BIC TALKS

None Wiser than the Law is a miniseries of in-depth conversations with Justice MN Venkatachaliah, providing an intimate exploration of the legal realm, his life journey, political insights, and the Indian constitution. The title of this podcast draws inspiration from Aristotle, who said to seek to be wiser than the law is the very thing which is by good laws forbidden. Justice Venkatachaliah, a distinguished figure in the realm of jurisprudence, acknowledges this aphorism in one of his landmark judgments, setting the tone for this series of conversations.

The host, Alok Prasanna Kumar, a co-founder of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, spoke to former Chief Justice of India MN Venkatachaliah in August 2023. Their discussion spans an array of topics, encapsulating the Justice's journey from a young lawyer to a Supreme Court judge, his landmark judgments, and his insights on the ever-evolving legal landscape and society.

Justice Venkatachaliah was elevated as a permanent judge of the Karnataka High Court on November 6, 1975. In October 1987, he was elevated to the Supreme Court of India to become only the third judge from the Karnataka High Court to have been appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of India. As the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court of India in February 1993, he succeeded Justice LM Sharma as the Chief Justice of India and held that position until his retirement in October, 1994. In his 20 month tenure as the Chief Justice of India, Justice Venkatachaliah initiated a wide set of reforms that are remembered to this day. In this, the fourth episode, Justice MN Venkatachaliah delves his career as a judge of the High Court and Supreme Court, and as the Chief Justice of India, and his subsequent post-judicial career.

None Wiser than the Law is a miniseries of in-depth conversations with Justice MN Venkatachaliah, providing an intimate exploration of the legal realm, his life journey, political insights, and the Indian constitution. The title of this podcast draws inspiration from Aristotle, who said to seek to be wiser than the law is the very thing which is by good laws forbidden. Justice Venkatachaliah, a distinguished figure in the realm of jurisprudence, acknowledges this aphorism in one of his landmark judgments, setting the tone for this series of conversations.

The host, Alok Prasanna Kumar, a co-founder of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, spoke to former Chief Justice of India MN Venkatachaliah in August 2023. Their discussion spans an array of topics, encapsulating the Justice's journey from a young lawyer to a Supreme Court judge, his landmark judgments, and his insights on the ever-evolving legal landscape and society.

In this third episode, Justice Venkatachaliah talks about his early life and career as a lawyer in Bengaluru. In this conversation the Justice looks back on his memories of Bengaluru at the turn of independence, influences in his life, and what the Bar and the Bench in Bengaluru was like.

None Wiser than the Law is a miniseries of in-depth conversations with Justice MN Venkatachaliah, providing an intimate exploration of the legal realm, his life journey, political insights, and the Indian constitution. The title of this podcast draws inspiration from Aristotle, who said to seek to be wiser than the law is the very thing which is by good laws forbidden. Justice Venkatachaliah, a distinguished figure in the realm of jurisprudence, acknowledges this aphorism in one of his landmark judgments, setting the tone for this series of conversations.

Alok Prasanna Kumar, a co-founder of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, spoke to former Chief Justice of India MN Venkatachaliah in August 2023. Their discussion spans an array of topics, encapsulating the Justice's journey from a young lawyer to a Supreme Court judge, his landmark judgments, and his insights on the ever-evolving legal landscape and society.

In the second episode of the series, Justice MNV and Alok delve into two pivotal judgments that revolve around two of the most harrowing incidents in independent India's history: the Bhopal Gas disaster in 1984 and the Babri Masjid demolition in 1991. These tragic events spawned a multitude of legal cases, with two of the most significant cases finding their way to the Supreme Court, with Justice Venkatachaliah on the bench. These cases, namely Union Carbide Corporation Ltd v the Union of India (decided in 1991) and Dr Ismail Faruqui v Union of India (decided in 1994), hold paramount importance in the context of these events.

The Supreme Court's role in facilitating the settlement between the Union of India and Union Carbide has been a subject of extensive debate, as has its contribution to the eventual resolution of the Babri Masjid dispute. In this episode of BIC Talks, we endeavor to shed light on the motivations and considerations that underpinned the court's decisions, providing insight into why the court took the actions it did in these consequential cases.

None Wiser than the Law is a miniseries of in-depth conversations with Justice MN Venkatachaliah, providing an intimate exploration of the legal realm, his life journey, political insights, and the Indian constitution. The title of this podcast draws inspiration from Aristotle, who said to seek to be wiser than the law is the very thing which is by good laws forbidden. Justice Venkatachaliah, a distinguished figure in the realm of jurisprudence, acknowledges this aphorism in one of his landmark judgments, setting the tone for this series of conversations.

Alok Prasanna Kumar, a co-founder of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, spoke to former Chief Justice of India MN Venkatachaliah in August 2023. Their discussion spans an array of topics, encapsulating the Justice's journey from a young lawyer to a Supreme Court judge, his landmark judgments, and his insights on the ever-evolving legal landscape and society.

In this first episode, Justice MNV and Alok discuss two landmark judgements delivered by benches headed by Justice Venkatachaliah, namely Kihoto Hollohan v Zachillhu and AR Antulay v RS Nayak. These two cases involved two major political issues that continue to bedevil Indian politics: defections and corruption. In the Antulay case, Justice Venkatachaliah's judgement says, "to be wiser than the law is what by good laws is forbidden" and that the "well trodden path is the best path". This captures the essence of Justice Venkatachaliah's judicial philosophy, as we shall discover this episode.

After is a collection of poems inspired by Valmiki's Ramayana, one of Asia's foundational epic poems and a story cycle of incalculable historical importance. But After does not just come after the Ramayana. On each successive page, Vivek Narayanan brings the resources of contemporary English poetry to bear on the Sanskrit epic.

In a work that warrants comparison with Christopher Logue's and Alice Oswald's reshapings of Homer, and Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, Narayanan allows the ancient voice of the poem to engage with modern experience, initiating a transformative conversation across time.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Vivek Narayanan is in conversation with Mani Rao and Arshia Sattar, peppered with readings and conversation.

Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.

India has ambitiously tasked itself to leap to the next level on the development ladder to a "developed India" tag by 2047. The country is categorised as an "Aspirational Society," aiming to seize the opportunities provided by an economy that maintains steady and high economic growth. This society aspires for better living standards, including the bare necessities, better health care, education, clean water, sanitation facilities, affordable housing, electricity and the internet.

The big tent of India's social infrastructure must reach a diverse and expansive populace, transcending cultures, languages, and geographies, after all! The Government is thus making all efforts to live up to this challenge and demands of society, as economic growth without shared prosperity and well-being is devoid of meaning.

A vast ground has been covered to ensure sustainable and equitable economic growth. However, the journey continues with fresh challenges and innovative solutions.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Chief Economic Adviser, V Anantha Nageswaran takes us through the journey that the country has made in the recent past and details the steps forward.

Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.

In an illustrious career spanning over forty years in public service and culminating in the highest office in Indian bureaucracy – Union Cabinet Secretary – KM Chandrasekhar has seen, and done, it all. He is one of those rare IAS officers who has held a wide range of senior positions in State government, the Centre, and public sector undertakings.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Chandrasekhar talks about his autobiography, As Good as My Word, wherehe paints an intimate picture of the UPA government during one of its toughest phases and his own, crucial, role in steering India through some of her most severe crises – the Great Recession of 2008, the oilmen's strike in 2009 and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks – and scams – the 2G Spectrum case and the 2010 Commonwealth Games corruption scandal. The book describes Chandrasekhar's experiments in public administration, cutting his teeth in trade diplomacy as the Indian ambassador to the World Trade Organization, his excellent working equation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his run-ins with some prominent ministers of the time, and his reflections on Indian democracy, economy and defence.

The author will be in conversation with ACS, Panchayat Raj, Government of Karnataka, Uma Mahadevan and Sudhir Krishnaswamy Vice-Chancellor of NLSIU, Bengaluru.

Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.

UR Ananthamurthy (1932–2014), writer, teacher, literary critic, and public intellectual, was born in Shivamogga district in Karnataka. In 1965, his debut novel, Samskara, took the literary world by storm with its unflinching portrayal of the rigid orthodoxy in Brahmin society. Since then, it has become a landmark novel of the modernist, or Navya, movement of the 1950s and 1960s in Kannada literature. He received the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary honour, in 1994, and was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013.

The Essential UR Ananthamurthy is a five-part compendium of select fictional and non-fictional works, poetry, and autobiographical writings from one of India's most illustrious and outspoken writers. The section 'Novels' portrays characters in conflict with tradition, idealism, and modernity in a rapidly changing independent India through excerpts from powerful novels such as Samskara, Bharathipura, Avasthe, and Bhava. 'Poetry' presents five evocative poems on the themes of power and politics. 'Short Stories' highlights the chief themes that preoccupied Ananthamurthy—the constraints of the traditional order, the cultural dominance of the West, the sinister workings of power, and the creativity of political dissent. 'Essays and Speeches' captures the range and depth of Ananthamurthy's democratic imagination through his writings on cultural identity and literature, community and creativity, linguistic and nationalist politics, and on figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Ram Manohar Lohia. And, the final section, 'Memoirs', gathers Ananthamurthy's memories of family, friendships, work, and travel from the different phases of his life.

The Essential UR Ananthamurthy offers a rich glimpse into the mind of one of modern India's most profound writers and thinkers and demonstrates why Ananthamurthy's works will endure for generations to come. The book has been edited by Manu Chakravarthy and Chandan Gowda.

This episode of BIC Talks features NS Gundur, Anjum Hasan, HS Raghavendra Rao, Nithyananda Shetty and the editors of the book.

Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.

India's mythmaker and Jnanpith awardee, Chandrashekhar Kambar, has not only enriched Kannada literature but has also placed the country on the global literary map. The recent translation of his collection of folk tales and the charming play Pushparani, titled When the Wind God Fell Sick and Other Folk Tales, opens up new and exciting vistas in children's literature.

The book also highlights urgent environmental concerns, such as saving trees, conserving forests, and preserving our planet's green and clean environment. It leads young readers, as well as those young at heart, into fantastical worlds where gods, demons, princesses, sorcerers, and common people coexist. Moreover, it makes them feel intimately connected with all the animate and inanimate realms of Nature.

Krishna Manavalli's English translation (Rupa, 2023) brings the folk sensibility and vibrant Kannada idiom to young adults from diverse cultures worldwide.

This episode of BIC Talks features the writer, Dr. Chandrashekhar Kambar, the translator, Dr. Krishna Malavalli, and the critic, Dr. C. Naganna, on a collective journey of exploration in this folk wonderland.

Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.

Divorce has been typically framed in Indian popular culture as available mainly to upper-class urban and Anglicised people with the financial means to pursue long-winded remedies in courts. In addition, Hindus have had specific obstacles to accessing divorce; among the various religion-based personal law systems, Hindu personal law was the last to legalise divorce. Critics have long framed divorce as anti-Hindu and a practice promoted by frivolous Westernised women. Escaping unwanted or abusive marriages has therefore been an uphill battle.

What arguments did early proponents of divorce in the mid-twentieth century use to legalise divorce? How did they seek to show its acceptance in shastras? Author & Professor, George Washington University, Ashwini Tambe pursues these questions in this talk by looking closely at Marathi public culture, and specifically the longest running Marathi women's magazine, Stree. She shares translated content from Stree— excerpts of letters to the editor, legal advice, and opinion pieces— to describe the arguments that facilitated the stronger social acceptance of divorce.

Looking at Marathi public culture is important because a significant number of reformists and legislators who helped formalise Hindu women's legal right to divorce at a national level (such as Chimnabai Gaekwad, Dr. Gopalrao Deshmukh and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar) were Marathi. Bombay Presidency and Baroda (ruled by Marathas) legalised divorce for Hindu women before the country as a whole did so. In effect, this episode of BIC Talks traces the itinerary of reformist ideas about divorce that gained prominence in the 1940s and then led to the national-level legalisation of divorce in the 1950s.

Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.