Hafta letters: Money factor in elections, caste issues in Goa, NL’s website changes

There is no dearth of analysis on the elections, based on caste combinations, unemployment, nationalism and what not. Unfortunately, the most important factor in the elections; money, is barely mentioned in any discussions. BJP has at least a five to one advantage over its rivals in any election. I live in the US and here, any political analyst first mentions the money available for each candidate in any race. It is the most important indicator of who will win.

Of course, the rest of the media gets a cut from that pie, but Newslaundry is not part of this game. I believe the role of money and its hidden sources should be part of every election analysis.

Mohit

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Caste and religion are definitely a huge factor in Goa. It's just dismissed or brushed under the carpet by most upper caste intellectuals. Heck, there is a detailed Wikipedia page on the ironclad divisions of caste, across Hindus and Christians in Goa.

Caste and religion are very much a factor in Goa. For example, see the election results of the Curtorim constituency. The winner, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco is an upper caste Bamon Christian. Look at the lower caste Catholic, Domingo Gaunkar (Dominic), who ran against him. Even though he lost by a big margin, a lot of people voted for Dominic.

There are very fine factors not noticeable at play in Goa's caste and religious politics. Please talk to someone more experienced on these issues and do more digging.

Dobby

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Hi team,

I am one of your silent subscribers who loves to listen and not rant. However, this will be an exception. Three points:

The cosmetic changes on your website have made it unsuitable for usage. Like right now, I could not find the Google forms for writing to Hafta.

Second point, on March 10, I opened the NL website at 3 pm IST looking for the election results but there was only a live blog ranting about who said what in which channel. I wish there was just a banner on your website putting out the election results or at least a static web page refreshing hourly with the results. Please don’t say it was a tech challenge.

Final point, I am appreciative of the election ground work but are you getting caught out in a bubble? In Goa your summarisation after most of the shows was that there is huge frustration against BJP and it could be anyone’s election in Goa except BJP. Do you think you are only talking to people on the ground whose opinion pleases you and the subscribers?

Thanks,

Satwik

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Hi Hafta panelists,

Wanted to know if the death of Ponty Chadha has dented Behenji, since Ponty bhai used to bankroll so many electoral campaigns for BSP.

Newslaundry evangelist,

Nitesh