Ganatantra

In this episode, we're joined by Dr Andrew Whitehead to frame the debate over Article 370's abrogation in the context of Kashmir's complicated history. We look at the circumstances of Kashmir's entry into the Indian Union and why the provision exists as it does. At the same time, the reactions around the repeal of Article 370 and the downgrading of J&K to a Union Territory has already elicited a range of reactions in India and elsewhere. We end this episode with a look at what lies ahead for the region

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The abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution has been a long standing promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party and it would not surprise too many that they chose to act on it. Yet, what surprised everyone was the manner in which it was done, and the circumstances in Kashmir which were prevailing when this move took place. In this episode, Sarayu and Alok discuss the Constitutional and political implications of the abrogation of Article 370 and the potential implications for the future of Indian federalism.

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Over the last six months we have discussed the macro of Indian politics, addressing large themes and looking at the politics at State level. In this episode, the last before we take a short hiatus, we go into the micro of India’s politics where we talk about Sarayu’s doctoral thesis on how people’s voting choices in an urban setting may be determined more by a very specific type of service delivery on the part of politicians rather than larger questions of ideology, caste or national concerns.

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In this episode, we talk about the institutional tug-of-war that has taken place between the judiciary and the political executive over who controls the procedure to appoint judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court. In this episode we try to unpack why governments have been concerned about exercising some sort of control over the process and why we are presently stuck in an unacceptable situation where almost no one is happy with the way judges are being appointed.

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The NDA in Bihar faced anti-incumbency at both the State and Union levels when it went to the polls in 2019. Its stunning performance in the elections, improving on its performance from 2014 suggests that the alliance was able to in fact benefit from pro-incumbency in favour of Narendra Modi and possibly, Nitish Kumar. Just how was this achieved and what happened to Bihar's famed caste calculus? We are joined by Parth MN, a freelance journalist who covered the State of Bihar (among other "Hindi belt" states) extensively before the elections, to talk about why Bihar voted the way it did.

You can find Parth's writing in the run up to the elections here: https://www.firstpost.com/author/parth-mn

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Arguably, a central issue in the 2019 elections was the idea of India. The right, notably the BJP, imagine an idea of India at whose centre is a Hindu, and where Muslims (and others are excluded). But who is a Muslim? To discuss issues such as the homogenising tropes of the pukka mussalman, the notion of representation, presence and voice in democracy, and the interplay between law and politics, we are joined by Dr. Hilal Ahmed, Associate Prof at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, and the author of Siyasi Muslims: A Story of Political Islams in India (2019).

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With the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Democratic Alliance managing to almost repeat their 2014 performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, from the looks of it the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party failed to stitch up an effective alliance to counter them. Even though issues of agricultural distress, jobs, and law and order featured prominently in discussions about the state, somehow the "Gathbandhan" failed to capitalise on it to reduce the BJP's tally by much. In this episode, we are joined by veteran journalist and editor Hard News, Sanjay Kapoor to make sense of the way in which UP voted in 2019.

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Political institutions, be the elected assemblies or political parties have not had the presence of women in their ranks, and not in senior levels. Is that too sweeping a statement? How does one parse presence, representation and voice for women in an electoral democracy? To discuss this, we are joined by Dr Carole Spary, co-author (with Dr. Shirin Rai) of Performing Representation (2018), which is a commentary on women in Indian politics, to talk about how to think about women in electoral politics, and whether, some parties are better able to incorporate women into their fold.

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Tamil Nadu was one of the only states (the others being Kerala and Punjab) to resist the otherwise comprehensive sweep by the National Democratic Alliance in 2019. Yet, in the simultaneously held Assembly bypolls, the state-level ruling AIADMK was not as comprehensively routed. TN is state that has seen seen some political upheavals lately, with the passing of two senior leaders, J Jayalaithaa and K Karunanidhi. Why did TN resist the NDA sweep? In this episode, Dr Andrew Wyatt from the University of Bristol joins us to talk about how the DMK-Congres alliance managed to hold off the BJP, the historical trajectory of TN politics, and the impetus of regionalism in the state. We talk to him about what the TN assembly elections (2021) in the last segment.

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Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party managed to cross the half-way mark for the second successive time in the 2019 elections, the coalition era of India's politics is well and truly entrenched, arising partly from the high degree of fragmentation in the Indian party system. Parties spend enormous amounts of time and energy in working out the minute details of pre-poll alliances, and are driven y a range of factors - the network brought by the alliance partner, the local caste dynamics, and concerns about perception. We're joined by Dr. Christiane Andersen to talk about the findings in her doctoral work which explores this question and offers some surprising results on what makes parties chose each other in a pre-poll alliance.

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

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