Hafta letters: Ram temple, Hindutva politics, AI use

Hi NL team,

I wanted a clarification about my previous email about Let's Talk About, in which I had suggested that we have an LTA on the Ayodhya controversy. Is that happening? I would like to pitch in on the debate about the consecration ceremony. I completely understand what you and your panellists said. I felt it was more of an acceptance of reality. But is it not our duty to tell our countrymen that what happened in Ayodhya was an injustice in the name of a popular religious belief. I am sure that you will receive more such emails in this regard, rather than wasting your time on these kinds of emails I would suggest that you do a Let’s Talk About and point it to your audience. On January 22, I played the Eye Witness and  Ram Ke Naam documentaries, and made my parents watch them. They didn't even realise that what happened during their time was so unjust and gory. I understand what free media is, but my parents and most of my nephews and nieces don’t. So it's a three way conversation that we should have with the generation during the Babri Masjid demolition, post that and the Gen Z. I hope my suggestion will enrich the information and knowledge of the rest of our NL Family and beyond.

Chetan Bhaskar

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Hi, I have often thought about writing in, but I got jolted out of my laziness with the song you played at the end of last week’s Hafta (Sili hawa chhoo gayi). It was hauntingly beautiful while walking home on a cold Boston Sunday, and I listened to the whole song on loop and a few covers for good measure. Thanks!

Keep up the amazing work!

Anirvan Chowdhury

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After listening to Shardool’s many justifications (lets just say, utterings) on his insta story. I feel like this is the real win of RSS. It doesn’t remain deeply personal anymore after one shares it on social media for everyone to see. For someone who is as learned, is it that difficult to understand the difference between devotion and the act of extending symbolic support to the politics of hate camouflaged as faith – by sharing a picture in the context of January 22. Why justify it and bring it to the Supreme Court? They did not say a deity was born there. It was the title of the land judgement. Advance congratulations on consecration of “Krishna Janambhoomi” and “Gyanvapi mandir” may be on a future January 22, or may be another anniversary of some other murder. #jsr

Madan

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LK Advani’s Rath Yatra, the Bombay riots of 1992/93 that were a direct consequence, and followed by the demolition of the Babri Masjid - these events were my political coming-of-age as a young person. That memory made me contribute to the NL Sena Ayodhya project.

Reading about the land deals in Ayodhya reminded me of another spectacular land grab in the heart of Bombay - the Sidhivinayak temple at Prabhadevi. It was a small structure by the roadside until the 1993 bomb blasts. Then, using the pretext of a security threat, this temple first put up barricades and soon built a pucca stone wall right in the middle of the road! An arterial city road got reduced to half its width without anyone noticing.

I think there’s a larger story to be told about this phenomenon of various religious places grabbing land, which I guess isn’t restricted to temples alone.

Jabeen Merchant

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Hi,

Please let us know how you are using AI assistants for reports. Is this for grammar correction and paraphrasing? Or do you generate whole paragraphs and then double check before publishing? In the case of the latter, I would like to know what kind of prompts were used.

Finally, the most important is for NL to clearly write down its stance, understanding the pros and cons of such AI assistants. So as readers, we know that you know (at least something).

Thanks.

Raju 

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Listening to Hafta 469 was a painful experience. On the Ram Mandir discussions, Mr Raman, and, to a certain degree, Mr Naqvi offered balanced opinions. I was waiting for Shardool’s explanation on why he celebrated the consecration of the Ayodhya Ram temple. He didn’t offer any. Was he celebrating the establishment of yet another Ram temple in Ayodhya where a simple google search reveals there are already a dozen temples dedicated to Ram? Then he should be celebrating almost every day as a new temple springs up in India almost everyday. The real reason most people celebrated was the fact that the mandir replaced a masjid which the Hindutva claimed stood in the exact spot of Ram’s birth. It was a celebration of yet another example of putting Muslims in their place in Indian society, which has been developed into an artform by the BJP.

Respectfully, Anand needs to learn to put forward his views without much of humming and hawing. It will be more comprehensible.

Venu Parthiban

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I wrote last week about my confusion on why Shardool celebrated the consecration of the Ram temple. Abhinandan explained that some people don’t understand the significance of the temple and the history and may simply celebrate it as a religious event. I could understand that for lay people, but Shardool is a seasoned journalist who must have the understanding of the historical context of the temple built over the destruction of a masjid. So I would still like to understand his reasoning for his joy.

I come from Tamil Nadu, where Rama is not a major deity. There was no great enthusiasm for the Ayodhya temple outside the Tambrahm community. The myth of organic enthusiasm can be dismissed by seeing the hundreds of VHP organised prayer events in many temples on January 22. There was no spontaneous outpouring of devotion for Ram.

Venu Parthiban

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I have been a subscriber and a Hafta listener for a while now. I like and appreciate the work that the Newslaundry team has been doing all these years… While there are many things that I liked about what was discussed in the recent Haftas, I am writing today to particularly appreciate your song of the week for Hafta 468 (Pal Pal Hai Bhari from the movie Swades). Incidentally, I have been humming this song for the past several days, particularly the line, "man se Raavan jo nikhale Ram uske man mein hai: Ram tere man mein hai, Ram mere man mein hai." Kudos to the person(s) who picked this song as the song of the Hafta for that week!

I have another request: Could you please introduce the writers of your long form articles? While there are some whom I know, courtesy a Hafta or a Charcha episode, but I don't know many others (eg, Kalpana Sharma who writes the Broken News series... please forgive my ignorance of not knowing about her if she is a famous writer!).

Pradeep Bhat

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Happy 12th Birthday, Newslaundry!!

Wish you many more!

I discovered Newslaundry through Newsance  and Tipaani. Have been a subscriber for a couple of years and a regular listener of Hafta. (I would have made a video, but I hate to hear my own voice!) Also, would you consider interviewing Prashant Kishore?

Additionally, can I request a podcast series related to medical misinformation (similar to Mind ki baat)? Could suggest a name perhaps - jali (fake) booti (small herbs).

Anon

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Hi everyone! Long time subscriber. Your video reports on Ayodhya were awesome. Manisha and Atul are doing a great job with Newsance and Tippani. My question is with everyone, especially with pessimist Jayashree. Will we have a general election in 2029, or is 2024 the last general election happening in this country? I am asking this question because this regime is too hell bent to be in power at any cost. Either through toppling power of the state government of Bihar, Maharashtra etc, the latest example is Chandigarh mayoral poll. So what's your view?

Ujjwal

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Anand ji is so so cute, he attributed a quote to Lalu Prasad Yadav without any proof. Funnily enough, if you Googled “Kapali Thakur and Lalu Prasad Yadav,” first result is poopindia article written few days back ,  also Anand ji conveniently forgets to mention all the abuse and casteist slurs hurled by Jan Sangh leaders and Anand ji’s casteist friends, like “Ye reservation kahan se aai, Karpoori ke mai biyayi.” Bade bhole hain hamare Anand ji. Anand ji please come out of Laluphobia.

Ashutosh

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Hafta 469 was one of the most disappointing episodes. Hearing Manisha describe the event of 22/1 as a second Diwali with people breaking into a festive mode organically made me wonder if I was listening to a more benign version of one of the TV anchors.

I also think that the question "...if muslims should have given up the Babri Masjid site for Ram Mandir voluntarily..." from Manisha to the Muslim guests was very inappropriate. 

The invisibilisation of dissenting voices in the mainstream media, punitive measures by the state and saffron goons (Example, NIT Calicut student), and  money and manpower at the disposal of BJP-RSS conglomerate made it possible to amplify the Ram bhakti. My housing society with >20 percent Catholics and >90 percent south Indians was magically adorned in saffron flags with ‘Jai Shri Ram’  on 22/1. I do not think there was anything organic about the celebrations. As a Hindu, I found the event shameful and scary.

Indu

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Hi NL team, I have been a subscriber since 2022. Thank you for the good work. I had a few comments regarding your episode on the Ram Temple. Firstly, it is not just the Muslims who are feeling alienated, other minorities too are being excluded by Hindutva politics. Secondly, time and again the members of NL Hafta kept resorting to chronology and placed chronology above lived experience of shared culture, a sensibility Naqvi sir was speaking from. The team placed chronology over structure and form being given by today’s politics. But form shapes content and in our case our present and future. Further memory is not chronology. It is lived, rehearsed and embodied no matter how imperfect. If you can leave the chronology aside, the temple has consolidated the Hindutva than the other way around. Food for thought.

Eveleen K

source https://www.newslaundry.com/2024/02/10/hafta-letters-ram-temple-hindutva-politics-ai-use