Hafta letters: Trump’s win, questions on migration, organic farming in India

In Hafta 508, the discussion of hypocrisy came up with regard to US actions in the international arena. Actually, I don’t think they are as hypocritical as it looks. They are remarkably consistent in their actions. We should be clear in understanding that when the US says they want the “right” thing, they always mean that they want the “white” thing. Go back decades and you will always see that it is always whiteness that drives their actions. They hate Hitler and Nazis because they killed millions of Jews. But they never even acknowledge the worst mass murderer in world history – King Leopold – who killed more than 10 millions Africans in a short span. 

Their worry is not the killed. But rather who is killed. The killing of European Jews is wrong. The killing of Native Americans, Africans and even Asians is “complicated”. Once you see this linear thread in US/West policies, their support of Israel in its extermination campaign of Palestinians (Arabs) makes perfect sense.

Karthik

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Hi, I have question on the American media. 

What is their business model? How does it work financially? I consume a lot of American shows like The Last Week Tonight, The Daily Show, and late night shows. These take on politics but also take on big corporations in the US also. On the contrary in India, we have every single thing – from daily soaps to news channels to movies – sponsored by or co-sponsored by someone or the other. I have never seen a late-night show sponsored by someone.

So how does their media TV work?

Rohit

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Email 1 

Hi, nice Diwali song recommendation at the end of the last Hafta podcast.

Regarding the US election, I lost all hope in both Trump or Harris. They will not do anything regarding the plight of Palestinians or people of Lebanon, will give full support to Israel, nothing better for India. In a bizarre and sad sense, I want Trump to win. It’s a kinda ‘let the world burn’ scenario, which is very sad and depressing.

Email 2

Ohhh wow my crow mouth, Trump actually won. He he ha ha ha ha 🙃

Farqul 

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Hi Hafta team, writing for the first time.

I live in the US. I was listening to ep 509 and hear everything that Seema had to say about the US elections. 

If Seema thinks Trump is better than Kamala, then she is delusional. Seema thinks the economy will be better under Trump? Really, she is joking definitely. The economy under Trump was only doing well because he was riding the wave of the Obama economy. He added $9 trillion in deficit, more than any other president, and he didn’t have to deal with a war. Seema is such a misinformed person. The gender debate became heated because the right-wing media blew it out of proportion. Being macho doesn’t mean men don’t cry aur mard ko dard nahi hota. What a load of crock. Seema, by saying everything that she said during this Hafta, is just proving millennials and Gen Z right when they say the previous generation has no idea what it’s talking about.

Bharat

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Email 1

Love show. Word limit hard. I work in public policy. 

Re the US elections, this is reminiscent of 2019 when the INC tried pandering to the BJP’s base using Hindutva-lite. 

The Republicans’ win is about their message resonating with people AND the Democratic party fumbling the election. Trump’s focus on tangible problems like inflation and immigration speaks to people looking for change. Anti-incumbency played a role like India and the UK. The Democrats stuck with Biden too long (whose 2020 platform included running once), changed to Harris too late. A platform of saving democracy led to high voter turnout in 2020, but is an intangible idea, and unlikely to get high turnout every time. In 2022, the democracy and the protection of abortion rights in ballot measures saved the Democrats. In 2024, that had the opposite effect, with people choosing Trump for the economy and protecting abortion rights using ballot measures. Trump got 2 million fewer votes than 2020; the Democrats got ~15 million fewer votes.

Email 2

Context for my other letter! 

I am a long-time listener and love your show. As someone who works in computational analysis of public policy (and is currently trying to study Indian elections and the 2026 delimitation), I wanted to send in my perspectives on the US election (in my other letter). I would love to write longer letters adding nuance to what I’ve written.

Keep up the good work, can’t wait to switch to the joint subscription once this runs out. Big fan and keen listener!

Divij

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Hey team,

Similar to other subscribers, just love your work and insights.

A request from my end. Please do an article on organic farming in India and how it’s still a premium food. Incidents like heavy metals in Maggi or carcinogenic substances in processed foods can be avoided with better farming models. The way Sri Lanka got itself into trouble trying to adopt organic farming is a good lesson. Sharing a news article on how it reduced farmer suicides in Maharashtra.

Also, heard of a startup trying to resolve stubble burning by upcycling the crop waste. Doesn't seem to have an impact on current pollution levels.
Soma

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I have a question for the NL team regarding last week’s discussion on Hafta about The Washington Post not endorsing a candidate.

When advertisers pay, advertisers are served. When the public pays, the public is served. When Jeffrey Bezos pays, who is served?

Not Jeff Bezos

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With regard to Tripp victory, the prevailing view in the USA is that the rest of the world is benefiting at the cost of the USA. Can you do a study on what it would cost the USA to produce one IIT graduate, an AIIMS doctor, and other professionals it gets for free?

Madan

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Feedback: My one-year experience as a Game Changer subscriber

I loved every Hafta episode, almost all NL projects – election coverage, not just national but state and even international. Keep up the amazing work, I will be subscribing again.

So, I loved the whole important part of NL – the news and journalism work. But I am disappointed with subscription management. I was promised some merch – fridge magnets, car stickers, tote bag – and I got nothing. I even reached out on email but I did not get any response. Or I did get a response but never got the items. 

More importantly, I was promised some participation in Zoom calls where I can interact with leadership, and I don’t think any took place this year? Or maybe just one in August which I couldn’t attend. That’s on me, but there should be more events! Your site today says ‘monthly’ editorial calls so ideally 12 should have been there, I guess.

Manan

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Hearing Shahrukh has solidified discussions with many other lawyers: Justice Chandrachud (before he was Chief) would have been disappointed by Chief Justice Chandrachud.

Karan

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Hi NL team,

A few counterintuitive points for you to digest.

Brexit happened eight years ago. Immigrants voted for Brexit. Priti Patel and Rishi Sunak were the forerunners. So to say that hey immigrants will vote progressively is “stupid”. Don’t you think? Again, Brexit happened eight years ago !!!!

If 73 percent of people are not happy with the economy and 73 percent will vote for Harris, a good data analyst will put in a factor or weight as to which is more likely to affect a vote. A reputed news organisation should be able to say which factor will be more influential, don’t you think?

Like Hillary before her, Kamala seemingly represented the elite and was a woman. And Trump, despite being a bankrupt businessman, spoke to the aam junta. An NL video had it, “he says it as it is”. 

Did Mr Jain write an article in NL saying Trump will win? If not, why not??

If a researcher in academia gets it wrong, his credibility is questioned for life. Will broadcasters ever apologise for getting it wrong?

Dhiraj

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Regarding Trump's plans to amend birth right citizenship.

Hello NL,

Trump wants to restrict birth right citizenship for children of undocumented migrants and certain other groups.

The right-wing term for this is “anchor babies”. They believe pregnant women come into the US illegally (or legally but under false pretences) and use the US-born baby as an anchor to stay there indefinitely. This, in addition to their narratives on “chain migration” which is their term for immigrants bringing in their families, form part of the larger ‘migrant invasion’ narrative.

Trump and his advisors think it can be done through executive action. Basically by deporting people, including the anchor babies/toddlers.

Mahendra

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Love Hafta. However, your coverage of the India-Canada fiasco is frustrating as it seems to be heavily influenced by the biased legacy Indian media coverage. To give just one example, in the last show, Abhinandan repeated misinformation which has been debunked by Boom Live and The Wire – that Canada censored an Australian ethnic media website. A quick Google search would have told you about the Online News Act and Meta (not the Canadian government) blocking access to news in Canada.  

Please do some research, consult Canadian media sources, invite Canadians to discuss the issue so that some balance gets injected into your coverage.

Anonymous

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Hi,

In the last podcast, Sreenivasan mentioned that one migrant mentioned that she is supporting Trump due to illegal migration, although she is a migrant – and it seemed like he was surprised by her hypocritical views. 

I think her view is valid. Mainly, if you see an Indian person with H1B taking 50+ years to gain a green card versus an illegal migrant from India seeking asylum and getting a green card fairly quickly.

I would like to see your views on liberal media criticising the Republican party, especially they are against illegal migration and seem fine with legal migration.

Appreciate the great work you are doing. Thank you!

Rhishi

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Love the podcast – great work! But the in-app player isn’t working properly, which disrupts the experience. Please fix it!

Naveen

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I’ve been following NL’s coverage of the state elections, particularly Jharkhand. It’s crazy to me to see the ‘Rohingya and outsiders’ narrative in a state like Jharkhand. I am a researcher who specialises in migration and refugee studies, my PhD is on asylum and the Rohingya in India. I have visited multiple cities in India, spoken to over 100 Rohingya refugees, and not once has Jharkhand ever come up as a state where refugees live or have family. Rohingya refugees are a closely networked group in India, they are mostly all registered with the UNHCR and hold refugee cards (whether or not India recognises them). This invisible spectre of “Rohingya and Bangladeshi” infiltrators seems to have become a part of all our election narratives, regardless of the facts about their current situation in India and the violence they have escaped from in Myanmar. Hope to hear the panel’s views.

Anonymous

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Hi, can you do a Let’s Talk About: Sudan War – what’s going on there, parties involved in it, the reason for unrest there, and why no one is talking about it. Thanks. 

Farqul 

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Hi, since the discussion was on the US elections, I recommend this article on NY Times for the panel. It gives a very nuanced analysis of the Trump victory.

On the app, when we listen to a podcast or anything else, the article of interest closes when we switch to any other app and return to it, with the whole exercise of searching for the podcast all over again. In a two(ish)-hour-long podcast, there’s bound to be pauses and it gets tiresome if we can’t switch back to the podcast in a snap. Please point this out to the technical team. 

Kavita

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Hey Abhi,

Hearing your comment on people who are unhappy and go to these “babas” for help, I think it was very cold and distant.

I’ve thought along the same lines as you did. But let’s look back to the time when Lutyens elites were in power and, instead of addressing their problems, they’d return with just as cold and distant an answer to their problems summed up in two words – “too bad” – and go on living their “happy life”. Of course, more people are unhappy than happy. 

Shivam 

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Hi team, thank you for bringing Shahrukh Alam, she is definitely my new intellectual crush. Loved her insights and nuanced analysis of Chandrachud’s tenure and judgements.

About the US election, I was expecting one episode where Jain discussed the impact of either presidencies on US-India relations. This was also an expectation with the Gaza reports. I saw an interview of Arundhati Roy where she spoke about the perception of India among Palestinians. I wanted to see something about the friendliness of India-Israel relations. Please let me know if I missed it or if there was a reason this was not considered relevant.

Keep up the good work!

Saanaee Naik

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