Hafta letters: Assembly elections, Newslaundry’s 10th anniversary, Karnataka hijab row

I am a subscriber living in the Netherlands. The Sena content has been stellar: I was compelled to contribute. Please consider having a PayPal option, had to contact the subscription team.

The budget, followed by Basant’s reportage from Uttar Pradesh, showed me different Indias: there seems to be political incentive in keeping the lowest denominator where it is.

The coverage from Goa led me to an engaging conversation with a Goan counterpart here; they were taken aback by how well-informed I was. Case in point, if a well-informed electorate is not a news organisation’s imperative, it is not a news organisation. I am proud to say that I pay to keep the news free, and the people I know, well-informed.

As a potential video idea, I would like to suggest one on the anti-defection law. In my understanding, the idea of party-whips on policy is an insult to representative democracy. Given the current Catch-22 environment, I would like to ask the panel’s opinions on a realistic way out.

Cheers and thanks!

Shubham W

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In last week’s Hafta, Mehraj claimed that international publications like Financial Times and the Economist have a neo-liberal bias when covering countries like India. As evidence, he said that the Economist was a strong proponent of Modi due to supposed economic reforms.

However, that is plainly false as the Economist actively refused to endorse Modi as prime minister in the 2014 election, even when it was cool to do so.

I understand Mehraj has a socialist perspective, but I expect more from Newslaundry home panelists to fact-check their statement.

Aryan

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I just listened to the Hafta which celebrated 10 years of NL. Congratulations to your team!

Manisha gave a vision of it replacing TV news. I think essentially you are on the path to doing that. But having a continuous telecast on YouTube may lead to deterioration of quality of content due to pressure to fill time. My suggestion is to have more daily and weekly segments which are habit forming to watch/listen to. Plus there should be a live broadcast and/or a discussion panel whenever major events are happening, like election results, budget announcements, emergency announcements/situations.

Keep up the good work, cheers!

Vinay Suchede

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Hello NL team,

Two things:

I wanted to share a report about the freedom convoy in Canada. This is the group that is leading the trucker protest in Canada which has not faced the same level of resistance and scrutiny by the police or the establishment media. This article is a left perspective of the group.

Also, this link is a series of articles about the supply chain failure during Covid and the related inflation. This focuses on the US but is relevant to India, I think.

Please let me know if you want to bring on the editor of the magazine, David Dayen, on to Hafta to discuss. I can try to reach out or maybe reach out to him directly.

Regards,

Mahendra

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Dear NL team,

Congratulations for the 10th anniversary. Great to have a vision for the next 10. Hope the discussion with the stakeholders will continue.

I appreciate your idea of stakeholder participation in news infrastructure. Like you wish to say that there are 20,000 offices available to Newslaundry, would you not like to say that there are 20,000 reporters? Do you see stakeholder participation in news generation? Can news organisations be run as a cooperative?

You highlight the problem of the advertisement economy in news. What about industry owned news? Isn't that an even bigger threat?

You tend to restrict yourselves within the geographical boundaries of India. There is an Indian diaspora that can be your stakeholders. How do you plan to include these people?

By the way, I offer a place to stay (for work with reasonable amounts of fun) in Western Australia, if you ever need it.

Cheers

Abhi

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Hi NL team,

I am usually all praises for your work, but this time I do have one correction to bring to your attention.

Last Hafta, Abhi mentioned that Germans are not proud of their nation and the concept of national pride is missing now because of the Nazi past. Not true, I live here and I am a naturalised German citizen and can tell you that Germans are very proud of their nation and what they have achieved as a nation. I agree they are ashamed of their Nazi past and this very acknowledgment makes them better, and they are working to improve their image internationally.

I do feel this Nazi past has been thrown at their faces to many times and it is time to move on. Germany is much more than just its Nazi past. I seriously hope that seeing the current state of affairs we don’t end up like them in the future.

Also, I am a yearly subscriber and would love to have Hafta access on my Spotify feed. Do let me know if this can be done. Thanks and keep up the great work.

Kay

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Dear NL team,

Congratulations on the 10th anniversary, keep up the good work.

However, I was a bit disappointed with last week's Hafta. As you usually do for any milestone, I knew that it would be free for all and wanted to recommend it to a friend expecting it will be on the union budget, but you guys preferred speaking about the schoolgirl’s hijab.

Even on the Karnataka row, somehow none of you, not even Manisha (my favourite), slammed wearing burka or hijab as a pathetic patriarchal mandate by religion. I wonder in the 1920s if you would have done the same and supported sati or early child marriage as a right to practise religion. If religion asks us to be immoral, then should society permit that?

I am not saying the government should ban hijab altogether as usually Muslims won't accept that, just how Sikhs won't accept a ban on carrying that small sword or Hindus didn’t accept the Sabarimala mandate by court. But at least liberals should speak for what’s right.

Your regular listener,

Shridhar

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I have been a subscriber of NL for the past seven years. Hafta 366 was very interesting as it talked about abstract topics like creating a new constitution.

Mehraj had a simplistic picture of history and political institutions and believed that reason can create perfect societies. Reasons are evolving constantly. Conforming to Abhinandan vaguely, I believe the Indian constitution is naturally evolutionary. Rather than sending each all the way back to the origins for information, our systems secure a means of cultural transmission, enabling responsible change. It's prescriptive, adapting to established practices and institutions, rather than starting over and losing advantages of experience. It's dangerous to trash the constitution responsible for the existence of India – an unnecessary invite to social unrest in a divided country. I value the time each of you takes to promote free media.

Personally, since uni, NL has been transformative. Believe me, you are doing more than the media. Congrats on 10!

Vidit Kumar Agarwal

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Dear NL team. I have been a subscriber for a year or so.

Love the work NL does. Love Jayashree and the fact that she does not sugar coat her words and is clear headed. She should be on every Hafta episode. Love Raman Kirpal too. Wish he would speak more. Would love to see Ravish Kumar as a guest as he really says it the way it is.

Abhinandan, with all his honesty and clarity, was disappointing when he showed much admiration for Modi’s oratory skills. Personally, I am very suspicious of people who speak well, as they then only do that, and don’t care about the truth or the content of what they say. Modi does exactly that! And yes, that can be expected of gullible trolls, not of a smart and articulate person like Abhinandan.

Heard your episode with Amit Verma and was not disappointed. Keep up the good work 👍

Vee