These questions, raised by my father, made me ponder. While I argued that a hypothetical Hindu nation in 50 years wouldn't necessarily benefit the common man, I couldn't shake off his concerns about growing fear among Hindus. If at all, how can we dispel such fears and dismantle conspiracy theories? 

Shivam Tyagi (written on March 27)

***

On the debate in the last podcast between Abhinandan and Manisha, I actually side with Manisha which is that the Congress doesn’t provide any other face besides Rahul. 

Say what you will, but a party that made a post only because Rahul was too incapable of achieving any post by himself is sure to make him the PM (those posts were chairman of Indian Youth Congress and Vice-President of Congress, the latter one was later removed)

Shivam Tyagi (written on April 2)

***

Dear Abhinandan,

I want to ask you, within the context of “social justice”, is everything and anything allowed? If any “social justice” activist utters or performs an act that is unacceptable to the liberal mind outside the social justice context, is it still justified? If not, then you should at least acknowledge that some acts of Shri Shri Periyar are not acceptable even within the context in which they were said. Period. There are plenty of such utterances and acts of his. You can read about it in this The Wire article by PA Krishnan.  

Ashish Kothyari

***

Dear NL Team,

I listen to both NL Hafta and NL Charcha, and enjoy both enormously. I started listening to Charcha to improve my Hindi but then realised how different they are in the news topics they cover and the guests invited, and so now I also listen to it out of sheer interest.

A question: How do you decide which topic(s) to focus on in each edition of Hafta and Charcha? Is it up to the week’s host or the managing editor, or what?

A suggestion: Now that NL has teamed up with TNM, would it be possible to have TNM’s participation in Charcha at least once in a while? I’m sure they have some folks who are fluent in Hindi. I feel strongly that it would be a good thing to provide more access to news and views from south India to those who live in north India and only listen to Hindi news reports.

Thank you all for the great and courageous work you do.

Jamuna Ramakrishna

*** 

Hello NL team, 

I’ve been following your work for several years. I have been a paid subscriber for a bit over a year and this is my first time writing in. Congrats and thanks for all the courageous journalism you do every day. I live in the US, so my Saturday mornings begin with Newsance, followed by Hafta. I usually cherish the discussion and diverse viewpoints, though I do have a critique. 

On Hafta #478, I found the whole discussion on Modi vs Rahul/Kejriwal to be a HUGE red herring when it comes to India’s system of democracy. 

Specifically, Manisha mentioned “when an Indian voter goes to vote, we choose the PM”. Ho gaya parliamentary democracy ka moye moye! With all due respect, we’re not a presidential system where the President is separate from the legislature. 

We are meant to vote for our MPs, and then post-election maths is meant to define who gets to be PM (from within the legislature). Modiji will say “mujhe credit nahi chahiye” but it’s largely to his and BJP’s credit that they’ve subverted the foundational mechanism of how Indian voters’ voices are meant to count. This is also a significant failure of our civics education where people are mostly clueless about how governments get elected and operate at the municipal, state, and national levels. 

If we continue this presidential-style system, we’re only inviting more demagogues and strongmen to govern our country. I would suggest getting a panel together to discuss how parliamentary democracies are meant to work and what checks and balances we could put in place. 

Keep up the good work.

PS: I was born and brought up in Dehradun, so I feel vicarious pride to see folks with a Dehradun connection upholding whatever is left of the free press in the motherland. 

S Srinath

***

The point made by Abhinandan on how Modi won't last a year if free press and debates were allowed finds mention in an October 1818 article written by James Silk Buckingham in Calcutta Journal. Here’s the excerpt:

“Of all the remedies proposed for checking evils inseparable from authority exercising almost absolute power, there is none that can be compared with a free press. When men know that the eyes of the world are upon them and that their conduct will be scrutinised by their enemies and friends, they are more careful to act justly than when they know that their acts will be neither seen nor questioned. It is more agreeable to all men to act without control than to submit to the censure of others, whoever has the power to render himself irresponsible will be sure to do so. 

It is the problem of law to set the limits to the exercise of his power and therefore all men in authority, especially those despotically inclined and were conscious that their conduct will not stand the test of free discussion, hate this operation of the law and also the upright administrators.”

This is reproduced in a book named ‘Facets of Law’ written by Madhavi Divan. Anand must be familiar with it if he had Media Law as a subject in his first year. In Pune University, we do it as part of the first year syllabus of LLB. 

A thankful NL subscriber. 

Renu Jha