A review of NL Hafta by Ashutosh, Sagar, Arvind, Dhiraj, Omar, Vivek, Vidhi and Aditya

Hi Team,

I am writing this email on the eve of the election results, and not sure who is going to form the government (I guess NDA). Just wanted to thank you guys for all the hard work, you have done till now; and will keep doing for many more years.

I also wanted to remind our fellow Newslaundry audiences about democracy; democracy is not only elections or governments, democracy lives each and every day in each one of us. To make democracy live and thriving please help the news. It’s the fourth pillar (in my view the most important one). So subscribe to independent media (Like Newslaundry) and  “Keep the democracy running”.

Thanks,

Ashutosh Singh

***

This is in response to what Manisha said about changes in abortion laws in Alabama. If I recall correctly she responded to the change in laws as something ineffective as one can simply go to other states and get it(abortion) done, and it being only a bus ride away.

So that part became a discussion on the implementational loopholes rather than a comment on the apparent mindset (or something more deeper, which I expect NL to discuss, like you did with why Indian media would question an Aiyar rather the PM) that may have lead to such law being made in the first place.

I don’t think something that basic and personal (as a decision/choice) should even be an inter-state bus ride away from you as a citizen.

Again, this may not be her overall stand but that’s how it sounded in the discussion.

Btw, last week’s Newsance was superb!

Sagar Patwal

***

Dear Team Newslaundry,

In Hafta #224, and in recent podcasts before it as well, there have been some discussions on caste, “privilege” and caste-based reservations. While I totally agree on the logic of SC and ST reservations, I am not sure about OBC reservations. I have read Falling Over Backwards by Arun Shourie against them and would like to know more, especially from those who support OBC reservations. Can you do a deep dive on this topic comparing

a) SC and ST reservations

b) OBC reservations

c) Reservations on the basis of economic weakness (in principle and not on NDA’s recommendations).

Also, please avoid discussing nonsensical/provocative utterances of our political leaders or minimise time devoted to discussing those pearls of wisdom. Love your work, though think we should keep out guests like Mahato, Naqvi, Bhagat as they are shallow and seem to come for self-promotion or to trumpet (and not discuss) their views. You should have invited Lallantop in these times of election.

Regards

Arvind Nangalia

***

Hi NL Team,

Great election coverage. I have written earlier which article made me pay up and which article vindicated my payment. So congratulations again!

Trying to be succinct.

Privilege

Liberal ideals will always enforce the idea that we should look after the less fortunate. I am not one of them. Neither am I someone who does not acknowledge my privilege. But then my privilege is only a generation old because my grandfather was keen on education of his children and my father took the route to go to a foreign land (UAE). My caste is backward but then if the piece on Caravan is believed, 85 per cent of the Indian population is Shudra. And that there have been many “neo” upper castes (neo-Kshatriyas in every state of India; Shettys, Naidus, Nairs in the south for example) after Independence. In other words your privilege is defined by the decisions of your forefathers after Independence. Cities in India were a great reliever of this caste divide and in enriching personal and familial wealth.

Hence for me this privilege discussion makes no logical sense for two reasons:

1) The huge number of people in the population that refuse to change and take advantage of government schemes. I believe a great deal of money for various schemes goes unused because people do not use it. One example is bank accounts, outrageous reasons for not having one.  

2) Anybody with a limited IQ would realise that if you want more money to be generated, you need more resources. And you need to make use of all your resources. A father who does not realise that educating his girl child has greater probability of her getting a job and paying up for her marriage is being STUPID. But that is the reality for 50 per cent of India’s population. A case in point: the Phogat woman wrestling stars.

3) Taking a stand, if Ambedkar and Martin Luther would not take a stand for Dalits and African-Americans, things would remain the same more or less.

The problem is the mental block not privilege. Like the proverb says: you can take a horse to water but cannot make it drink! A pop culture reference if I may add, in Gully Boy, the father keeps saying you will never make it, people from our class never do and the rest is…

I know the response from most of you. More likely I will be bashed for being insensitive. Wish I can get a response from Anand. So yes, if you do have a podcast and need somebody to talk against “privilege concept”, would love to get in touch.

Modi’s Shenpa

I am just going to rephrase some of what Madhu said. Modi’s Shenpa is not from his childhood. Its from 2002-13.

He was hounded for 2002 till 2013. Whether it’s right or wrong, that’s a discussion for another day.

My basis for this:

1) Rajdeep Sardesai’s book on 2014 documents how Modi was the darling of NDTV in the 1990s. In Rajdeep’s own words: Koi nahin mila tho Modi tho hai panel ke liye.

2) His fascination for tech and others in the Rubaru interview with Rajeev Shukla.

Watch and read both these and you will realise his feeling of “betrayal” and his disdain for journalists.

 Even in the presser by Amit Shah, there were quite a few times when Modi’s expressions were more like “ya, whatever”. Personally I believe that the older you grow the greater is your feeling of betrayal, hence expecting Modi to “forgive and forget” is a tough ask.

For the record, I think the separate section for NL letters was a great idea, us subscribers feel like we are getting special treatment :). You should have had a subscriber poll on Facebook or the website before taking it off.

Anyways that’s my two pence…

Best regards,

Dhiraj Bhandary

***

Hi Abhinandan and NL Team,

Many thanks for reading my email on the NL Hafta. Keeping my part of the promise, I have become an NL subscriber from today. I am so happy that NL has not disappointed me and I can proudly flaunt my subscription and urge many of my friends to subscribe as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed the NL Hafta with Chetan Bhagat, especially the discussion on burqa ban. It became even more interesting as there is a recent controversy here in the UK where a doctor has been suspended for asking a mother to remove her niqab for the consultation as he couldn’t hear properly what she was saying with regards to her ailing child. We in the medical fraternity think that this is an unusually harsh decision by the GMC, the medical regulating authority of the UK. It would be interesting to see what is the outcome of the inquiry and I shall keep you updated. But overall as a Muslim, I believe that the Muslim community has to bring in radical reforms from within and the niqab ban is a good start. I have seen the increasing demonstration of religiosity among all religions, particularly among Muslims. Growing up in ’90s India, I was never aware of my religiosity until the political upheavals of 1992, 2002 made me realise that how easy it is to mainpulate religious sentiments. Coming to the UK, I thought that the religious differences would blur. Unfortunately in the last 11 years, I have only seen the division based on religious lines become more acute, perhaps not the extent of what is present in India, the outward display of religious symbols especially amongst Muslims has only increased. I see far more Muslim women wearing the hijab than what used be 20 years ago. The siege mentality of Muslims has to change, but at the same time the generalisation of all Muslims/Islam being a threat by “mainstream” media is at an unprecedented levels. And this is where news houses like yours come in to present and rectify the skewed views.

I am hoping that you would provide a comprehensive and impartial coverage of the election results, starting with exit polls analysis. May I suggest you to do a live YouTube exit poll/poll day analysis. I would certainly look forward to that. This has been indeed the most polarised campaign by far in recent times. I would be very interested to see the results of Bhopal where the Hinduvta brigade have…

The lack of health facilities in India is appalling, which unfortunately is never an election issue. Comparing this to the UK, where NHS issues can make or break an elected government, makes me think there is still a certain lack of maturity among the Indian electorate. I am hoping that once the election dust settles, NL can do a special coverage as to why health issues do not matter when it comes to electoral politics and how our politicians cleverly keep such issues away from the eyes of the public.

As again, I believe NL is doing a fantastic job and I feel privileged to be a part of it. I am hoping to see you all at one of the Media Rumbles if I am India at the same time. Till next time, happy podcasting!

Regards

Irfan Mohammad Omar

***

Hi,

Thanks for including my mail. I would like to further elaborate my earlier point regarding fence sitters and communal and secular terminology. This will be a long email.

Josy responded to my opinion by saying that people go for confirmation biases when they click any website. I don’t know whether its true for fence sitters or for those who have already made up their mind and try to rationalise it by watching right wing channels. What I meant was not only related to watching channels of Right or Meft. Let me give you an example. Vinod Dua in an episode of Jan Gan Man Ki Baat described all the BJP supporters as this: “There are three types of bhakts…” Listening tC it pissed off even those friends of mine who were congress supporters. I know BJP tries to create this narrative that the Left has monopolised the intellectual discourse in this country for long, not leaving the space for Right, and they (the BJP) are trying to undo it. Even Ramachandra Guha acknowledges the Left’s monopoly in educational institutions. One example: they say that Modi is anti-intellectual. Mr Josy Joseph also said the same in response to Modi’s “Khan Market Gang” jibe on this week’s Hafta and it seems everyone agreed to it. First of all, Modi didn’t say that he was talking about intellectuals. We all know who he addressed. And I also think that it was a quip to make it look like communal. Modi knows what he is speaking and what benefit he can derive from it. He is a shrewd politician.

So Mr Josy assumed that Modi was targeting intellectuals when he said “Khan Market Gang” and declared him anti-intellectual. It would have been appropriate if he said that Modi is anti or against some or even majority of intellectuals because lndian discourse is dominated by Left-leaning intellectuals. But is Modi against Rightist ones like Bibek Debroy, Jagdish Bhagwati, Gurucharan Das etc? Or people like dear Mr Joseph don’t consider them as “intellectuals”? So the point I was trying to make is that these things affect fence-sitters, at least in my surroundings. Mr Josy says that fence-sitters go for confirmation bias. If that is true then, I guess no BJP supporter would have enjoyed Kunal Kamra or Varun Grover’s comedy which is mostly BJP bashing. Every time their videos go on trending not because of only anti-BJP viewers in my opinion, of course, based on my small sample size. I think we have a tendency of underestimating the intellect or thinking ability of ordinary persons who actually vote!

Abhinandan, as you said, the BJP is ideologically driven party and that’s why its communalism is dangerous. The Congress has no ideology and that’s why its tolerable. I agree. And then you pointed out that RSS is behind BJP and their “ideology” is well known. You then suggested I read Bunch of Thoughts of Golwalkar. My two cents in this regard;

1) BJP in 1984 was a Gandhian party. It was talking about “sarvodaya” at that time. And Congress was more Hindu than BJP. In fact, the RSS supported Congress, and not the BJP, in that election. So BJP was not communal at that point of time. Congress was.

2) BJP got two seats in that election and its Gandhian ideology didn’t appeal to masses. After that, Rajiv played that communal card and then BJP came into the game. We all know what happened after that. BJP became an untouchable party and rightly so. But congress was forgiven: not by voters, although. NDA government came and went. Saba Naqvi mentions in her interview at Lallantop that BJP wasn’t making communalism an issue in 2004 elections. Pramod Mahajan said to her that “now we (the BJP) don’t need to raise such issues as we have done a lot of works and our work will get us re-elected”. So they went with the “India Shining” slogan in that election and lost. In my opinion, it was a tragedy in Indian democracy. Not because the BJP lost but because communalism as an issue won, not because Congress used it to win, but because the BJP didn’t use it and lost.

3) Yes. RSS is behind BJP. But RSS isn’t a monolithic and static organisation. Just like “Congress system”, the RSS is also an umbrella organisation, representing various views on issues and on the idea of India. I haven’t read Bunch of Thoughts but I have heard that it is full of bigotry. But it was written long ago and even RSS don’t subscribe to that view. Please read Walter Anderson’s The RSS: A view to inside to know more about it. I am not defending the RSS here. I am just saying that one should criticise a subject based on rational grounds. The RSS has evolved since its inception. Even Bapu was racist in his earlier years in South Africa and evolved with time (as per Ramachandra Guha). Nowadays, RSS is even co-opting Gandhiji. People who don’t like RSS assume that this RSS’s ideology is still the same as it was in the past which has been written in the books of Golwalkar or Hedgewar. They criticise its past and don’t want to give it a chance to reform itself. India has diversity in its DNA. No monolithic organisation can survive in India if it doesn’t reform itself. RSS is doing the same. They don’t have any problem with cow killings in northeastern states. They don’t have any problem with linguistic diversity of India. “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan” slogan is abandoned by them. Because this slogan cannot survive in India.

4) I am aware of incident of lynchings; 46 cases of lynchings have been reported since 2014. It’s wrong. No one can justify it. But politics also happened around it by both Left and Right. People have this criticism of Modi that he didn’t speak up against it. He spoke after a week of the incident which seemed a tacit approval for such lynchings. I bet even if Modi would have spoken about it on day one, people would have found another nuance in his behaviour to criticise him. But still this atmosphere of hatred, especially on mainstream media and Twitter, cannot be justified. The BJP didn’t do enough to prevent it if not actively contributing into it by those “rogue” ministers/MPs. That doesn’t mean that the whole country is at war with itself. Not all BJP supporters are Muslim haters. If that would be the case then everyday there would be riots. And 46 cases of lynching obviously don’t represent the behaviour of 135 crore Indians. But this is not to say that there is no discrimination against Muslims and Dalits. There is. And it’s more of a societal problem (with a history) than a political one.

5) BJP’s contribution lies in the fact that its rise has made India a truly multi-party system. It has strengthened the democratic process and given voters a choice. Before BJP, every non-Congress experiment failed at the Centre. Congress was soon back to power within two years even after draconian Emergency. Now, no party can misrule and expect to come to power just because there is a lack of choice. Congress has to struggle hard since a few years to prove its worth. BJP was also going through this same phase (sort of existential crisis) after 2009 elections and before those big scams which gave BJP the oxygen to breath. So no party can be complacent about its future. And there lies BJP’s contribution in Indian democratic process.

Of course, these are my subjective opinions and I don’t expect everyone to agree it it. I am not a blind follower of the BJP either. In 2013 I was a Congress supporter despite its scams. I used to think on this line: that BJP is communal and Congress is secular and if BJP would come to power, the country would be in chaos. So better we should live with Congress’s corruption and stop BJP from coming to power. Later, I got swayed by Modi wave and sabka sath sabka vikas, and sitting on the fence since then. At least, I would like to believe that I am no blind supporter. I oppose the BJP and RSS on many issues: such as Sadhvi Pragya’s nomination, garlanding of convicted criminals by Jayant Sinha, and I oppose every word comes out of the mouth of the likes of Sakshi Maharaj and Anant Hegde. Lastly, everyone tries to rationalise their biases. Perhaps, I have also done the same in this long mail. Thank you for bearing with me.

PS: In the US, Democrats were conservative and Republicans were liberal in the past. Now, the situation is reversed. Similarly, in 1984, Congress was more Hindu than the BJP. Later, it has been reversed. Ideologies aren’t like tattoos, at least in case of political parties.

Thanks and regards,

Vivek Tripathi

Follow-up email 

Hi,

This mail is just a little footnote to my earlier long mail.

“Anti-intellectual” remark for Modi is just like BJP and its supporters’ remark of “anti-national” towards its opponents. They both assume themselves as the nationalist/intellectual and think of others as anti … because those others don’t subscribe to their views. The BJP is a political party and it will do such things to get votes. It’s cold calculations. Every political party would do and say “things” to get elected. Expecting morality out of a political party would be naive. But when intellectuals or journalists use such words like anti-intellectuals, anti-national, bhakts, libtards, sickulars, durbari/Lutyens media, Godi media, etc. without much thought, it reduces the level of discourse. Perhaps, I am being too pious here. But I think we need to be a little hypocritical. Because if we don’t then those days are not far when people would start using hardcore abuses in our public discourse, the inauguration of which has already been done by a few politicians.

I read Aatish Taseer’s piece in Time. I found it a shallow understating of Indian politics. He thinks that people rejected the Congress’s so-called elite culture in 2014 forgetting the fact that was rejected long before 2014. Various state level parties from grassroots have emerged since the 1990s. Emergence of vote banks along caste lines, and caste based parties itself is a rejection of that Delhi-centric elite culture. He just applied a western template to Indian politics without putting much thought about it. He was right at many points but overall his article lacked depth.

My each word in every mail was uttered with utmost politeness. I respect Josy Joseph. I read his book a few months ago and liked it.

Madhu is best.

Follow-up email

I would just like to clarify one thing regarding Shekhar Gupta and the Jet Airways episode issue. Abhinandan repeatedly says over a few episodes of Hafta that Shakhar Gupta was praising Naresh Goyal in his Cut The Clutter episode all the time and he gave only 30 seconds to the real issue. First of all, it’s obviously exaggerated by Abhinandan in a light-hearted way.

Shekhar Gupta talked about Jet Airways in multiple episodes of Cut The Clutter. In the first episode, he praised Jet Airways’ service quality and brand which no one would disagree, despite the talk of cronyism and its inefficiency these days. In that episode he praised it and then I went on his Twitter page and commented on that Cut The Clutter episode tweet that “you should have disclosed that Jet Airways was partner in your Off The Cuff initiative before praising its service”. I saw one Off The Cuff episode on YouTube and there in partners’ column, Jet Airways was written.

He didn’t reply to my tweet but in next episode of Jet Airways, he first mentioned about his Jet Airways service connection and then explained the issue. So I think he was talking about it just for the sake of transparency. In a recent episode of Cut The Clutter (GM crops and Bangladesh), he talked about a Delhi University professor’s research but before that he disclosed by saying “I must disclose that he was my alma mater” and then proceeded to the issue.

In my opinion, this shows that he took my tweet seriously and said those things about Jet Airways for the sake of transparency. I am taking the pain of writing this email because at present, I find only Shekhar Gupta’s Print as the most balanced one, and overall relatively less biased. I don’t read Newslaundry so I cannot comment on it. I only listen to Hafta which is Left of Centre. They try to rationalise their Left-leaning bias and that’s okay.

Vivek Tripathi

***

Dear NL Team,

Making sure my message is conveyed in minimum words, let’s come straight to the point.

It’s disappointing to see NL Hafta being converted to a book-promo platform. How does it serve anyone? Of course your guests get a chance to provide a one-sided view of their book but in the absence of any analysis of the book (because of course not all the panelists have read these books), appropriate questioning or scrutiny of the book’s content, your endorsement and support of these books seems counter to the ethics of NL in particular and journalism in general. You ask what’s the problem, here are few: the guests come with the understanding that they come to talk about their books only not to contribute to the discussion of news or an issue; the guests say good things about NL and you promote their books without ever reading them (feels like you scratch my back, I scratch yours); as far as the news of the week is concerned, after having spent a major portion of Hafta on discussing a book, you aren’t left with time to discuss the news; out of an hour-and-a-half or two, most time gets allocated to a single person, instead of equal participation from all. I don’t even want to imagine what happens if guests start appearing on Hafta to serve personal interests and NL becomes dependent on access to people.

Do interview people on their books, but in my view, Hafta would lose its value if reduced to a book-promo platform. It may be difficult, but I’m sure NL would strive to find a balance.

Best wishes and love to all. Keep up the good work

Vidhi Pareek

***

Dear Abhinandan and the NL Hafta Team,

The last couple of days and the entire campaign season has left a liberal-minded Hindu like me feeling defeated and voiceless. If in 2014, we could console ourselves that aspirations of the nation got Modi the mandate, this time the people have voted for outright hate and bigotry. The bullying of liberal voices on social media by the Chowkidaars and the openly fawning narrative of the legacy media towards the ruling party has left Newslaundry as the only sane outlet for me to consume my news from. Your voices are a soothing reminder of what India stands for people like me, what I expect from public discourses, one that is critical yet respectful. The next five years will be tougher if the previous five were anything to go by. Maybe it’ll be easier because we are used to it now. However, as a privileged liberal citizen who isn’t as boisterous as the Right-wing, we have the responsibility of speaking up for the less privileged entrusted upon us. For a long time, I would not express my political opinions, respectful of the other person’s opinion and almost shy of a disagreement from the other side. I now realise that I and others of my ilk, who almost feel that the only way of being democratic is to let the other people have their say, are a huge part of this whole radicalisation of the Hindu society. The buffer zone in our society has a huge void now. In the battle between the radical (for those times) ideas of Dr Ambedkar and the loony fringe of the Mahasabha wouldn’t have ended in our Constitution had it not been for buffering voices (who were also Hindu elites). Currently, the acceptable, non-fringe Hindu is missing from the political space where everyone has to prove their so-called Hindu credentials (Atishi’s case for example) to stay relevant. I feel broken and feel like I’ve lost when I see someone like Atishi losing a Parliament seat while Sadhvi gets in.

Also, to add the long list of centrist definitions on the Hafta, most self-proclaimed centrists are lopsidedly soft on the Right. Their arguments are heavily based on drawing false-equivalences, and masked, disdainful bigotry towards the minorities. For instance, the reason one needs to strive harder to protect minority interests in a large nation like India with numerous faultlines is that the sheer numbers of the majority mean that they would never really be in any threat, with or without a framework. The same cannot be said about the minorities. The centrists conveniently miss this point. There is no real center in most issues, as Abhinandan has said before. Also, in their attempt to play the centrist, they often miss the truth in the issue. The most honest position is mostly never the centre!

I would like to end this rather chaotic and not very coherent email thanking NL and the Hafta team for keeping the hope of good reporting alive. If you had a role to play in the lead up to 2019, you have an even bigger role (in our little way) to keep this democratic framework (that is on life-support) alive! We all owe it to all those countrymen who want sanity to prevail. Also, a special thanks to Manisha and Meghnad for enduring the torture of the likes of ArGo and RSS. I shudder to think what would their version 2.0 look like. Can it get any more fawning? Now that they cannot say “the previous government’s failures are responsible”, it only gets tougher for them!

Thanks again to the NL team. You’ve earned my support for the next five years as well. Keep going and keep honest journalism alive in these times of despair. My idea of India lives on through these voices.

Regards

Aditya Ranganathan

Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University