Hafta letters: Centrist dictators, NL's sports podcast, Subramanian Swamy

Hi NL team! Hope you all are safe and doing well during these times of high pollution levels around Delhi NCR.

I have two questions.

1) For a few months now, rumours have been circulating that we might see an increase in the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Do you guys think the upcoming assembly election results, especially Uttar Pradesh, will have an impact on the decision?

2) Thoughts of the team on the meeting of Mamata Didi and Subramanian Swamy. From the outside, it looks like ambition for another Rajya Sabha term. But scratching my head on what political advantage Mr Swamy brings to the TMC?

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Happy Thursday, team! (Guess that's when you record.)

1) Thanks, Abhinandan, for recommending Real Dictators, have consumed all of it. Left dictatorship gave us Chairman Mao and Stalin, right dictatorship gave us Hitler and Mussolini. I am waiting for a centrist dictator to emerge who can put both the right and the left in their place.

2) "We don't criticise our mother in public" is the same argument we heard when Mehraj was defending the Prophet cartoon-related beheadings. We should be very comfortable in criticising our mothers, sisters, wives and kids publicly, as long as it's constructive, mothers don't get a free pass.

3) Vir Das, I am afraid, is a mediocre standup artist. Totally agree with Manisha. Glad you are inviting Anurag Minus Verma (I like the guy).

4) Have contributed to the Hathras documentary, have a feeling it would be an overseas hit and will bring to NL much-needed foreign subs.

5) Vivek Kaul got a bit of flak last week by a subscriber. Some of the fault lies with other panelists as well. Abhinandan and at times Manisha interrupted him way too much for him to come into his own. I was about to get into crypto but held back after listening to Vivek, whom I like very much.

Kind regards,

Nitesh Pandey

NL evangelist

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Hi Newslaundry,

First, a big thanks to Aniketh, Gowtham and Jude for letting me be a part of an awesome conversation (for me, at least) in the latest NL Playoffs podcast. I hope to be a part of it again in the future. Thanks also to Abhinandan for helping me reach them.

As soon as it comes out, sharing with everyone, regardless of them being interested in sports or not. Maybe some of them stumble upon your other content and subscribe.

(Editor's note: The episode is out, check it out here.)

Let me know if I can contribute more, especially in the fields of telecom, sports, comedy, music, movies, etc.

I wait for Hafta eagerly every weekend for great coverage and discussions on important topics. Loved last week's Hafta with Vivek bringing a lot of insight to one of the topics very few people in India understand but everyone seems to be an expert upon: investment.

Suggestion: Some of the fact-checking being done in your shows can be made into short videos, which can be shared on social media, including WhatsApp. I believe it’s important that we fight fake news on the very forums that it is being spread on.

Please keep up the great work!

Regards,

Vikash Malviya