Hafta letters: Anti-Americanism, diversity, and the AI debate

Drishti

Dear Newslaundry team,

In my opinion when someone is in a coma, the doctor says there is no chance to improve, the family can’t tolerate that and can decide to put an end to the pain.

By the way, I really like your work as a proud subscriber.

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Anonymous 

Dear Newslaundry team,

I wanted to ask your opinion about the recent communal incidents in Delhi, Lucknow similar to the ‘Mohammad’ Deepak case. In February, I read reports about Indian Army soldiers sacrificing their lives fighting terrorists.

Love your work.

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Sanika

Dear team Hafta and Charcha,

I am Sanika, a longtime subscriber and also a trans non-binary person and I follow both Hafta and Charcha regularly. Appreciate all you do.

Our community is resisting the horrific trans amendment bill. Please take this up. 

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Aditya

Dear team,

One of those weekends where I had time to catch up with your reporting/analysis, and remain grateful you exist. Vivek Kaul’s piece was excellent, but I was especially taken by the piece on Noida and sacred geographies. Please do discuss GDP numbers if possible.

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Mahesh

Hi NL Hafta team, 

Love the episodes and the guests you have on the show. I also read your articles and watch your videos. Have a few suggestions to improve your reach; maybe try to get more podcasts with celebrities, YouTubers or influencers and leaders that are not bhakts. 

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Supriya

I’m often staggered by the ignorance of your otherwise engaging and intelligent hosts. First in a previous episode, not knowing about the execution of Charles I, which indirectly (after the Restoration) led to the Puritans sailing on the Mayflower to America and the uneasy relationship of America with the Crown. I won’t even go into that. Now, thinking that Friday 13th is unlucky because of a frigging movie? Nothing to do with the Crucifixion, and presence of 13 at the Last Supper?

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Anonymous

I was so gutted by your opening about Friday the 13th. I dashed off a message in agony. Heard Jayashree a bit later and was relieved she knew about the ancient superstition, with 13 people at the Passover supper before the Friday crucifixion.

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Shivansh

I thank the panel for discussing my points in NL Hafta Subscribers Take 5, but I believe Jayashree’s response repeated the same mistake as the original comment. My argument is that higher inequality in India does not automatically mean people have become more impoverished. Even if the gap between the rich and the poor grows, both groups can still be better off in absolute terms. Inequality measures relative differences, not necessarily poverty.

I also pointed out that India’s poverty line has been revised upward over time, which affects how poverty is measured today. That is why comparisons with earlier decades can be misleading. I question the claim that 80% of Indians are below the poverty line, as such figures often rely on standards used for upper-middle-income countries with much higher costs of living, which may not apply to India. I also feel that most of my original argument, especially about India becoming more divided, was not addressed. My comments are made in the spirit of debate.

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Shantanu

I found this episode interesting, though the rampant anti-Americanism felt more reflexive than thought-through. Which is why I recommend the recent episode of Radio Open Source (a podcast that Abhinandan often mentions, to his credit) which offers a more nuanced, yet realpolitik view of the situation. There are no innocents in this game, and moral high is long gone, if it even existed to begin with. I also recommend the book King of Kings, which your guest also recommended, for a terrific insight into the Shah’s reign. The consequences of the US and the UK’s misadventure in Iran in 1953 are still playing out. 

Just so you know, just like you guys in India, not everybody in the US has gone loco. Dissenting voices are loud, visible, and active. And waiting. 

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Prashant

I enjoy your shows and appreciate the thoughtful discussions on complex issues. I believe large language models are often misunderstood as tools that simply generate text. In reality, they are built on the Transformer architecture and can help analyse large information sets, summarise research and automate workflows in fields like medicine, engineering and research. However, they need proper guardrails to avoid biases or inaccurate outputs.

On the Iran conflict, I feel the war has been building for years due to deep hostility between Israel and Iran since the Islamic Revolution. While Israel’s current government deserves criticism for its actions in Palestine, Iran’s proxy attacks have also contributed to mistrust. Many people in both societies are uneasy with their current leadership.

In my view, the US administration has acted recklessly in allowing the conflict to escalate, though the war remains unpopular domestically. From India’s perspective, I believe China remains the greater long-term strategic challenge.

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Rahul 

Hi team, 

It’s been a month since I bought the NL Subscription even though I have been consuming news from your platform for a while now. Great job. Keep up the great work. 

Views regarding Hafta 579: Although I enjoyed listening to Shawn’s perspective on the ongoing conflict, it would be great if you could invite an Indian subject-matter expert (SMEs) on the region. An Indian SME would offer reflections from India’s perspective, which can differ significantly from an American viewpoint. I’ve been following the conflict through The Hindu’s reporting by Stanly Johny and The Red Mike’s Saurabh Kumar Shahi, who was reporting from Iran just a week before the conflict erupted. If possible, inviting either of them could provide a nuanced deep dive into how the conflict is unfolding and its implications for India, particularly in relation to the US, China, and key regional players. 

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Sneha

Dear NL team,

What is with your panelists’ strange opinions on self expression? I wrote to Abhinandan about his views on crying. This time it’s for Anand who said Rahul Gandhi hugs his sister, so is an amateur Indian. 

Our culture is very repressive and we are discouraged from displays of vulnerability, softness, authenticity. Instead, there is normalisation of strength, stoicism, even of intimidating behaviour. Yesterday, in Parliament, Kiren Rijiju also criticised Rahul for hugging Modi. 

Strangely it’s Modi who’s the one on a hugging spree even with people who are clearly uncomfortable. Is that normal?

But please hug your sisters. Hug them often! Maybe Rahul Gandhi is showing the ‘seasoned’ Indian how to show affection.

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Revanth 

It’s not a world of restraint or reason anymore. The bombing of Iran and the continued mess in the Middle East by the US and Israel feels unnecessary. They disguise the attack with humanitarian reasons, though the real motives lie in their own heads…Cannot expect anything better from a man in the Epstein files. His campaign promised to stop wars and MAGA, yet he has done the opposite. There is so much filth and moral bankruptcy surrounding the US-Israel governments.

India’s stance has been disappointing. We once stood for certain values, but now seem guided only by our needs. Even this silence does harm. It’s hard to look up to this leadership and bureaucracy around it.

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Anonymous 

Dear team ,

I just wanted to know if you have considered working on the  story pertaining to the usage of AI on a point of sale software provider to mine data of restaurants. Under what legality was the data stored in the cloud accessed by the government and whether due process followed to mine the data. This has been referred to as the biryani scam in the media. 

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Abhijeet

On the comparison of Modi with previous prime ministers, I do agree with the points discussed. Never before has a US president been so touchy and thus never before have we been more restrained with our words. We desperately want to be in Trump’s good books and we are clueless on how to navigate him. The more desperate we become, the more stupid we look. We are like the cool kid who realised he was only cool because he hung out with the real cool kid, and has an identity crisis now. 

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Arthi 

Hi lovely NL team,

As a tech professional, I sometimes feel I should either be overwhelmed by AI’s potential or underwhelmed by the latest news about its limitations and the re-humanisation of some jobs. But I actually may lean more toward Anand’s perspective, clichéd as it might sound. Maybe there is some lived truth in sayings like “what goes up comes down,” or in concepts such as regression to the mean, or even the simple idea that everything may balance out in the end.

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Shoor

Skepticism of AI should be encouraged since there is a trillion dollar machinery compelling you to unquestionably embrace it. The true cost of an AI query is still not known, since VCs are currently heavily subsidising it. Sustainability of this model will determine its actual impact, and the numbers are scary.

Also, I don't believe Indians have any inferiority complex when it comes to their heritage. Most Indians need all but a second to enumerate the millions of things our ancestors discovered, and the civilisational pinnacle Indian empires climbed. If anything, a little shame about the past would do everyone a lot of good.

I don’t know if NL publishes rants, but I just visited my hometown Kanpur, and I have a hate-letter about mid-tier cities that I’d really like to publish somewhere. 

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Rama 

Since I have studied decolonisation in considerable detail, I would like to mention that most discussions on this topic, even on NL platforms, centre on epistemes and symbols and not on structural reforms. 

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Benny

I am a Newslaundry fan and enjoy all the content. My favorites are Let Me Explain, Newsance and Tipanni. 

I have a comment on Abhinandan's opinion that there is no equivalence between world order led by US or western countries and Iran. This opinion is contrary to extensive evidence. US (and western allies) have nuked a country (twice), gone on to kill millions of innocents almost every decade since WW2, toppled democratic governments, and installed and supported brutal dictators. 

And many of their leaders are now invoking religion to justify their cause. What’s the worst you expect from Iran? 

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Ritobhash 

I really enjoyed Hafta 576, especially Sudhir Mishra’s insights, and I wanted to recommend Waterworks by E L Doctorow to Abhinandan. It’s a short mystery told from a journalist’s perspective, and I’d be curious to hear his thoughts on that narrative voice.

Listening to the discussion on critical or anti-establishment theory in DU didn’t align with my own experience. As a law student, I found campus politics dominated by NSUI and ABVP, with little real ideological difference beyond identity politics. I’ve felt that dissent carries stigma and that the promise of a constructive academic future seems dim.

Academically, I didn’t encounter much critical thinking at DU, though I did at Ambedkar University before administrative shifts weakened that space. Recent developments – like the “Urban Naxals” mail, a Hindu Studies centre, curriculum changes, and more contractual posts – make me feel academic freedom has declined. Still, I agree that left-leaning voices must engage with culture, not just critique it.

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Amar 

Dear Newslaundry team, 

When Sudhir sir recommended Assi, I will watch it. In 2019, I watched Article 15 with my family, including my sister who was a minor that time. I didn't watch Kabir Singh even on OTT which made me happy.

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N747 

Sharing a video explaining how even meritocratic systems inadvertently favour the rich. Do send it to Sudipto Mandal.

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Amar 

Hi team, 

I feel the AI Summit was just another photo-op. On the debate about AI producing Shakespearean drama, I disagree with the panel. Given time, AI may create derivative works that could still be marketed as modern classics, much like how popular culture shapes literary taste today.

Regarding the RSS, I believe its apparent flexibility is strategic rather than ideological, aimed at consolidating power. Lastly, I feel Shardool is often not given enough space to make his points on Hafta. As host, Abhinandan should ensure more balanced participation.

Overall, great work. Looking forward to a possible Ahmedabad meetup.

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Abhijeet

Really great discussion on AI this week. Thank you.

I always appreciate Shardool’s contributions. He often presents a completely unique perspective. He did this week too, but I felt he was going down an AI sceptic rabbit hole.

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Bhargav BS

Dear NL Team,

The RSS intellectual project is purely Brahminical. Hinduism as a codified religion is primarily the caste order. The claim to a larger umbrella Hindu notion does not contradict this, it is the mechanism. Their gymnastics with Brahminism being incompatible with that larger umbrella notion does not mean that is not their intellectual project. You are essentialising a fundamentalist Hindu order, and that order is Brahminical. Their ubiquity does not signal pluralism, it signals successful hegemony. 

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Nitin 

Hi Manisha, Abhinandan and team,

Thank you for keeping the last embers of the fading fourth estate burning. I have been a long term subscriber from when I was living in India. I recently realised I do not listen to your podcasts regularly anymore because they always struggle to play on your app here in the UK. I have tried reinstalling the app and even renewed my subscription with a new ID, but nothing works. I even got a friend to subscribe, but they sadly did not renew because of the same issue. I am not sure if you are aware of this problem for listeners abroad, just wanted to highlight.

Manisha, please never stop doing Newsance, I genuinely do not know what I would do without those 15 minutes of salty, snippy, delicious goodness on Saturday mornings.

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Hamek

Hi NL Team,

I absolutely love your work, especially podcasts. I discovered podcasts after moving to Australia. My driving job leaves little time to read or watch, but plenty of time to listen. Over time, this has become my favourite way to get information. NL recommendations helped me explore shows. While each offers something unique, NL stands out for its honesty, facts and sharp insights on Indian and global issues. I’d love regular episodes of RWO, LTA and What’s Your Ism, as they truly reflect NL’s spirit.

Thank you for your integrity and hard work. Your voices keep me company on the road.

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