Hafta letters: Haldwani reports, edited videos, low-decibel debates

Hello guys, 

All of you rock.

I would love to hear your views on the #boycottbollywood trend. The story of Laal Singh Chaddha is instructive – a great film brought down by a smear campaign, rediscovered by viewers on Netflix, and eventually seeing people come out in support and probably waking up…I was almost hoping for this whole thing  to become a turning point for the ideological war being fought… Your thoughts on this would be good to hear.

Rahul

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This is an appreciation letter for Prashant Reddy. He was very clear about cough syrup deaths, and offered insight into the regulation of big pharma. Hope to see more of him on Hafta.

PS. My mother is a Hafta addict; thinks Abhinandan is “accha bacha” (good boy). Little does she know that Abhinandan is almost her age. xD

Dr AK

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Dear NL Team, and especially Abhinandan,

Apart from the incivility shown with the Babones interview (already highlighted by other subscribers), I have another issue, and it has to do with the way these interviews are edited. I think it would be better if you uploaded only continuous clips, without any cuts on YouTube. Otherwise it seems that the interview has been edited to show these people in bad light, which is obviously untrue, but it does seem that way. Vivek Agnihotri's interview suffered from the same issue.

Raman

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Hi team,

This is a brief background on deaths linked to roadshows in Andhra. The cost of gathering people for political meetings a decade ago used to be Rs 200 to 300 besides a biryani packet. But now with the present government, through various schemes, guaranteeing an amount of Rs 1 lakh per year through DBT to most families, people are now demanding Rs 1,500 to come to meetings. For cost cuts, opposition parties are now conducting roadshows in city centres on small roads with packed crowds. This is to get drone photos for better optics to show anti-incumbency. This was uncontrolled in the last two meetings, leading to deaths of innocent people.

Avinash K

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When can we expect fiery Hafta episodes, the likes of which will compete with godi channels for helping with my low blood pressure? As a subscriber, it concerns me greatly that the show volume doesn’t cross 90 dB. 

Karthik

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Dear Hafta panel, 

During the discussion on Haldwani, Abhinandan theorised about why government bodies carry out evictions or demolitions during the winter in the North. In 2017, I was part of a project mapping slum evictions and demolitions in Delhi. During this time, we spoke to some civil society activists and lawyers, one of whom told us something similar – that the demolitions always appeared to increase in winter and it almost seemed to be by design.

Multiple events over the past weeks, including in Haldwani, Joshimath, and the  collapse of the metro pillar in Bengaluru, show the many issues plaguing big cities and small towns in India. Poor construction safety standards, abysmal road safety, insufficient housing, overdevelopment and terrible air. Only if we could focus on these than the polarising nonsense that goes on. Glad to see your recent reporting on Haldwani and air pollution. Keep doing the great work.

Adithya