Raman sir and Abhinandan, you asked if any country is capitalist/socialist? Well, socialism and capitalism are not mere labels that can be put on countries and then be defended or ridiculed. They are policy frameworks. A policy is as capitalist as it fits in that framework and the laws as capitalist as they reflect those policies. A country is as much capitalist as it implements those laws and a society as much as it abides by them. India is much more capitalist than Venezuela (which makes Newslaundry possible) and Indian laws are much more socialist than Indian society (which makes raids on Newslaundry possible)...Capitalism does not assume people to be rational and fair, it just makes them take responsibility for not being so…
Now, the story of Goldspot being thrown in drains by coke employees I believe is apocryphal, because, if that was true then coke competition was actually profitable for Ramesh Chauhan's business. Each time a coke employee would buy a bottle to throw, a penny would be earned by Mr Chauhan. The true story most probably is that $40 million in 1993 was way more comforting than running a business in a tough competitive environment; the same way Italian entrepreneur Signor Felice Bisleri found Rs 4 lakh to be more comforting and sold Bisleri to Chauhan. None of that is unfair! Other examples you mentioned would need more letters.
Uddalak
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I would really like NL Interviews to be available as podcasts. The videos are not very useful for me to watch, and I would appreciate having all of them as an RSS feed.
Aryan
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I recently watched The Elephant Whisperer and All That Breathes. Beautifully shot documentaries that have received nominations for an academy award.
It will be amazing if you guys can interview Kartiki Gonzalvez (director of The Elephant Whisperer) as it closely relates to Sadghuru’s Isha Empire ground report NL did in 2021.
In addition, an interview with the brothers behind Wildlife Rescue’s Mohammad Saud and Shehzad Nadeem (All That Breathes) will be an inspiration to most of the city dwellers who often treat wild animals on streets like pests. A generalised statement based on personal experiences and not facts but assuming most would agree with this.
Anonymous
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Hi NL Team,
Some food for thought questions:
Completely agree with you that both Hindenburg and the BBC documentary did not give any new information. Which then means that their way of presenting the facts were more impactful? Would you agree ? Or was there cherry-picking?
Personally, your economist on Adani seemed like an Adani-basher. Stop before you bash me . Adani is not the biggest company in India so “it does not own India” – as was made the case. They were huge on market cap – third biggest before the crash. But in terms of revenue they were nowhere really. Compare that to Reliance, and you will see the difference. And each sector they are in, they are not the biggest company either.
It’s strange that nobody spoke about these aspects! As a media organisation, am I wrong to expect NL to speak more on the connection of this money with electoral bonds ?
To investigate are other Indian companies doing similar things, and if it is a norm. Look at Vedanta or Jindals.
Dhiraj
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Hi, writing just to remind Abhinandan of the lines he loves but doesn't remember:
स्वागत के ही साथ विदा की होती देखी तैयारी
बंद लगी होने खुलते ही, मेरी जीवन मधुशाला
Wrote this because he tried to recite it on Hafta as well as in Ram Guha's interview.
Amar
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A minor correction from last week’s Hafta: while answering a fan mail, Abhinandan mentioned the origins of the term “banana republic” came from America's FTA with South America but it was in fact central American countries like Honduras and Guatemala.
There’s a really cool deep dive explainer on this topic by Johnny Harris.
Anonymous
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GSDP of Delhi has grown from Rs 31,000 crores in to Rs 76,000 crores in 2022 and per capita has risen to 5,000 USD even after handing out so called “freebies”, with the region set to become India’s first metropolitan to break 10,000 USD per capita mark. How would you rate AAP’s work solely from an economic standpoint?
Also, what do you think of KTR’s work in Telangana, solely through the lens of economics, during the same period?
Dhruv Agnihotri
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Hi Hafta team
Was just wondering if you could put out all your interviews as podcasts. I always end up having issues while playing the videos. Really wanted to listen to the Ram Guha interview but wasn’t able to. Besides, I prefer listening to watching anyway.
Hopefully the Hathras documentary comes out soon. Keep up the good work!
Neha
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Hi guys! On the Victoria Gowri discussion, didn’t the Union government reject a judge for the Bombay High Court as he had tweeted against the PM?
Maybe Modiji is right. Hypocrisy ki bhi seema hoti hai.
Anonymous
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What are the panel’s views on the recent incident at a university in Bengaluru where students took part in a skit which offended SC/ST groups? An FIR has also been filed against the students. I don’t think their skit was in good taste. But I would think that FoE would at least allow for expression of these views.
Also, can we have an LTA on Freedom of Expression, which includes history and a comparison between different countries today. I know Abhinandan loves this topic.
Dr AK
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In every interview, Ravish Kumar keeps saying that nobody offered him any job in the news sector. I wanted to ask if Abhinandan considered asking him to join Newslaundry. (I won’t mind if you won’t discuss this. I am just curious.)
Anonymous
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