Hafta letters: China’s re-education camps, Yasin Malik, the need for more nuance

Hello NL,

Your China expert was casually mentioning the Chinese economy giving cancer to hundreds of millions of millions of Chinese. He is only off by a factor of 100.

Maybe it was just a figure of speech, but he should have represented an accurate picture.

Thanks,

Mahendra

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Hello NL Hafta team,

It's my first letter to you folks, which I never thought I would write. But I am writing after listening to you guys talk about Chinese re-education camps for Muslims in their country.

I just feel that you guys have also started picking easy topics for which you don't have to bear any consequences. In such a time when several such comparative things have happened (within two decades), or are still happening inside India itself on a larger scale. Just the numbers of political people lodged in jail without any trial would say a lot.

Let me ask a few questions. How many people are beaten in those re-education camps? How many people are killed in those camps? How many people are sent to jail for a lifetime after failing in those camps?

Do you have any authentic data, or are you just talking based on channels like Zee News?

Please don't become another privileged class of people watching and observing things from small size optics, like primetime panellists.

Thanks,

Rajeev Bihari

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Missed Abhinandan in episode 381, and thanks guys for taking my email in episode 380. Okay, "just to be precise" (following Anand's cue), Manisha did hold the fort well in the discussions. The guest panellists Fahad and Mehraj really added flavour to the discussion. However, I would like to remind you that you guys should leave interpreting history alone. If you want to discuss Mughal history, bring a historian onboard. Ciao and keep doing what you are doing guys.

Korak

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Hi team,

I am a big fan of Hafta but want to express my disappointment with certain aspects in the last one. This is similar to an issue that Anand had also brought up some Haftas ago.

The subscribers continue to support and listen to Hafta because we believe that the legacy media is not doing the job. We have laughs and sighs when we watch Newsance and Tippani. I thought the discussion on Yasin Malik was severely lacking. I would have preferred the discussion to be centred on arguments for and against the judgement, rather than discussing the tickers of Times Now and similar "news" channels. I thought Manisha had good points, but wasn't able to understand the whole issue after going back and forth between different aspects. Have a bit higher expectation from NL. Love your work a lot.

Deepam

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Yes dear anon (382 anon letter writer), everyone suffers from “no context forwards mocking Congress”.

I got the same clip and when I shared the whole 36-minute video with that troll, he agreed that the answer was not bad. That same troll sends me a lot of “Hindu bachao” messages, to which (after I saw factual replies didn’t work) I have asked him to not message me. He lives in Mauritius and is most vile when it comes to minorities. He keeps telling me I am anti- Hindu and I am pseudo-secular (again out of context because I don't chase him with forwards at all, I am anti-human contact).

I think “folded hands” emoji is the best reply. Alternative better reply is: “If Hitler thinks I am pseudo secular, I am okay with that.”

Much love to NL and all subscribers of NL. May the tribe increase.

Anonymous

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Hi team,

I'm writing this in reference to the conversation with Jabin Thomas Jacob about India's infrastructure along the India-China border in Arunachal. If anyone is interested in seeing the current state of infrastructure please check out this series of vlogs in Arunachal, by this travel vlogger called Nomadic Indian, who's hitchhiking in the Easternmost part of India. He mentions in passing things like the lack of cell phone connectivity and the fact that quite a few people need to make day-long treks to buy essentials.

This is not a judgement about India's infrastructure in that region, but I think it'll help visualise what Dr Jacob was saying.

Thanks,

Jesal