A Review of #NLHafta from Vikas Pal Boadhh and Prakash Iyer

Hi guys,

Writing to you with nothing specific in mind. Have been following NL for couple of years. It is good initiative from you guys. Do keep it up.

NL gives critical and MOST importantly independent views about current events. After following news for a long time, I have kind of developed habit to wonder about bias/motive before all main-stream reports. But with NL, I can be at rest, not because you guys are unbiased but you declare it in bold. So it becomes easy to understand views and the context one is coming from.

Finally regarding subscription. I was brazen enough to listen to AS’ plea for subscription (during Hafta) and various other requests but never subscribed. But today I read Madhu’s article ‘It’s time to outrage’ and I really felt need of independent media and the support media needs from citizens. So I subscribed today.

Keep up your good work. All the best!

Regards

Vikas Pal Boaddh

Hi all,

I have been a subscriber for two years. NL is probably the only refreshing and yet enriching indian media source. There are a few columnists here and there in mainstream indian media, but thats about it.

I like how in NL sometimes politically incorrect stuff does get said, like in Hafta 79, the tired line ‘rape is not about sex, its about power’ did get a reasonably good response. Forget public forums, I find it hard to oppose it even in safe spaces with close friends. So often I have felt like responding to that trite line with ‘To say rape is never about sex is like saying all thefts are about kleptomania’. A lot of times its just about money or the object that is being stolen, not some complex mental disease.

And since I appreciate NL for its political incorrectness, I like Sekhri the most. Even though I often tend to not agree with him entirely. In this episode and in many others he has often mentioned how the Modi govt’s development agenda is a smokescreen and its about all the bigotry that is associated with RSS/VHP etc. Lets assume for the sake of argument that Sekhri (and many like him) are correct, try and be a cold hearted bigoted bhakt for a while. Modi has been in power for almost 15 years, CM from 2001 to 2014 and since then as PM. If the agenda is to go around polarising and killing muslims and dalits, and establish hindu rashtra, is he not moving at a glacial pace? Isnt he quite an under-achiever in that long term goal? 15 years and all we have is less than 1k musliims killed in just 1 riot,and some sporadic incidents of cow vigilantism?  Even The Fuhrer had only 12 years in power to achieve his agenda, and he got on with his Solution to Jewish problem pretty quickly after coming to power. India has more than 15 crore muslims, and probably similar number of dalits, at this rate what can be achieved in his 5 yrs as PM? I am assuming at this point Sekhri will at least slightly agree that Modi has been an underachiever in that, and if so, could it be that its probably not the agenda? And set of factors that result in all this bigotry could be a complex combination of incompetence, bad calculation of political mileage, and of course, some deep seated bigotry? Just like the missteps of AAP are not purely due to ideology. All I am curious about at this point is that is Sekhri (and ppl like him) really convinced that establishing a bigoted hindu rashtra is the main agenda?

Prakash Iyer