Harnek Singh
I enjoy all your podcasts. Like Abhinandan, I consume most of my content through podcasts. YouTube is only for Newsance and Tippani every week.
In the last Hafta letters special, a subscriber complained that he gets annoyed when Sudipto Mondal brings up caste in every discussion in South Central. I feel we, privileged upper caste people, don’t want to think about the caste angle in India. Even Modi said that people talking about caste want to decide what happens in India.
This upper caste mentality is very disturbing. Caste is the reality of Indian societies and we should discuss it whenever we can. Even the NL team doesn’t give due regard to the caste issue. I would request NL to make a special caste/Dalit issues desk, which documents, reports and discusses these issues. NL should have a weekly podcast dedicated to just these issues.
The Hindu Rashtra Project should also work on how Dalit voices are being ignored, suppressed and mutilated today.
Keep up the good work.
Asha
Dear Team Newslaundry,
I appreciate the work you all are doing. I first found Newslaundry through Awful and Awesome, then started consuming Hafta, Newsance, and recently, Reporters Without Orders. Now, my weekly routine includes Hafta, Awful and Awesome (biweekly), Tippani, and South Central, as I am always interested in political news but miss the coverage of South India. I listen to Charcha, but only when Anand is on the panel.
Initially, I didn’t like Anand’s views, maybe because they were different. But over time, I started appreciating how they gave me a perspective I hadn’t considered. So, if time permits, Anand, please be on Charcha more often.
Best wishes to Abhinandan, Manisha, and the entire team. Keep up the great work!
Ankur Jalan
I greatly appreciate NL’s recent work on air pollution in Delhi, the Hindu Rashtra Project and police atrocities across all states in India. Thanks to NL for finally reading my last letter. I have further views on Anand’s take on BJP and Hindutva politics, which he has hardly denounced.
By the way, I grew up in Kolkata, and studied most of the kings and rulers from medieval India. I read about Shivaji and his heroics. While mentioning Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Anand mentioned that Bankim was writing against Muslim rule specifically. The history is more grey.
His writings could well be interpreted as against any foreign rule, be it Mughals or British. It should be read in context of the period when Indian nationalism was growing. Though Anand said Aurangzeb’s rule was the most violent in world history, as per his favorite historian, he is ignoring Ashoka’s ghastly and violent consequent of Kalinga, which eventually changed Ashoka. Has Anand heard about Belgian monarch Leopoldo II’s barbaric brutality in Congo? There are many like Hitler and Stalin from the 20th century itself.
Coming to Hafta 528, Anuj Choudhary, the CO of Sambhal has consistently been a partisan public servant; people have seen him carrying “mace” during Hanuman Jayanti. It is not the first time he has been in a controversy. This policeman is clearly trying to appease his political masters. Anand trying to quietly defend this CO again shows how he supports Hindutva and BJP’s politics.
I also have an opinion about the 66 crore devotees flocking to Kumbh 2025, and how Anand’s defence of Kumbh being the most populated event in the world is misleading.
I have a lot more to say, may be you can invite me on Hafta/Charcha (how an NRI sees the post 2014 India).
Thanks again for being one of the most objective and fearless media groups. Keep it up.
Soma Sekhar
I tend to agree with the views of almost everyone on the NL Hafta panel, but these days I agree the most with Sudipto particularly because of his caste angle in every issue.
I think gender inequality has more relevance for the lower-income population. Lack of employment has more relevance among the marginalised caste population. I see most of my friends support charities which serve a specific caste or religious population. I do recall not being allowed to watch a movie with my friend in senior secondary school as he is from a lower caste or lower income. Have a request for Sudipto: Can you suggest a few charities which work towards the upliftment of the Dalit community?
Request to the entire panel, please revisit the scene from the Article 15 movie where junior policemen try to explain their castes to Ayushmann Khurana’s character.
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Niyati
Hi Hafta team
I've always enjoyed listening to your show. Sometimes it makes me laugh, sometimes ponder, and sometimes, it really annoys me when you guys (usually Abhinandan) are so close to getting the point in a discussion, but then fall short.
Firstly, about the cleanliness question. The government needs to employ more people to clean every day and provide them cleaning gear. The difference I see in the UK vs here is not that there is no trash there, but rather, there are more trash bins and people employed to clean it up with trash-picking gear, like sticks with a grabby hand, gloves, leafblowers and collectors. It would be a great opportunity for job creation for the local government, and for small businesses to manufacture cleaning gear. India is dirty because of caste; we don't think it's our job to clean and we think the people who are ‘supposed to clean’ are dirty because they clean. This prejudice can also be somewhat solved by job creation and cleaning gear. I can't believe we still have sanitation workers who don't have protective gear and die often.
Secondly, I think Abhinandan being there is a great opportunity for others to educate him, and people who have uncle views like him, because he is quite open to criticism. I hope the show on trans issues has him as the host and it opens his eyes to issues faced by people who can't live how society wants them to. I think a starting point for him would be to read about X and Y chromosomes and how they aren’t actually as cut and dry as we are led to believe. It's an approximation.
Thirdly, I think discussions about work-life balance should be aimed to make life easier and happier and not more ‘productive’. The assumption is that people don't want to work. Where does this assumption come from? Obviously, the capitalistic philosophy of endless productivity. But another reason is disorganisation, which leads to improper use of manpower.To correct this, the way is not to overwork or underutilise people. People need ample time for family and pleasure so that they can work to the best of their ability. Yes, sometimes the job is boring or shitty and you still have to do it, and people will do it if they know they are valued. Also, we, who have worked tirelessly in our youth, should aim for our juniors to have a more comfortable life than us and not be petty and make them work harder.
Thanks for reading my letter. Keep up the good work.
Sandip
Hi team,
Great work!
I don't have a question, at least regarding politics. I have a question about the term “double engine”. Why is it called a double engine? For some reason, I relate the engine with a railway engine. If it has to be a double engine then these engines need to be at each end and that would actually stall the movement of the train (unless its a goods and service train)?
Big fan.
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