Hafta letters: CJI-Modi’s Ganesh pooja, arguments on nuqta, work-life balance

Regarding the CJI-PM pooja meet, I disagree with Shardool. In this case perceptions really matter. It is not the question about freedom to practise religion but rather it is about the public perception that there is a separation between the judiciary and the executive. In a time of growing mistrust with the SC, any dilution in this perception will make the judiciary seem like a stooge of the executive. By Shardool's yardstick, accepting an RS seat and riding motorcycles owned by BJP leaders by former CJIs is also completely acceptable. Where is the line then? 

Cyril 

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Hi NL team, Arvind Kejriwal's resignation move appears to me a pragmatic one. Due to the conditions of release and the de facto super positioning of LG, Kejriwal and his cabinet members were anyway lame ducks. I think this move is his pitch to capture the election narrative in Delhi and bring himself at the centre of the fight, which will allow him to attack the centre and the LG. 

From seeing him over the years, one thing I can say about him is that he is one astute political mind and knows how to capture narratives. It might play out in his favour or might not because in all honesty the second Kejriwal government fell short on almost every promise they made. What are your thoughts?

Vatsal

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Hi, this is regarding the Supreme Court verdict on creamy layer for reservations. One of the reason for reservations was the untouchability and discrimination which still today exists.My grandfather has been a victim, my father was a victim, and I too was a victim of discrimination based on my caste. We are in 2024 and still have matrimony sites, WhatsApp groups, community events based on caste and when this so ingrained into us, why this bullshit of creamy layer? 

Why can’t the Supreme Court just remove the fucking caste system and make it a punishable offence to ask, seek or find caste and end this shit forever? Then we can have modern discrimination which would be of poor, rich and women. How deep-rooted the caste system is in our society is visible without even trying hard to hide it.

Loved the perspective of this issue on Charcha. Anyway, please send me those stickers of NL that was assured during my sign-up. It is free publicity for NL and TNM. 

Akash

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Part 2: One LTA or something on Sitaram Yechury sir or a good read recommendation on him. Video for Hafta still missing in show notes, it was only available on one recent Hafta.

Liked the 500th show with Deshbhakt, please do also invite Ravish ji on Hafta. I am from the south and  it doesn’t matter if someone this amazing speaks Hindi. Cheers, sorry about my two emails – just wanted to get that reservation though outta my head. Love your work please continue this awesome work.

Akash

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Dear Abhinandan and NL team,

In Hafta 501 you were talking about rewilding of ghost villages, how Japan is undertaking such a practice and we can also carry it out, and how efficient cities would be more sustainable. But this does not include the aspect of consumption.

More than the physical space occupied by our cities, villages and homes, the larger impact we have on our environment is through our consumption practices. Thus the land and other resources needed to generate the electricity we consume (whether from fossil fuels or renewable energy), the land for mining and production of everything we consume, from food, clothes, gadgets, transport...One way this is looked at is through the ecological footprint, according to which we need 1.7 earths to sustain our present consumption patterns. Thus, even if we undertake rewilding of ghost villages, it will be dwarfed by the amount of simultaneous destruction of forests and other habitats of both animals and people, through projects such as the Hasdeo mines, dams and roads being constructed in the Himalayas, the Great Nicobar Project and so on.

Vasudha

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Hello! This is regarding the discussion on gender and sex that took place in response to a letter of someone living in North America claiming things are so bad with indoctrination in schools that they are considering leaving. 

Abhinandan said that biological “gender” is undeniable with that line about people finding someone's skeleton and knowing their sex. However, the discussion is not about sex. Sex is also not a binary, but that's not important in this context. Gender is understood as socially constructed characteristics, duties, expectations. Conversations around gender concern how people want to be treated and perceived in society and not about how a doctor should biologically understand them which is anyway nobody's business. 

In sports of course there’s a distinction we see between men generally and women generally. However, if the distinction is based on hormones like testosterone, then the divisions should be made in accordance with that! Not gender. This way there are no outliers. I’m not a sports expert but you cannot convince me that sports like shooting, archery, diving, table tennis even should be gender based. 

About gender stuff having gone too far in the liberal west: this perception is built by Ben Shapiro types that the original letter mentioned. There’s a swinging of the pendulum in the right direction, but you can't base your perception based on terminally online Twitter leftists or right wing figureheads, the reality on ground is obviously close to “normal”.

Anyway, love the podcast, sorry about the word limit, I just thought this deserves a sufficient counterposition. 

Raghav

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Dear Newslaundry team,

My last mail was botched up in the reading. So repeating.

Harch and Khabar both have a nuqta. Either put it at both places. Or do what Mahaapandit Rahul Saankrityaayan said, drop all nuqtas. Hindi alphabet does not have any nuqta. And if you are claiming to be speaking Hindi, why do you have to put the nuqtas? 

In school, we were taught “ja se jahaaj”, not “ja se jahaaz”. And if you do put the nuqta, put it properly. Your Hindi bureau head Atul says zaari for jaari (to continue) and jad for zad (influence or damage). It’s very painful to hear. Abhinandan says Ghulzaar (with nuqtas under g and j) instead of Gulzaar (nuqta only under j).

And Suhel Seth says Madhabi Puri Buch is pronounced as book, and you jump to follow! Your subscribers are more knowledgeable than 1,000 Suhel Seths. Ghar ki murgi daal baraabar! Btw there is a nuqta under g in murgi :).

In summary, if you claim to be an intellectual, do a proper job. Else if you claim (like Abhinandan) that ‘I do not care how anyone pronounces latte, as long as they get me a latte’, then be that. Stop pretending with the nuqtas. 

PS: My request was about the recommendations Google Sheet on Hafta. Can you group them by film recommendation, book recommendation, podcast recommendation and article recommendation. It's difficult to look for books recommended in the current format. 

Ravi

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Hi NL team,

I wanted to express my disagreement with Shardool and Abhinandan’s opinion on the Ganesh Chaturthi pooja performed by the PM at the CJI’s residence. To explain my perspective, I offer an analogy: as a teaching assistant, I cannot be friends with my students, nor can my friends be my students. It’s not about me being partial, but it might appear that way to other students. It’s my responsibility to not only be impartial but also be seen as such.

The issue here isn’t about the CJI as an individual but about his role as the face of an institution. This pooja wasn’t a public or social event but a very personal one, with no other invitees. While I wouldn’t object if it took place in a more social setting, the private nature of this occasion raises concerns about perceived impartiality.

CJI has the responsibility to not only act fairly but to ensure he is seen as fair, without the risk of any personal biases. I am still unclear about who initiated this and the purpose behind it.

Manpreet

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Comparing the CJI and Modi celebrating Ganesh pooja to an Iftaar party would only work if both the Chief Justice and the PM of India were Muslim, and made a public display of their shared religion. If that were to happen, it would be extremely problematic. But are we likely to ever have both those posts filled by Muslims, that too at the same time? Usually Shardool talks such sense, it was disappointing to hear him trot out this straw man argument. I guess you can take the boy out if the Sangh but not the Sangh out of the boy so easily.

On another note, thank you for putting the full podcast on video. It's great to put faces to the names, and see the guests too.

Jabeen

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Will we see another Anand Ranganathan emerge from Newslaundry? (Pun intended.)

Peter Cat Recording Company

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Hi Jayashree, how have you concluded that Arabs are brown people? It's the second time I have heard this from you. Is there any scientific research, or do you meet Arabs who say so? Because I know enough Arabs to know that they don't – and consider brown people as third-grade humans. Everything isn't about colour-based racism.

Note: I recognise Israel as apartheid, and they are doing genocide. So, it’s not like I am speaking in their favour.

Rajeev

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Regarding the discussion on the work-life thing, I think it’s extremely ignorant to not acknowledge the fact that in the last decade, specifically since Covid, the lines between work/off work have become incredibly blurred. “Finish your work, go play football” doesn't apply when there's a high likelihood that your manager will call you in the middle of the match asking you to join a meeting, and obviously you can't decline. I have peers who are expected to carry their laptops even during vacations, and basically expected to be available 24x7 since “you can just connect from home now”. 

As for what Anand said, that the current generation is “rights-based”, whatever that means, and does not build a relationship with their work. I think that's actually a net positive. I couldn’t finish my rant without exceeding the word limit, there is also a second part

In the last two years we have seen massive amounts of layoffs from the largest, most reputed companies in the world. Maybe we are all better off if we stop putting our employers on a pedestal and glorifying them. Like Manisha said, we work hard so that our future generations don’t have to suffer the way we did, then why do we criticise them for that? 

Maybe stop with the “back in my day” and “this current generation…”, the whole point is for them to have less struggle, is it not? And it’s not like they are living in a utopia, I'm sure their lives are messed up in different ways that we can’t relate to. 

Joe

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Referring to the discussion on American presidential elections, Jaishri (I apologise if I got the spelling wrong) hit the nail on the head when she said that either of Kamala or Trump come to power, they won't stop the genocide in Gaza. The reason however has to do with the presence of Israel lobby (AIPAC) that pays massive amounts to both Democrats and Republicans. 

17% of the billionaires in US are Jews and hence you kinda know who wields the power. The problem with Israel is that the day the war ends, Netanyahu will be trialled in court and he's not escaping prison. It is in his interest to expand the war on multiple fronts(hence Lebanon now).  

Won’t be a surprise if Israel attacks Iran just before the US presidential elections. 

Btw, slightly surprising that the news of some major US RW voices being indirectly funded by Russia didn't make waves in India whatsoever (especially with the Indian RW’s strange lean towards China.)

https://youtu.be/2wc0Z-qktdc?si=1j2N1Z57ihFvX5b4

Anonymous

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Hey Abhinandan, you had a question on why comedians are generally left leaning, yes mostly they are. But there are right-leaning comedians also like bill maher, Nicholas de Santo, Shahak Shapira. In India idk here it all feels the same only flights jokes except few comedians. 

Rohit

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Hey Abhinandan, love your work and the Hafta podcast. You went too far with your remarks about "fucking nerds" on your last episode. They were derogatory, in my opinion. Nerds have built trillion dollar companies, not to mention so many platforms that you're using for Newslaundry. Would you like being called a “humanities loser”? I bet you wouldn't. Looking forward to the next episode.

Abhijeet

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Hello, during the discussion on the Ganesh festival, there were quite a lot of points, historically speaking, that were left out – only Anand pointed out the real reason and motivation behind the Ganesha festival, knowing which will clear Abhinandan's question on why so public demonstration of religiosity. 

I am not writing this to point those out even though I am more than happy to, but as a suggestion for Newslaundry as an organisation, it will help you a lot if you have fortnightly features on history specifically, written by a field expert. I myself have written for the Express once, and write articles on history at my workplace. So this is a job application haha, but do consider more feature pieces. Love the reporting and Newslaundry and TNM teams! 

Sarthak

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Jayashree is back, along with her familiar biases against America and the West. In Hafta 503, she criticised The New York Times for calling Israel’s pager attack “eye-catching.” However, here's the full context. The expression appeared in the article titled “Israel’s Pager Attack Was a Tactical Success Without a Strategic Goal, Analysts Say.” 

The exact line reads, “Although the attack on Tuesday was an eye-catching demonstration of Israel’s technological prowess, Israel has not so far sought to capitalize on the confusion it sowed by initiating a decisive blow against Hezbollah and invading Lebanon.” The article quoted multiple sources, emphasizing the tactical success of the attack while noting the dissonance between Israeli intelligence’s strategic goals and its politicians’ short-term thinking. The phrase “eye-catching” described the attack’s ability to grab attention, not praise it. 

Jayashree’s constant claims of bias in the NYT are tiring – perhaps she should’ve stayed in the UK.

Shantanu

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