Dear Madhu,
I had to literally pause the podcast and write this email. On the incident of a CM getting slapped, your comment was not only insensitive but also very regressive.

First, you victim-shamed him by calling him a slap magnet that’s like calling a girl at the receiving end of harassment an attention magnet. Further, you justified the aggressor’s action: ki usne toh slap kiya, lekin tumne roka  kyu nahi.

Thirdly, you give up the fact that you admire Modi and Shah because people fear them. And it’s Kejriwal’s fault that people don’t fear him.

I thought that was supposed that’s how it was supposed to be. The CM is supposed to be loved and accessible to people.
You are right, no one in their right mind would slap Modi or Shah—because not only them but their families would all be slaughtered.

I respect your experience and look forward to your opinions on most issues. But this is just not right. You need to seriously rethink your comment.

Regards,
Pranay

***

Dear NL Team,
I have been a listener of Hafta since the first time YouTube recommended it and just for a couple of months, I have managed to uplift myself from a mufatkhor to a subscriber (only because I started to get my stipend).

I love to read the articles and listen to the Hafta panel while travelling. Love Abhinandan’s rant now and then, and most of all love Manisha’s point of view on different issues.

I eye-roll almost every time when Madhu ma’am has an American analogy. Sometimes it’s relevant and many times it’s just like “someone kill me, please”. I would like to know about Indians in American politics, if and when the subject opens up.
I just have one suggestion: it would be better to have links for articles trailing similar articles or the previous articles of the same series. It’s cumbersome to track previous articles of the same project. I would also like to see few news pieces in science in the future if possible.

And lastly, love Rajyasree’s hilarious take on movies/series in Awful and Awesome and the combo (Abhinandan and Rajyasree) never lets down the audience in entertaining the listeners.

Your friendly neighbourhood citizen,
Jaykumar Mahajan

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Hello NL team,

This is an email referring to Abhinandan’s claims that the ease of doing business has not improved under the Modi government. I would like to share an NYT article, where they have spoken to small and medium-sized business owners who have benefited by the supposed reduction in the red tape. Could you guys please review the article and tell us if it is an accurate portrayal? I live in the United States, so I am not really sure what to make of it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/business/india-modi-business-red-tape.html

It’ll be great if you guys could provide further context and discuss this article on the podcast.

Thanks,
Jesal  

***

Hello NL Team,

Have been a subscriber for three years now. You guys have been doing a fantastic job and I have had no complaints and have never regretted my subscription. One thing that irks me is to have to click on a separate podcast to listen to the amazing letters that your listeners write, I am sorry, this is something I strongly dislike. Please fix this unless you have an absolutely strong reason not to. The fact that podcasts are 2 hours long, in my humble opinion is not a strong enough reason.

Thanks,
Balaji