A Review of #NLHafta from Gokulkumar Nair, Sriram Murlidharan and Mohammad Azharudin

Hi Newslaundry Team,

Myself Gokul and I am finally a subscriber 🙂

Incase you are wondering why I waited for so long (I have been following news laundry for about 3 years)…its because you said haft was going behind the payment wall in 3 episodes. Jaise sachin ko dekhne ke liye paisa dena theek lagta hai, waise hi haft sunne ke like paisa dena theek lag hai!!! and its the best among all the other outlets there like caravan, minibus, swaraj, open, first post etc etc…

I have made a lot of grammatical mistakes on purpose in the email here… just for the Anal in Angrezi anchors 🙂 No Fun intended…

My family goes on on drives a lot in Canada and often hafta is our on-route entertainment. Sometimes we repeat old episodes and then discuss the views expressed in the episode to what happened since then.…. I think revisiting episodes/issues helps listeners focus on some issues a bit better… rather than moving on every week to a new issue….

And that’s where I like hafta where every episode has some sort of finality which I may or may not agree with…but you guys do a good job to hash out most issues within a specified time without saying “India wants an answer”.

I respect Madhu and how she is able to discuss issues with gravitas (when she can really opt for a “Know it all” persona”) I think that takes some humility…and also abhinandan who literally has a position on most of the issues and can simply dish it out as good as he gets. Kudos!!!

Ranga Uncle is to Newslaundry what Hema Malini is to Kent…. I think he has been marketed as too intelligent.. i would like to hear him on the podcast after 3 pegs!!!….I feel Uncle is sometimes oblivious to the human instinct of “Action/Reaction for instant gratification”. 

One slight tippani…if I may…

Would request you guys to try and catch some episodes by Peter Mansbridge on the canadian news circuit… he is a seasoned journalist and like most canadians is damn polite and he i think has figured out how to conduct debates or point of view discussions in a sensible but interesting manner ….very articulate without resorting to NDTV kind vocabulary, rabble rouser or crying victim.

Ravish used to do a peter esque presentation, till he got carried away with his own image of “brooding chacha”…. life is not so bad ….

Hafta does does a damn good job at that…

Lastly, I have a request.. 

Can you do an episode on the United Nations & India’s involvement in it…. the more i read of it… the more I am demoralized… its like all these world bodies like WHO, UNICEF, FIFA, IMF, World Bank, Interpol, Olympics etc… are nothing but a cess pool of human apathy and utter BS. I don’t know why people think speeches at the UN on anything make any fuck of a difference or impact to anybody…

Thank you for reading through… if you did not read through…. know that I miss some episodes too..LOL ….specially the ones hosted by the Angrezi teachers …I think fr their show… every maya sarabhai needs an monisha sarabhai … that will make for interesting episodes….i feel!! 

A subscriber

Hi Guys,

At the outset, let me say that you guys do a great job at news analysis. I have been a subscriber and a donator of sound equipment to Newslaundry. My donations from this point on are going to move towards organizations that are actively involved in combating climate change. This comes at a time when Trump, a climate denier has become the President of America.

The situation in regards to Climate change has become pretty grim. From current trends it looks like large parts of the world are going to be uninhabitable in the coming 50-60 years. There will be major shifts in weather patterns. India will be among the worst affected due to its population and long coastline. I want to pour my resources the best I can to educate and empower people towards lowering our carbon footprint and try to avert this looming disaster. I am sorry if I have ruined the mood at Newslaundry but we as a species are at a vital crossroads and the time to act is now. 
Here is a documentary by National Geographic that talks about this issue. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N26b4lgWMVI   

I want to request you to bring awareness among your viewers about this issue. I have great respect for you guys as journalists. Hence I request you to pay more attention to this topic. Hopefully I can become a lifetime member at Newslaundry if it will be at the forefront of the fight to reduce the effects of climate change.

Thanks
Sriram Muralidharan

Dear Madhu Ma’am

Good Evening. Trust you are doing well. 

Let me begin by saying I’m your fan. I learnt how the media works by watching your interviews. Specifically, your interviews of Madhu Kishwar, Aniruddha Bahal and Ramachandra Guha and Karan Thapar were the ones I enjoyed the most. Listening to you separate facts from the cleverest of spin by the media is one of the things that I look forward to every weekend on NL Hafta.  If I was running a school on Journalism I would have made it mandatory for my students to watch your interviews and if possible do internship with you so that they can learn what courage, integrity and objectivity mean in journalism. 

I’m writing this email in response to your comments in the last Hafta. You said something to the effect ‘some communities treat/value life differently and hence are prone to pressing the nuclear button because they believe they have 72 virgins waiting for them in afterlife.’ The first time I heard it I was aghast that a fair and objective person like you could peddle stereotypes like this. Let me explain

1. The idea of 72 virgins: They aren’t mentioned in the Quran at all. This is a talking point that Bush and his cronies put in the media. They lapped it up conveniently as it was easy to blame an unknown enemy than face facts. If you are really interested in knowing the facts I can give a detailed theological and linguistic explanation on what ‘houris’ mean, instead I request you to watch this 10-minute TED talkby Lesley Hazelton on this topic. I’m quoting her because an agnostic Jew’s analysis will have far more credibility on this matter than me, a practicing Muslim. 

2. Facts on who pressed the nuclear button: You spoke about who is likely to press the nuclear buttons. Please help me understand
3. Which community has the history of dropping bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki even when they were ready to surrender? 
4. Which community has the history of dropping grenades and artillery rounds loaded with white phosphorous in Fallujah? The impactof this was so devastating that to this day babies are born with deformities (children born with multiple heads, serious brain damage, missing limbs and with extra fingers and toes) in Fallujah.
5. Which community has the history of killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad from Apache Helicopters like they were playing a game on a PlayStation? 
6. Which community has the history of dropping Nineteen million gallons of herbicide thereby poisoning Vietnam’s beautiful triple canopy forests and country side? 3.8 million died in the Vietnam war.
7. Which community has the dubious distinction of having secretary of state who condoned killing of half a million children in Iraq by saying ‘it was worth it’? 
8. Which community has the sanctimoniousness of claiming to be champions of human rights while bombing innocent people and calling it a ‘bug splat’, ‘mowing the lawn’? 

I can go on and on and on.. but I hope you get my drift. My understanding is that none of these people have any belief in afterlife and yet history is witness that they have committed war crimes just so that their empire, bank accounts and egos swell. You look at their rhetoric it is full of hate and willingness to go to war and press those buttons again. 

Yet you say that the community with belief in afterlife (we all know whom you referred to) is most likely to push the nuclear buttons. This is unfair. If you said Pakistani Govt instead of communities that believe in afterlife (I don’t believe this though, the way you stopped mid-sentence and rephrased gave it away) it would be absolutely fine. Kishalay and Lt. Gen Panag said it in the previous episodes and nobody had a problem with that statement as we know the history of Pakistanis. My problem is with you smearing the entire Muslim community (technically speaking, the concept of afterlife exists in all Abrahamic faiths which is 54% of the world). Statements like these remove us from mainstream and make us the “others” who need to be “reformed”. 

To rebut you can point to what is happening in Yemen, Syria and the history of Middle East. Muslim countries are also dropping bombs and killing people (fellow Muslims mostly). However, please understand that they are doing it to save their gaddi’s NOT because they believe in afterlife. The common factor amongst all of them is their greed for power and money not faith or belief in afterlife. 

If the Muslim community actually believed in afterlife and accountability to Allah, you would see people with integrity, character and truthfulness. You would see people willing to do whatever it takes to make the lives of their neighbors, relatives, cities/countries they live in and world itself a better place. Most of us (Muslims) claim to believe in afterlife but our actions don’t reflect our belief. If it did the world would be a very different place. And that is why I’m committed to make this change happen just like you were, when you nodded in agreement with Arun Shourie when he said Hindus have to live their message. I can say with certitude that both you and I are not interested in bombing anybody. So let’s direct our energies towards raising awareness and fighting those whose history shows that they will not think twice before bombing us. 

Many Thanks
Azhar