Criticism, kindness, complaints—ThePrint readers don’t hold back. And we don’t want them to

Complaints are the most common feature of readers’ mail. Much of this mail is still stuck on the same issue of partisanship—this suggests that we haven't moved on from historical resentments.

Illustration by Manisha Yadav | ThePrint

At ThePrint, readers occupy a very special place, a place they can call their own. We call it ‘Your Turn’, it’s where subscribers write and we publish.

Last week, for instance, subscriber Sandeep Dutt wrote about how we need innovation in education lest we end up with a generation of “assembly line” workers. 

Inspired by him and other readers like him, this month’s Readers’ Editor column is devoted to those who have written to me with lively, uninhibited commentary on ThePrint.

What is admirable about the readers is that they are so frank—to a fault, occasionally. They don’t pull their punches or stint on their praise. When they’re upset, they say so. That too, in a few choice words: “Sack her”, “Drop him”, “Anti-national”.

When they’re pleased, they’re a little more garrulous and forthcoming: “I don’t always agree with you…but you are doing a great job,” wrote a frequent correspondent to the Readers’ Editor. Why, thank you, dear sir.

Even when they’re annoyed with ThePrint, some readers damn us with praise: “I personally want to say that the print (sic) is India’s leading web portal, and my kind request to you is that you not promote this kind of content on your website. So kindly remove that article.” For the record, we did remove the offending report which was an agency article from an automated feed.

Just to clarify, agencies such as ANI and PTI offer automated feeds of stories which are published without editorial intervention. This means we don’t know the contents of a report before it is published.

A few highlights

Before we get to more readers’ comments, let’s digress.

So much is happening nowadays, I’m surprised readers even find the time to write to us. There’s an election campaign on at breakneck speed, story after story on the electoral bonds and who donated how much to which political party, political alliances being made, mended or broken, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, a terror attack in Russia, ED or CBI officers knock-knocking on heaven knows whose door, the IPL, etcetera, etcetera.

In this whirring cycle of news, you may have missed good stories at ThePrint—may I make a few suggestions?

So much has been written—and will continue to be written by the news media on the revelations of electoral bonds—that you may be stifling yawns over it. However, here are two ThePrint stories, one by Senior Assistant Editor Sreyashi Dey—Dairy giant, maker for Parle — Kolkata-based Keventer, which bought electoral bonds worth Rs 617 cr—and the other by Principal Correspondent Mayank Kumar—Curious case of Aurobindo Pharma’s electoral bond purchases & promoter’s arrest in Delhi liquor ‘scam’—that I found a little different.

Lastly, away from this hustle-bustle, there’s Science Editor Sandhya Ramesh’s ground report on a science museum in Bengaluru. You don’t have to be of scientific temper to accompany her on a relaxed stroll through its premises and discover the unusual charms of a ‘Mycobloc chair’— “It’s a chimaera of a chair, made from plastic and Reishi mycelium fungus, multiplying on a ragi straw. A reminder to visitors of the wasteful nature of plastic consumption, the chair looks like it stopped metamorphosing midway.’’

Argumentative readers

Back to our favourite people—ThePrint’s readers.

Most of us are well-acquainted with argumentative Indians—at ThePrint we frequently hear from them. This is not necessarily a bad thing—it’s good to learn what the reader thinks of contemporary India.

A regular correspondent, wondered, “How much wealth does a nation have”—and answered his rhetorical question in a lengthy note.

The Bharat Ratna award to politician Karpoori Thakur got another reader thinking. He was of the opinion that India’s highest civilian honour, should be bestowed on the “common man”. He added that giving it to Thakur was great.

An angry student wrote a lengthy piece about the “unconstitutional activity” at her central university. What upset her were the posters of the Ram Mandir on the campus. Religious displays were not allowed on university premises, she wrote.

Another student sent in a lengthy treatise on the administration of his university mistreating the staff and making unwarranted personal demands.

Then, there was a delightful satirical piece on ‘Mahendra Nodi’.

There are plenty of readers who want others to read what they write so they submit articles on everything from, ‘Ram Rajya Reimagined’ to NAAC.

They also have suggestions for articles they believe ThePrint ought to write: One reader urged us to write about a boy who has discovered a fire detector that detects fire before it breaks out. Another asked us to publish an article on the poor housing in Mumbai.

One reader said he was an “expert” on websites and writing and wanted to share his expertise with ThePrint—and I have encouraged him to do so.

Hung up on Left and Right

Another familiar trait of our readers is that they can be quite disapproving. In fact, complaints are the most common feature of readers’ mail.

Much of this mail is still stuck on the same issue of partisanship—this suggests that we the people have not moved on from historical resentments or biases. It’s sad that we still harbour such deep-rooted partisan enmities.

These surface frequently in emails to the Readers’ Editor. One reader was deeply taken by the differences between MK Gandhi and Right-wing politician-ideologue VD Savarkar. Another objected to the “very extreme right winged (sic)..” views of the opinion writer Ibn Khaldun Bharti.

A third complained that ThePrint didn’t have enough “Right wing columnists” while it persisted with Left-wingers such as Vir Sanghvi and Yogendra Yadav “who have no relevance today…”

In a similar vein, there was criticism of articles by Amana Begum—the reader wondered if she represented all Muslims on issues such as the demolition of the Babri Masjid. “Very patronising,” wrote the reader.

If one reader wanted “more writers from the Muslim community who take a critical view of the social evils” of their own people, another disapproved of an opinion on Netflix removing the controversial film Annopoorani from its website.

The writer said we couldn’t “target” a particular community without any provocation. Would there be a film about a Muslim girl in a similar role, he asked.

An opinion piece on the antiquity of Hindu temples so upset a reader that he asked if ThePrint was being “funded” to run a “campaign”. 

I offer these views without comment or contestation because the Readers’ Editor mailbox has enough space to accommodate all shades of opinion. Also, it’s important for us to know and understand what readers think – and the issues that upset them so.

Away from religion, at least one reader is upset about the use of terms such as “upper caste” and “lower caste”. Another took issue with me for my column ‘Tele-scope’— “Don’t criticise TV news channels for biases against the opposition,” he said, alleging that ThePrint’s stories on the Opposition parties in Maharashtra display a similar bias. 

Ad-lite version

Beyond their views on stories and issues, what really upset readers are advertisements. Specifically, the advertisements on the home page or within individual articles which, one reader complained, makes for—“unreadable content”.

“Same painful feedback,” wrote another reader while a third asked why those who had subscribed to ThePrint did not have an ad-free experience. This is a recurring complaint.

There have been efforts by the technical team to minimise advertisement intrusion. But for now, advertisements do appear in the middle of articles and yes, they can be annoying when one is digging deep into an article.

While we cannot guarantee an ad-free experience, we are working to offer subscribers an ad-lite read. This will happen soon.

Lastly, a few readers are kind enough to be concerned about my personal welfare. Reminding me that The Hindu, one of the few newspapers with a readers’ editor, no longer employs one. A reader wanted to know if ThePrint would continue with a Readers’ Editor.  “I hope you don’t do an encore, ” he said, solicitously.

Well, I will try to avoid a similar fate, dear reader, and I depend on you to put in a good word with the Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta—it was his decision to appoint a Readers’ Editor more than two years ago.

Meanwhile, fingers crossed.

Shailaja Bajpai is ThePrint’s Readers’ Editor. Please write in with your views, complaints to [e-mail]

(Edited by Theres Sudeep)