Hafta letters: Private vs state ownership, civil disobedience, and how Newslaundry works

Dear NL Team,

I have been a subscriber of Newslaundry for three years now. I agree with Abhinandan on most of the topics. I like to hear the Hafta podcast for different views and different angles on the topica.

Below are my questions/observations on topics:

Transgender Washroom

Different countries have tried different methods to deal with it.

Portland made few gender neutral restrooms but men's urinals are problematic for women. So, they are now deciding to remove urinals even though they save water.

Some Ireland/UK corporate offices made single unisex washrooms for those who don’t want to use either public men/women washrooms. This makes the washroom situation different than prison.

For the question: where can we stop? I think political correctness is related to awareness, so there is no end. e.g. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for a long time, there were no women washrooms in shopping malls and corporate offices.

Private vs state-owned

I am not an economist. I just want a discussion on the Air India topic. I don’t agree with the point that Air India is not benefitting so it should be sold to private. The government has also failed in education, health, transportation, law and order.

Private doesn’t mean profit and quality service e.g. ebay, Kingfisher, Aircel, Jet Airways, Vodafone. Doesn’t Jet Airways use personal contacts to dominate other airlines? Do we expect fair business where one percent of the population holds 70 percent of the wealth? Will this not impact ticket fare? Isn’t loss because of the government’s interference and ignorance?

Where is the end to this? Next will be BSNL, LIC, BPCL and so on...

I would even say: rather than giving subsidies or loan waver to farmers, it is time for the government to rent farming land. Otherwise, corporates like Reliance and Patanjali will buy the whole farming market. This way, the government will give quality farming, as the more educated can be chosen for farming.

Employment to farmers based on qualification; rent to farmers; fair market as it will remove the middle chain.

Election candidates

In the interview with Dhruv Rathee, Abhinanadan argued that education can’t be the criteria for the election candidate. If s/he is an MP, how will an uneducated person draft policy or produce the private member bill or debate on the bill? If s/he is an MLA, how does s/he decide MLA fund expenditure?

Classic example: Kiran Bedi educating Anna Hazare on the Lokpal Bill.

Thank you. Keep up good work.

Regards,

Sachin

***

Hello Hafta team,

I've been a subscriber for more than eight months now.

Since Abhinandan mentioned a few Haftas back that Newslaundry has actually started earning some decent cash, I think it would be apt to video record these episodes just like NL Charcha is being done now. It just feels better to see everyone while they're responding to certain topics. Just like Joe Rogan does.

Second, I absolutely adore Ayush's journalism. Usko kahi mat jane dena. Do bring him on sometimes when he reports on some big stories (I know it would be hard to bring him on since he already does a lot of ground reporting and also appears or used to appear on Reporters Without Orders).

Regards,

Aroun Amitabh Dalawat

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I'm a subscriber and I listen to NL podcasts regularly. Thanks for having (mostly) sane debates about current affairs.

I'd like to know more about Newslaundry the organisation. I have a feeling it's not just me; other subscribers also might find value in this. Here are a few sample questions.

- How many people work for Newslaundry?

- What kind of things do they focus on? How many field reporters work for/with Newslaundry?

- How much prep work do you do for a Hafta episode?

- And anything else you'd like to share.

Sai Teja Pratap Surnam

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Do you think that the kind of interviews that you guys are taking ⁠— whether it's Vivek Agnihotri, Suresh Chavhanke or Manoj Tiwari — and putting it behind the paywall, you'll be able to get these people or people with similar mindsets like Tajinder Bagga for another interview if you call them again?

***

Hi all,

First a dig at Abhinandan. You said that the person who thinks Ranveer Singh is hot does not have taste. Ummm, Deepika Padukone married him, are you saying she does not have taste? Tongue slip ho gaya kya...Do you want another interview with her???

Anyway, a couple of questions and a couple of pointers.

1. This happened on both Hafta and the Awful and Awesome with respect to transgender toilets and centrism. A few subscribers kind of said that some of the views made them feel like they would stop subscribing.

Adverts influence, and therefore subscribe to keep news free. What happens when subscribers want you to take a particular line? Would you take that line or would you claim that you will put out news that you deem accurate (of course with fact checks)? Personally, I believe it’s your prerogative as an organisation but...comments?

2. Do you guys (the NL Hafta panel) read the subscriber emails beforehand? If not, please do, because it will help in creating a nuanced panel-subscriber debate.

Pointers

The lead protagonist of Bottle of Lies, Dinesh Thakur, has written for NL... Get him interviewed too.

Since my voice on Hafta did not seem horrible the week before, please let me know if you want someone to host a podcast (not more than 30 minutes) on the two topics of my interest: economics and science. This could be a subscribers' collaboration.

I am not an expert but I can try my bit and survive for 30 minutes.

Best regards (by the way, this is the new-age "yours sincerely" to end an email, it’s a courtesy),

Dhiraj

***

Hi Hafta team,

First, I just want to say you guys do a fantastic job on the Hafta. There are many podcasts out there, but the format you have with a panel with multiple voices makes you stand out and my personal favourite.

I am writing in with a question and few thoughts.

Question: There is, of course, a lot of discussion about the protests that happened against NRC/CAA, and some activists like Harsh Mander have proposed a civil disobedience movement of not providing details during the NRC census, or declaring yourself to be a Muslim and challenging the state to send you to a detention centre.

My question is: what is your opinion on doing a civil disobedience movement like this against action taken by a democratically elected government? I don't mean peaceful protests but wilful acts of not following the law or providing false details. I remember that some of our leaders like Nehru opined that movements like civil disobedience had a place against colonial rule, but when we have a democratically elected government then it crosses a line ⁠— they came to power on a mandate. We may not like that mandate but they were lawfully elected to implement that mandate.

Love to hear the panel's views.

Thoughts:

1. I would love for you to do an NL Sena project on what changes have been to school curricula and state level textbooks since the BJP came to power, or maybe just the different views of history in different states. The NY Times recently did a piece on this.

It made me think about what could be happening in state board schools. For example, I have a friend whose father is a professor in a state university and he told me there was tremendous pressure to remove entire chapters on communism and Lenin/Marx from textbooks. This is not just changing our history with respect to Mughal rule, but to change the entire concept of communism from being a global movement to a small Indian Naxalwadi thing.

2. There are often suggestions to invite some right-wingers to your podcasts. One person I have heard recently, who I felt was more coherent and a good participant in a panel, is Sidharth Yadav, the Delhi ABVP secretary. Yes, he has a habit of bringing up tukde tukde slogan quite a bit, but apart from that, I felt he was more sensible and coherent than most of his senior colleagues. So, a suggestion.

Otherwise you do a truly amazing job and please keep up the good work.

Thank you

Aditi Kavarana