Hafta letters: NL interviews, renouncing citizenship, podcast player issues

While listening to last week's Hafta, Abhinandan mentioned that current subscribers should mobilise and bring in new subscribers.

I'm working at this event marketing platform based out in Canada and we basically mobilise event attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, etc using word-of-mouth marketing to boost more sign-ups. Surprisingly, the attendees bring in maximum attendees.

We also did a successful membership campaign and I feel you guys should try a demo of this software. Only saying this because I truly believe in ad-free journalism and feel this might help you guys!

PS: I'm not a sales guy, nor am I getting any sort of commission!

Anonymous

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Email 1

Very interesting interview with Salvatore Babones. The part about the January 6 coup attempt (that's really what it was, no matter how he tries to spin it) that the professor conveniently left out was that IT WAS BASED ON A LIE! Yes, revolutions have happened in other countries and even against elected governments, but the difference here was that it was the final, violent act of a coup attempt begun by Donald Trump after he couldn't get himself to accept his defeat. He knew he had lost but just couldn't accept being a "loser". After he had exhausted every other avenue (courts, recounts, alternate legal theories, etc), he instigated his supporters to march upon the Capitol.

I did think it was a pretty combative interview but not for the reasons cited by the professor. He clearly knows he would get a very receptive audience for his views within India and decided to capitalise on it.

Email 2:

It has become a sport in India to bash anyone who challenges the current talking points and label them as leftists/urban naxals/intellectuals, etc, etc. So here comes this professor with the perfect asset: his white skin and a pro-India narrative and he is suddenly a hero. Nicely played!

As someone who lives in the US and consumes the NY Times and Washington Post with relish, I too notice that most of the stories about India in both publications tend to be negative, but that doesn't really bother me because I don't think they are factually incorrect. The more we try to claim some sort of vishwa guru statushood, the more we set ourselves up for stories that poke holes in our self-professed greatness. This applies to the US as well as to India. Thanks, Abhinandan, for such an engaging interview. Somone had to call out the BS. You did and while you may have a few scars to show for it, we as subscribers benefited.

Shantanu

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On Hafta 411, regarding the Lok Sabha discussion on Indians renouncing their citizenship, it was mentioned that over one lakh is a meagre number. To renounce Indian citizenship, one needs to obtain citizenship in another country, which is the strictest status and can take several years.

For instance, after attaining permanent resident status in Canada, a minimum of three years' living in Canada, counting every day, is required to just be eligible for citizenship. Counting processing times, five years is a safe estimate. This process is much longer in the US/Europe. A sizeable mass willingly stays on PR status and never applies for citizenship for various reasons. The latest trend is the migration of high net worth and high-profile persons from India.

Additionally, temporary migrant workers, students, etc add to Indians living permanently/semi-permanently outside India. Hence, Indians who leave India initially won’t reflect in citizenship number, so it's only just a snapshot. Keep up the great work.

Anonymous

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Dear NL team,

Thank you for the wonderful and well-detailed 409th episode of NL Hafta. I liked how the episode was well-detailed and looked at many issues. I only have one disagreement with Abhinandan who said that you need to have higher scientific knowledge to write on climate change.

I am an international relations student with the least knowledge of science, and I am very interested and follow climate change to the core, and would request the NL team if they could do a Let's Talk About series on the effects of climate change in India. I would also like to suggest more discussions and articles on international issues as I am an international relations student and more work on these issues would be helpful as we live in a globalised society.

Regards,

Mibin

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Hi NL team,

Hope you’re all doing well (especially Niku having to watch the World Cup as well as watching recommendations for A&A, lord knows how you consume so much content and have the energy to talk about it after). 

This is my first email to NL, so I want to thank you for all the work you do, really appreciate an entity wanting to cleanse the news space. However, my experience with the podcast player has been terrible. The player takes ages to load up and I have to constantly reopen the app and replay the podcast even if it remembers the time stamp of where I left off. I’ve noticed the player acts up especially when another player (like YouTube or Spotify) is simultaneously running on my phone. I’ve tried updating the app and it's still the same. Please, please get this fixed. 

PS: I’m not asking you to compete with Spotify as a streaming platform, but such deficiencies are potential kickbacks for people wanting to access the news but can't be bothered with technical glitches so tune out.

Thank you and congratulations for all the good work. Hoping you get through the legal challenges and happy to assist in my capacity for it.

Aaryan Singh

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Hi team, 

It's been interesting listening to your takes on the World Cup and the controversies surrounding it. Here is a Twitter thread on the 1930 edition that I feel is required reading. Enjoy! 

Best,

Salman 

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Manisha's interview with Tavleen is the best thing put out by NL this year (and the best Tavleen interview to ever come out of NL...ever :P ). Great questions and beautiful job drawing out interesting views/stories from a guest who has lived an extraordinary life.

Tavleen's reasons for entering the profession took me right back to the first day of my undergrad at Fergusson College, Pune. The professor was going around the classroom asking everyone why we had chosen to pursue a life science degree. Some saw it as a gateway into biotechnology, some into wildlife biology, some into teaching, some said "medical nahi hua." About 20 women in a class of 60 said it buys them three years of not having to deal with the marriage mafia at home. Real eye-opener. Anyway, please give Manisha a raise. Subscribers tera bhai le aaega.

Manisha, would love to hear any BTS tidbits that didn't make it to reel.

Have a great Thursday, team!

Anand

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Hi team, 

This is a mail on the discussion in Hafta 404 about Kejriwal's comments. I thought that though you discussed the Hindu direction and how that is appalling, being an atheist, I don't support any role of religion in politics. I think what we missed is an appreciation of the usage of human psychology in this comment and how it is a self-tripping argument for the people in power and the idiots who discuss it on TV. If you agree, you empower the suggester. And if you disagree, you can write them off like they have been doing for eight years.

I feel the team has done this in other situations where the discussion misses out on the first-principle analysis of such topics. Would love to see more such analysis in the future.

Divye Marwah 

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Hi NL team,

Long-time subscriber to NL and Sena projects.

I just want to give Manisha shoutout for her interview with Tavleen Singh and not letting her off the hook. I want to know how she felt when Tavleen dismissively called her young without answering for the contradictions in her own views.

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Hi NL Team,

Long time subscriber to NL and Sena projects.  

I just want to give Manisha a shoutout for her interview with Tavleen Singh and not letting her off the hook. I want to know how she felt when Tavleen dismissively called her young without answering to the contradictions in her own views. 

Sree Harsha