In Focus by The Hindu

The 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election has delivered a verdict few anticipated. A political landscape long defined by the alternating dominance of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has been decisively disrupted. At the centre of this churn is the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, led by C. Joseph Vijay, which has emerged as the single largest party in its electoral debut, falling short of a majority, but clearly ahead of both Dravidian majors.

The scale of the upset is hard to overstate. The sitting Chief Minister, M. K. Stalin, has lost his own seat. The AIADMK has ceded ground even in its traditional western strongholds. And the Bharatiya Janata Party, despite its national prominence, has seen its presence in the State shrink dramatically. What we are witnessing is not just a reshuffling of seats, but a deeper churn in voter preferences, one that appears to cut across caste, region, and established party loyalties.

So how should we read this verdict? Is this simply a wave election driven by anti-incumbency and a charismatic new entrant, or does it signal a more fundamental realignment in Tamil Nadu’s politics? Are we looking at the weakening of identity-driven mobilization that has long underpinned Dravidian parties, or its reinvention through a new political vehicle? And what does this mean for the future of the State’s political order?

Guest: R. Kannan, political analyst and author of MGR: A Life, The DMK Way, and The Life and Times of C. N. Annadurai

Host: Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

Edited and produced by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

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The assembly election results have sharply changed the political landscape in India, with the BJP set to form a government on its own for the first time in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee, the three-term chief minister often spoken of as the ‘real’ Opposition leader to the BJP, has ended up losing her own seat.

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Negotiations between the United States and Iran have stalled due to deep disagreements over Iran’s nuclear program, economic sanctions, and regional influence. The U.S. wants stricter limits on uranium enrichment, while Iran demands sanctions relief. Mistrust built over decades, especially after the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, has made compromise difficult. Ongoing tensions in the Middle East further complicate efforts to reach a stable agreement.

Guest: Stanly Johny

Host: Smriti Sudesh

Producer: Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

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We know by now that extreme heat can impact pregnancies in many ways. And with climate change contributing to extreme heat in India – and with parts of the country already reeling under scorching heat – this has become a significant health concern.

But what do we know about temperature and its link with sex ratio at birth? Can exposure to intense heat during pregnancy influence whether you have a boy or a girl? A recent research paper seems to suggest it might – it shows that high temperatures in the months before birth, could be linked with fewer male births.

Guest: Jasmin Abdel Ghany, Nuffield Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow in Sociology, Nuffield College, Oxford and lead author of the research paper

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Producer: Sharmada Venkatasubramanian

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Is India’s middle class facing an economic crisis? A new book, ‘Breakpoint: The Crisis of the Middle Class and the Future of Work’ by Saurabh Mukherjea says that it is.

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is facing a crisis. Seven of its 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, led by Raghav Chadha, have joined the BJP. Mr Chadha has framed this move as a “merger” with the BJP. Rajya Sabja Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan has already accepted the ‘merger’ claim. AAP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha has dwindled from 10 to 3. 

AAP leaders have called this merger ‘illegal’. They want the seven MPs to be disqualified under the anti-defection provisions of the law. It is expected that they will take the matter to court. 

Are the anti-defection provisions of the Tenth Schedule inadequate? Will a legal challenge from AAP prove successful? And what are the political implications of this loss for the AAP in Punjab?

We speak with political commentator Neerja Chowdhury.

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Public Interest Litigation (PIL) emerged in the 1970s as a transformative judicial innovation aimed at widening access to justice for the poor and marginalised. This was achieved by relaxing the strict rules of standing to permit representative actions, and by broadening the scope of judicial notice to allow courts to take suo motu cognisance of public issues and convert them into litigation. Over time, however, concerns have been raised about the misuse of this jurisdiction for partisan ends.

More recently, during the ongoing proceedings in the Sabarimala reference case, the Union government has urged the Supreme Court to reconsider the PIL framework altogether, citing the rise of “agenda-driven litigation.”

Does the PIL jurisdiction need to be reconsidered? Here, we discuss the question.

Guest: Anuj Bhuwania and Talha Abdul Rahman

Host: Aaratrika Bhaumik

Producer: Jude Francis Weston

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We all know that India is one of the most unequal societies on the planet. But most debates around inequality are focussed on wealth and income inequality. But there is another form of inequality that isn’t talked about much – temporal inequality.

How much time a person spends waiting – determines how much time she has for other life-critical activities. In India, it is the poor who spend more time waiting in queues – waiting for essential services like healthcare, rations, and in government offices.

Digitisation was supposed to fix this by cutting waiting time. But has it done so? Or has ‘Digital India’ benefited the already time-rich, while further depleting the resources of the poor? Is this lopsided digital governance by accident, or by design?

Guest: Ankush Pal, a sociologist trained at the London School of Economics, who works on urban spatiality, caste epistemology, and social movements.

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The recent allegations of sexual harassment by eight female employees in Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) office in Nashik has brought renewed attention to workplace safety and grievance redressals of sexual harassment complaints. In this episode, Advocate Geeta Rameshashan joins us to discuss how the PoSH Act works, the limitations of internal committees, and what prevents women from reporting sexual harassment.

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By the time farmers in Haryana were ready to head to the anaj mandis (grain markets) to sell their Rabi harvest, the rules of entry had been revised. The Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board's March 28 directive introduced a new set of conditions for crop procurement — mandatory registration on the 'Meri Fasal Mera Byora' portal, Aadhaar-based biometric verification, and vehicle number registration via the e-Kharid app.

The State government says the measures are aimed at curbing fraud and improving transparency. Farmers see it as a bureaucratic maze that, whether by intent or effect, slows the procurement process to a point where the Minimum Support Price (MSP) becomes harder, and sometimes impossible, to claim.On April 11, farmers staged demonstrations across the State, calling for the compliance burden to be re-evaluated. Can digital governance work if it places the weight of reform on the farmer? When the State modernises to fix systemic fraud, who pays the price?

Host: Vibha B. Madhava

Guest: G.S. Mann, member of the India chapter of the Global Farmer Network and a former journalist.

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