#NLDhulai: Stop sharing primitive opinions about the South!

Hi NL Team,

I don’t want my identity to be revealed. Happy to remain anonymous.

Happy that I am one of the several subscribers of Newslaundry.

Sad that you don’t reach that you all deserve.

Happy to congratulate each one of you for your efforts towards bringing us varied opinions on issues.

Sad to let you know that I still have a bundle of issues with some of your efforts.

Happy that there are more positives than negatives.

Sad that I am gonna focus on negatives here.

Hindi-Punjabi in an English language podcast?

Happy that you have Indian listeners from across the world and also from different states within India.

Sad that there are sections of Hafta which is completely in Hindi or sometimes even Punjabi.

Happy that they add some nuance for regional stories and also some spice/fun (Punjabi quotes/accent).

Sad that we are unable to understand those funny banters or that nuance without translations.

Happy to listen to those other language segments with translations on your hafta episode page.

Sad that I have to remind you that this is an English language podcast and we are a diverse country.

Happy if I am not mistaken to be “anti-Hindi”/ “anti-Punjabi”. I/We down South are just anti-imposition.

Sad that many a times I’ve had to clarify this to many of my brethrens from above the Vindhyas.

PS: Not implying that you guys are imposing the language. But there is a feeling that you guys believe every Hafta listener understands Hindi, given that this is an English-language podcast (if i’m not wrong).

Missing nuance?

Happy to listen to wonderful lectures about nuance missing in debates.

Sad to tell you that you guys too don’t understand/don’t “want” to understand nuance when it comes to stories down South.

Happy and excited when you guys start speaking about stories from South (which is rare).

Sad and upset that they are either primitive opinions or less researched.

Happy when Abhinandan talks about Twitter not being nuanced.

Sad when the same person rants about southern stories based on tweets or just the headline of the news story.

Happy that there are two half-tamils on the NL panel, sad and disastrous that they represent Tamils and profess their half-truths and their own outdated perspectives about Tamils.

Happy that Abhinandan corrected himself with Arangetram and other mistaken representation of southern culture/news, sad that both Anand and Abhinandan keep repeating those mistakes with their limited understanding.

Happy that you guys want to talk about it though you have just glanced the headline/some tweet, sad that neither some reading of the entire news story nor some research is done when it comes to such stories.

Happy to add to your “wall of fame” about your latest misunderstanding of Kamal-Rajni politics, sad to see that Anand/Abhinandan did not see Kamal’s complete interview but just the headline (I presume based on your comments about the BJP and Kamal.)

Happy if you can bring in journalists/political analysts from South or read/research more, sad that nuance is selective in Newslaundry too.

PS: Neither a supporter/fan of Kamal or Rajini. But both Rajni and Kamal face a lot of criticism on social media based on the stand they take on issues. Rajni being mocked for seeming to be close to the BJP (given the overwhelming negativity around BJP in TN, Dhanya Rajendran on Hafta/tweet once mentioned how Rajni’s chance has diminished over the years), Kamal being mocked for restricting himself to Twitter activism and not working on ground if he wants to be in politics and some for his barbs focussed mainly on AIADMK and not on DMK also (though people hate both AIADMK and DMK, but given the hatred for national parties (due to perceived step-motherly treatment), regional parties stand a better chance.  Kamal joining the BJP is a sensational headline. Please look into Kamal’s interview and decide for yourself if that is what he said.

Anand – Objectivity, Polarisation & Exploitation?

Happy that the NL team has (also brings in) people from different ideological spectrums, sad that some of the stories clearly polarise people even more.

Happy to see Anand coming up with wonderful data collections that start from “shallow“ search on the number of tweets that a journalist he “hates” posts on issues to “deeply” researched scientific papers. Sad to tell you the truth that you don’t (atleast to me) seem to be as “objective” as you claim you are.

Happy to see Anand coming up with a list of untold/less covered atrocities against Muslims across India, sad that these get Anand’s attention only when there is a huge coverage about some Muslim’s lynching.

Happy to see Anand call out misogyny in Quran and casteism on Twitter valiantly. Sad to find that there are frequent references only to Quran on misogyny than Hindu scriptures references about caste/beef.

Happy that you want to call out bad things in every religion and put up a wonderful piece on many such subjects.

Sad that they are mainly shared more by one ideological spectrum and exploited to further polarise the society on religious lines.

Happy that you don’t intend to polarise people further and create hatred between them, sad that you have not personally introspected and made a data sheet of how many retweets of your stories have been from different ideological spectrums.

Happy to know if your stories are shared/read only by one side of the ideological spectrum, sad to know that bridging the polarisation gap/depolarisation is not an objective of independent media like NL.

PS: Anand, You are doing a wonderful job. Happy to read your tweets which have been informative. However,

1. When you tweet about Muslim atrocities only when someone is lynched diverts the issue and further polarises the society and not empathise with the lynched one.
2. When you show us no of tweets Rajdeep/Barkha posts, I would like to see no of tweets by Kanchan Gupta, Ashok Malik, Rahul Pandita, yourself, etc too. I don’t know if this is whataboutery, but it gives us only one side of the story and not the complete story. (Not sure if no of tweets conveys a comprehensive story but still.)

Okay, a question for all of you.

What do you guys think about journalists’ role today?

Can they also contribute towards depolarisation??

Why not brainstorm ideas that can reduce the polarisation without need to please everyone?

Keep up the good work guys. Hope my concerns are addressed and hope you guys read it

Regards,
Anonymous