Aayush

I think Bengal politicians moving lines is just what has been happening in Bengal for a long time (coming from someone who has only an external view of the state and has been to Bengal for 6 months out of 26 years of his life). Isn't this an extension of the usual case of the ruling class in India (yes, I believe it is a different class, not related to everyday people) looking out for itself, which has basically been happening since we got independence? What, in your opinion, could be something a normal person could do to try to fix it? Otherwise, these idiot f***s will keep taking our taxes and spend them on themselves as if they own us.

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Oren

Hi,

I love your work and the team's efforts in keeping public interest journalism alive. Kudos to the entire team. I have an 8-year-old, and I often think about how she should get into the habit of reading news. I started reading newspapers at 10, and that has shaped me. I would want something similar for my daughter and for the kids of her generation. 

My daughter's school has a newspaper subscription to get them into this habit. Has NL considered creating a fortnightly or monthly newspaper specifically for kids (subscription-only, of course)? I understand you may need to consider the commercials and the viability.

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Rohit

I have watched 2 seasons of the web series Freedom at Midnight. In the series, they omit many details, particularly VHP, RSS, Savarkar, and even Nathuram Godse. 

It frames Gandhi’s assassination solely as a reaction to the 55-crore fund release to Pakistan fast, while ignoring prior attempts on his life. It portrays communal violence as one-sided, like it's a retaliation of Muslim communalism from Hindus; there is no Hindu communalism in the entire series. Nehru is portrayed as always sidelining/undermining Patel. There is no role of Ambedkar except a footnote at the end. This subtle sanitisation of history feels far more dangerous than overt propaganda like Dhurandhar. Thus, I feel we will become like Pakistan, where the so-called liberal voice is also centre right or communal, and there will be no real reform in any political or social space.

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Vishnu

Hi,

India was never so cowardly when it comes to its own people. I'll keep it within the limit. India, being a developing country, never stopped us before. I don't see how anyone can justify the government in light of the current events. Manmohan Singh, the weak PM and a puppet as some people like to say, was and always will be stronger than the current one, who learned from their RSS leaders who wrote mercy petitions to the strong and attacked the weak. China, Iran and other countries have stood their ground against the USA, and even Pakistan does what they want without losing any support, whereas we have to be very careful and still get attacked, and the USA actively supports our opposers. There is no playing both sides on this, and why with this government? There are scams every day, complete opacity on their actions, protestors and people are jailed unjustly without any “emergency”, oppressed communities are treated horribly, normal people are highly taxed while corporations aren't, etc.

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Rohit

For the book club, A Suitable Boy is too big for people who want to get into reading. Abhinandan said he wanted an Indian author to start the book club. You could have picked up any other book with a short, engaging non-fiction. There are plenty of good Indian authors such Devdutt Pattanaik, Atish Taseer, Manu Joseph, VS Khandekar, or Abhinandan’s favourite, Chetan Bhagat.

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Srinath 

Abhinandan was called out for seemingly using the word “patronise” incorrectly when he didn’t. The word patronise does, in fact, mean “to be a patron of” while it also means to “adopt an air of condescension or superiority toward” someone. 

If you continue patronising the audience by assuming they won’t know the difference, they might stop patronising you. 

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Navnoor ( AI Summary) 

Hi NL, 

Congratulations on the CBSE investigation and to Sarthak for choosing NL over Godi media.

I have two constructive criticisms. First, during the discussion on communalism in Hafta 593, the absence of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom (I prefer not to call it a riot) was striking. Discussions often draw a line from Babri (1992) to Gujarat (2002) while overlooking 1984, despite many progressives highlighting that continuity. Similarly, the anniversary of Operation Bluestar received little attention outside the BBC.

Second, I was unconvinced by Anand's defence of Indian diplomatic prowess in the Helle Lyng episode. From my experience in Canada, I've seen diplomats respond to difficult questions with generic talking points rather than substantive answers.

Finally, Anand often appears to defend the Indian state more than to examine it critically. Is that an intentional editorial role? Please take this as constructive feedback from a subscriber who's been following NL since before COVID.

Regards,

Nav

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