Reader’s comments from Week 1 of National Herald

Dear readers,

We sincerely thank you for your generous congratulations on the launch of National Herald’s beta website, and your feedback on all our articles. Journalism is for you, the reader. Your comments—be these congratulatory or critical—are no less valuable than any of the opinions we publish.

This is a small beginning for National Herald, which will get bigger and better over the next few months, growing into a 24/7 news website and newspaper. We look forward to your suggestions and ideas on the kind of content you would like to see in National Herald—what content do you miss on other mainstream media outlets, how can we make the website more useful for you, and any kind of improvements you suggest. Please do send your feedback to contact@nationalheraldindia.com or lesley.esteves@nationalheraldindia.com.

We are delighted at your engagement with our articles in this first week and are committed to enabling an environment in which you can continue to comment and converse freely without fear of abuse. Besides inbuilt detectors which prevent abusive comments, we will be vigilant to ban users who use abusive language, spammers who post the same comment on every article, as also stalkers who pounce on reader’s comments to aggressively push a particular cause or ideology. These unfortunately widespread practices harm democratic debate by discouraging comments from readers seeking a genuine engagement. Such tactics, which abrogate people’s Constitutional right to free expression, won’t succeed here. So please do comment the way we intend to write—freely and fearlessly. And don’t spare us or our contributors the slightest criticism.

We will also publish a selection of reader’s comments and tweets every week. Comments may be edited for spelling and grammar alone. The first selection follows below.

Looking forward to many conversations and interactions on our website and all our social media pages.

Editor, Digital

From our Readers

On Demonetisation—Strictly, the PM didn’t go by the law

The RBI has the power to discontinue currency bills, and the power to introduce new bills. But who has the given the RBI and government the power to stop me from withdrawing my own money? Which law, constitutional provision, act or authority has this power? Unless I am declared as a willful defaulter, this should be illegal and the banks should be sued for it. They in turn can get to the Union of India in court of law.

Shobhit Dixit

You know what? Despite all this propaganda, Namo will be happy to go to jail for breaking some silly protocol, for the greater good that he's done for the country!

Siddharth Daga

On A New Decree

A gem
A pervading truth
That can neither be denied
nor reined.
An inspiration.

Sanjay Kapur

On NH Exclusive: New evidence links Godse to the RSS

On Unemployment—A ticking time bomb

Dear Mr P Chidambaram,
Why don't you exercise your parliamentary right and bring results to your so-called constructive criticism. It is true, that every action should be approved democratically, but why would “you" require ruling power to make any "constructive" difference. As every voter, we all are driven towards the progress of the country. Articles such as these do [encourage] the government not to be blind. I appreciate that. But, as a extremely experienced Individual, wouldn't you agree that you should do more?

Rokit

On Children’s Day: A letter from a father to his daughter

It is unfortunate that people without any understanding on Nehru keep on scolding him. He was the foundation of Indian democracy, a long distance thinker and a man of modern scientific beliefs. Everyone has done some wrong decisions in life so as Nehru would have done, that does not mean that we should forget his sacrifice. If a man can write such a letter to his own daughter then he can't be a man of common thinking.
Respect!

Pranabandhu Nayak

On Nehru, BJP and the need for tolerant dialogue

Exceptional article. Moving. Respect for the author and stalwarts.

Priyank Jain

On Where are the Indians?

Sir, The idea of lndia of today is the product of idea of Quit lndia, which represents Xenophobia. Let us make Cosmopolitan idea of lndia rather follow Nehruvian idea of lndia.

Nand Kishore Kumar

Rightly said sir,our forefathers had established a firm and stable democracy. Otherswise we would had fallen like Middle East or may be worse like our neighbour Pak. We have right to criticise our leaders in India,in any other country we could have been jailed to be an antinational (but I think those days had come to us now).

Siddharth Walia

On “Don’t spare me, Shankar” our first editorial from the Editor-in-Chief

"Don't spare me, Shankar"—JLN. After reading this quote I recall how in the early 80s, NH was regarded as a mouthpiece of the Congress and some local leaders in Delhi even ignored and ridiculed NH's reporters. However, the then Managing Editor Yashpal Kapoor told me not to be afraid and I did several stories exposing the malpractices in the Delhi Municipal Corporation. A senior leader even called up Kapoor Sahib and complained about me and argued how could a Congress paper write about him. We were encouraged to courageously report events and wrongdoings and the same were published after vetting by the Editors. So courage has been the hallmark of NH.

RK Tandon

On Is Najeeb Ahmed still alive?

@LesleyEsteves is Editor, Digital at National Herald