Hafta letters: Mumbai police vs NCB, Newslaundry back on YouTube, the Indian conservative

Hi NL team. Love your work, I just have one question:

Why is Mama troubling their banjhas and bhanjhis so much (India Today lawsuit against Newslaundry)? Bacche hain maaf kyun nahi kar dete?

Vasu

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Hello,

Do you guys think that there will be greater conflict between the states and centre in the future? Especially those states that aren't being governed by the same party as that in the centre? I'm referring to how the Maharashtra govt is using the Mumbai police to counter the NCB. There was also the conflict between the CBI and Mumbai police during the SSR case. Do you guys think this will lead to security issues in the future? It's sad that there isn't enough conversation about the potential ramifications of agencies being used as political tools.

Thanks,

J

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Hello NL team,

I love you guys and I did not even know that it has been over two years since I’ve been a subscriber and an evangelist by bringing it up in conversations with people and telling them to pay for news. Newslaundry (and IPAC) have been responsible for changing the mindset and exposing a dud engineer like me to reality. Lots of thanks for that. But to see you cringe at something that I cringe at too makes me cringe even more! And that is why now I’m taking a break from the podcast at least and would rather prefer to listen to 3 Things or The Big Story and consume news and not “news ki dhulai”.

I would request the panel to be more prepared and articulate (and rant a little less if possible :P) in the podcast. I still will continue to support Newslaundry because I’m privileged and I strongly believe in paying for good content (the reports are great).

Also, I gifted my dad a subscription but it’s very difficult for him to get to the website and use it. Mobile application would really help, waiting for that.

Love,

Piyush Kalra

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Just saw the latest Newsance episode – welcome back and oh my god! Itne guts kahan se laate ho NL team! Very proud subscriber! Keep it up !

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Hi NL team, great work on showing the middle finger to India Today. I don’t know about other subscribers but I will always stand by you guys, no matter what! Independent media like yours is the last beacon of hope for us.

Big fan of Manisha, Atul, and Abhi and commander Gau aka Meghnad. It would be great if we could see more sarcastic sketches in Newsance or maybe a new show altogether. Also would like to point out the government can track subscribers' emails to the actual person, if they wanted to. So I would just use alternate email ids which are not used anywhere else and not linked to your name and address.. please get a better tech team to manage your website, I see so many problems.. would be happy to contribute to that Sena project as well.

More power to you and stay strong!!!

Kay

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Can we please have Tippani and Nuisance in the podcast feed as well with audio version only? I know I'll miss Atul's muffler and Manisha's eyebrows movement :)

Thanks Abhinandan for the podcast recommendations, I am glued to Real Dictators, and haven't missed anything from Open Source.

Faizan

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Hello NL team, congratulations on your triumphant return to YouTube.

Keep fighting the good fight, you've got our back and we've got yours.

Due to the size of its states and the number of seats thus allocated, it seems that the whole country bears the brunt, and will continue to do so in future, of whatever the cow belt decides.

In light of calls to resize states like UP and MP for administrative reasons, I was wondering if your team has done an analysis/report of whether past restructuring (Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh etc) has resulted in any tangible benefits or just provided regional chieftains to build their own dynasty? While I don't see it happening in the near future, I was wondering if this is the only way to ensure checks and balances of any kind.

I would love to hear Aakar Patel on the Hafta. His new book The Price of the Modi Years might not be the answer to WhatsApp messages but will at least have most metrics in one place and be a tiny, useful anti-propaganda shield.

PS: I know with Mehraj temporarily not available, Jayashree's workload has increased, but it's always a pleasure to hear her on the show and I'm hoping she can squeeze in some time to make it happen.

Keith Rebelo

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I am writing in response to recent letters regarding inviting more RW voices. I want to ask the panelists, what exactly is a “RW voice” in an Indian context?

According to me, the so-called RW voices are really Hindutva sympathisers. In the US, RW means one who is pro-market and supports conservative values. I found the following list of conservative values from a website of a US Republican congressman. You may agree with some of those. But these values, according to me, are not the values espoused by the current government and their sympathizers.

I feel in India, LW/liberal (in the context of US) voices do exist, but really very few RW (in the context of US) voices exist here. According to me, the Hindutva worldview can't be bracketed into a left-wing or right-wing worldview, which even RSS's Dattatreya Hosabale said in a recent press conference. And I also feel even you and people in the media should refer to the so-called RW voices as Hindutva sympathetic voices to avoid confusion.

If you are interested in conservative voices, I recommend you call Jerry Rao. He has written a book called the Indian Conservative and has appeared on Amit Varma's podcast as well.

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Hello!

Will keep it to the point.

I have upgraded to “gamechanger” as I promised.

Ask the Hafta panel to discuss Saurabh Dwivedi joining India Today Hindi as editor and if it will affect the direction of the magazine or will change Saurabh totally.

Discuss former CAG Vinod Rai's unconditional apology to Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam, more so since Abhinandan was part of the India against corruption movement.

Please ask Manisha to interrupt less in Hafta discussion.

Thank you!

Ashu