Hafta letters: Abhinandan missing Hafta, Haridwar hate speech, Indian democracy

Hi NL team!

Can we please have Abhinandan sir not miss any more Haftas in the coming weeks especially when the election season is warming up because it is not the same without his great remarks and insights! Also are the yearly Ramnath Roenka awards still on with Akash sir?

PS: In last week's Hafta it was great to hear Raman Sir speak much more. Loved his insights, please continue this way Raman sir!

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Wouldn't it be great to have a short YouTube clip (featuring Abhinandan) that introduces the viewers to everything that Newslaundry does? All the products (Hafta, Awful and Awesome, Charcha, Tippani, articles, etc) should be mentioned there so that subscribers know what they get when they take a subscription. Pay to keep news free is fine, but with so much value NL is offering, it is criminal not to highlight them. Love to everyone at NL. Cheers!

Rohit

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Dear NL Team,

I am in no sense a legal expert, but I have spent substantial time reading up on this topic and wanted to share it with you guys, please give opinions on it.

The 104th constitutional amendment extended article 332 (reservation of SC/ST in legislation) for 10 more years but not 331 and 333 (Anglo-Indian nominated seats in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha respectively). This in itself was somewhat controversial at the time, but I found a different point of contention that relates to the Telangana legislative assembly. The assembly has a strength of 119 and with the governor’s power to nominate one Anglo Indian under 333, it meant that the assembly had a total sanctioned strength of 120. Article 171 allows states with a total sanctioned strength of more than 120 seats to have a legislative council which Telangana has, but because 333 has not been extended by the parliament post-2020, after dissolution of the present assembly total sanctioned seats in Telangana will be only 119, making their legislative council unconstitutional under 171! To add to this under that same article, a legislative council can only be disbanded by a state assembly by passing a resolution with a special (2/3rd) majority!

Hence in my opinion, it should lead to a catch 22 where it will be unconstitutional for the legislative council to exist or be dissolved! Is this me overthinking or is it genuinely a gaffe on the part of the parliament? It’s not that it can’t be easily resolved but I found this observation interesting!

Opinions?

Ayush

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Loved when you had Anurag on the show. I need more Bahujan and Pasmanda voices on Hafta, please!!!!!

Wamique

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Dear NL Hafta,

Recently some videos were leaked of a ‘Dharam Sansad’ in Haridwar where comments were made about Hindus needing to kill Muslims (in self defence, of course). While horrifying and terrifying, this was actually surprising to exactly zero Muslims in India. This is how 'some people' win elections now.

Question for the press: while this is undoubtedly newsworthy, it also motivates some voters because they agree with the opinions expressed in the videos. In America the press reporting on every crazy thing Trump said resulted in him getting millions of dollars of free publicity. Is that the case here as well? What is the press's duty when it comes to this?

Finally, thank you all for your work. Hafta is a little reward at the end of each week, and I really appreciate it.

To Jayashree: keep up the rants, they're excellent. But I don't understand why, when you're tormented by all the Hindi, you don't ask your friends to write to NL Hafta using some Tamil words. It would be a good experience for the other members of Hafta.

Many thanks,

Zafar

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Hi Hafta team,

I had written to you previously regarding the plight of resident doctors.

I understand that the news might have been covered, but like Manisha said, what about the mental state this pandemic has left young doctors in?

I just saw the video report by Areeb Hashmi about a Covid volunteer.

I was hoping maybe something like that could be done. Shouldn't be too difficult doing it in Delhi, I suppose. The past two batches have essentially become Covid specialists. The personal and professional toll it has taken on them, I cannot even begin to put into words. Please do consider it if something is possible along these lines. I am being so insistent and persistent only because the quality of human stories that NL does, can create awareness and impact. Doctors are always seen as a privileged lot, maybe we are too generally, but these last two years in India have made me feel like an amateur trapeze artist without any safety net.

Neha

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Hi, I have a question for everyone. Do you guys think Modi has the power to end elections in India and if he does, why is he still allowing elections? Do you think he won't allow a peaceful transfer of power if he loses?

I think Indian democracy has always been dependent on the benevolence of strong prime ministers. Nehru, Indira and Rajiv could have all ended democracy. Indira Gandhi did it for 21 months and there was barely any resistance. She could have remained a dictator, she chose to have elections, no one forced her. Would be interesting if you guys shared your views on this.

N