Hafta letters: Post-truth eras, political awakenings, electoral bonds

Climate fast led by Sonum Wangchuk in Ladakh is not getting the eyeballs, as it was anyway expected. Have not seen attention from NL, request your team to have appropriate coverage in this please. 

Saju Verghese

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Are you aware of any media organisation using AI to get insights of data revealed related to electoral bonds? Do you have any plan to use AI to do this or other things related to reports? I believe NL’s subscribers may be well aware of AI tools and if you have any ideas about using new tech to digest this or other data, they can help. Do you have any plans to get help from subscribers? I think you should start with smaller projects (like beta features) to see how feasible it may be to get help from subscribers. Thoughts?

Rhishi

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Abhinandan, thank you for all the amazing work. I am guessing that when you said you “cracked the most difficult exam”, your sample included IIT-M, with your recent visit. It might seem as saying how in general, these Institutes don't impart any political/civic sense. However, I think the fact you went to an E-Cell event at IITM reflects the openness and eagerness of us to be aware of politics and society around us although it was for entrepreneurship(can you share your talk there if possible?). 

My own political/social awakening happened there, thanks to many spontaneous interactions, which has also one of the best environments any engineering college can get, and I agree a majority of students could still be like the way you saw but not all. 

Something embarrassing for me: saffronisation of education institutes: IITM hosts Kashi Tamil Sangamam, pilgrimage which is arbitrary, unrelated to them and enraging for me, Annamalai gets garlanded by professors and two hours to speak as a political stint.

Anonymous

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I am writing this to congratulate Abhinandan and the NL Let’s Talk About team for producing such a well-rounded, well-researched and balanced episode on the Palestine-Israel issue. I don’t think you all have been acknowledged and thanked enough for this. 

I also think that most of us do not appreciate how challenging it is even to pick the people you would interview, let alone conduct a whole interview. Those of us who don’t have skin in the game or influence can only educate ourselves and pray for peace. Empathy for those who are suffering should not be contingent on national alliances and cultural bonhomie; and bloody conflicts should break our hearts at least to the point where it forces us to seek truth, understanding and empathy. I felt that in this episode. 

Meraj 

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In a conversation with my father-in-law, a Modi supporter, over electoral bonds, I realised the following: In this post-truth era, people consume news in their own echo chambers. Despite acknowledging that news is biased, he believes his sources offer factual information and refuses to consider alternative sources. He insists that he doesn’t support any party, but has seen Modi do great for the country. He refuses to accept the reality, which he believes is my truth based on false narratives. At the end, we were drained to even raise issues like farmers’ protests, Manipur violence, wrestlers’ protest and so on. 

It’s disheartening to see that people will never acknowledge the flaws in the current government. What’s even more concerning is their reluctance to engage in questioning the government's actions. My existential and rhetorical question then is – how does one even convince someone to look at reality? 

Ishita 

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I think the messaging around the electoral bonds case is too complicated for people to understand right now. In the past, we have understood scams through a speculative figure, like “XX rupees ka ghotala”. People may not understand what happened in the 2G or coal scam. The associated figure drives the narrative. This case as well needs to be broken down for the public to make them understand the financial, social and environmental costs to the public because the government favoured certain corporations in exchange for opaque donations. It’s important to bring about issues like extortion etc but everything needs to stand behind a tentative figure. What was the cost to the public?

I know it will be a difficult figure to come to but that's where the investigations should lead. It’s funny that Amit Shah says on a public forum that donations are in proportion to how much power BJP has. The next obvious question that should have been asked was – why? You are admitting to quid pro quo?

Anonymous

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Happy belated birthday to the NL team, I would like to congratulate you all for the great success and growth you all have achieved – from being a media critique website to taking over the mantle of mainstream news when legacy media was sitting in Godi. It’s been a pleasure to follow your news site. After the electoral bonds case revelations, I think you should change your tagline to “Modi apni vasooli aur Newslaundry apna hafta kabhi nahi chorte”. LOL . 

I am having withdrawal symptoms since I have not been able to get my Daily Dose. LOL. Would like the podcast to start back especially with election season here. 

Ibrahim

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This is Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series back again!

Your discussions on Indian mentality and revolution for the past three Haftas were really good, I suggest y’all should dedicate a full episode on it. Referring to last email, I guess propagandists won't work in India due to the discussed “mentality”, and cross-sectionality of Indians would end up making everything very niche.

What is up with everybody’s obsession with calling whom they don’t agree with a communist? Brother, being a communist in India is a good thing, WE ARE A SOCIALIST NATION! The last time I checked, communism is a sub-class of socialism. Stop with your AmeraBrain propaganda. (Saying this to the brain-broken professor who was discussed last episode.)

In the last email, I was trying to just point out how pea-brained Arnab is, that he can’t create his own propaganda and resorts to copying the American. Brother, get creative and make something that us Indians would enjoy. I – a lefty OBC with a useless commerce degree who doesn’t even subscribe to his world view – can come up with better propaganda, and he gets paid to do this shit. I guess this is why the BJP is cutting their funding and giving it to YouTubers >_<.

Please make the full videos of Hafta and Charcha available on the application. And please make it easier to download videos on the application too, I resort to copying the link through share and downloading it on YouTube. Still can’t download the video when it is on the native player of the application and is not an embed link.

Thank you.

Comrade Shepard

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