If the Samajwadi Party is able to hold sway in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh election, Akhilesh Yadav will be the most credible PM candidate for the opposition coalition in the pseudo-presidential elections we are headed towards.

Reasons being:

1. Relatively clean image

2. UP's 80 seats

3. Right age profile

4. No major emotional opposition from voters in general, unlike in Mamata Banerjee’s case.

The idea of making elections about a face rather than prospective candidates or even a party owes its modern form to the likes of Prashant Kishor. Having seen things on the inside at IPAC, they consider this almost axiomatic.

Morrnie Stoner

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Thanks for doing a wonderful job and being a refreshing place for those who look for authentic news. Two quick points:

1. Your discussions are largely representative of one side of the view (ie, any Modi/BJP/government). It will be good to have someone who brings the other perspective (not faltu logic but facts) to have a fair discussion. Applies more to polarising topics like the Uniform Civil Code, CAA, etc.

2. I don’t agree with a letter you had where Abhinandan was asked to not talk about his personal views off topic (eg, real estate). I like to listen to those chats as well. Let’s be human and acknowledge the variety of opinions on different topics one may have. This is not a school exam viva that you can’t go out of syllabus.

Thanks again. Love Newsance & Hafta.

Proud subscriber,

Nimish

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Loved listening to Mehraj on Hafta 339. Every point he made merited a separate, longer discussion. I am sure a lot of subscribers could use those as a starting point for their own research, like I do with Meghnad's explainers. Abhinandan manning the Newsance desk was a delight. That Gullu and Co clearly felt the heat of a subscriber-led movement brought renewed optimism towards the cause. Tippani is now my favourite Hindi show (despite Atul's PhD-level Hindi), competing with Ravish's Primetime. Abhinandan, your record as an RTI activist and founder of an unproven (at the time) business model, helps me convince friends that your motivations are true and your heart is in the right place, and that we must do all we can to support Newslaundry and similar outfits for our own good. Much love to Manisha, Raman, Anand and the stellar group of reporters you have put together. Loved the subscriber’s idea of funding trainee journalists and would support that, though I feel she also meant including subscribers to work with the team on a voluntary basis for NL sena projects.

Keith Rebelo

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Hi NL team,

I'm a subscriber based in Wellington, New Zealand. Last week, I was listening to an episode of the NPR podcast It's Been A Minute with Sam Sanders where Sam spoke to a NYT reporter, Max Fisher, who wrote a story about democracies around the world hiring private firms to promote vaccine disinformation. Regarding India, the report talks about a Canadian firm being hired by the Indian government to discredit unfavorable coverage and high Covid death tolls. I was wondering if the panel was aware of this and if you guys could do a detailed report on it. I know this doesn't come as a surprise to us but perhaps for the first time there's some evidence that the government is directly involved in muddying factual reports and only concerned with PR. I am attaching the links of the reports and the podcast episode.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Sharval

Disinformation for Hire, a Shadow Industry, Is Quietly Booming

Vaccine Disinformation For Hire; Plus, Hannah Waddingham Of 'Ted Lasso'

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Hi Hafta team,

Re Hafta 339: I was intrigued by Mehraj's comment on how India as a nation is an artificial construct. This has been my belief for a long time. India should be compared to a continent such as Europe. There is nothing in common between a Kashmiri and a Keralite, for example. The artificial nationalism driven by the Delhi-based political elite has been detrimental to the survival of several regional identities. It has also engendered the Hindi chauvinism and the North Indian identity that is driving most of the political discourse today.

This topic is worth investigation and discussion.

Venu