Midweek Matters with Dr. Parakala Prabhakar

In this Episode, Dr Parakala shares with you some of his thoughts about class room, and the experience of his journey through that sacred space. He also talks about the changes that are beginning to take shape in the class rooms in our New India. 

In this Episode Dr Parakala examines the hijab controversy, understand what is being played out in Karnataka, and reflect on the sub text these unfolding events contain.

Two different messages came from the Deccan last week. One from the Prime Minister and the event he participated. The other, to the Prime Minister from the Chief Minister of Telangana. In this week's Episode, Dr Parakala Prabhakar decodes those messages, interprets them and shares his reflections on what these messages could mean to the Idea of India.

New India's latest attempt is to appropriate the legacy of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. In this episode, Dr Parakala Prabhakar reflects on the dark attempts by the New India's leadership not only to appropriate the legacies of the heroes of India’s freedom movement but also to portray them as righting the wrongs done to them by the leadership of Old India, especially Jawaharlal Nehru.

Dr Parakala speaks about Thomas Piketty's absorbing book, Capital and Ideology and the recently released Oxfam's report, Inequality Kills which has an India supplement also. He suggests that we all engage with these two works, challenge them. And, even if we do not agree with them, we should allow ourselves to be troubled by both them. He points out that New India is not troubled by inequality. It also tolerates it and justifies it. And it added social and cultural inequality to the existing economic equality.

In this Episode Dr Parakala Prabhakar shares his reflections on the state of play in Uttar Pradesh.

There is an insidious project underway with regard to the now repealed Farm Laws. The ruling party, an influential section of our economists, a large and vocal section of the urban middle class, and the mainstream media are stealthily, but effectively, pushing a narrative. In this Episode Dr Parakala interrogates this narrative and shows that the farm laws are merely aimed at accelerating market dynamics in the sector without addressing the core issues that plague the agriculture sector in the country. And shows how this narrative's understanding of agriculture merely as an economic sector, the peasant as only an economic actor and food as nothing but a tradable a commodity is completely flawed.

Dr Parakala dwells on the main features of India's dominant national public discourse in the Episode. Today in India political discourse has come to such a stage that if you support the government and praise the Kashi Vishwanath corridor you’re a nationalist and a patriot. And if you speak about hunger and unemployment you’re are branded an anti national and an urban naxal. This is the narrative the government, the ruling party and its supporters are very effectively pushing. Our social media and instant messaging services like WhatsApp are inundated with this narrative. An influential section of our print and television media to a large extent reflect this narrative today. Citizens are gaslighted by this powerful narrative.

In this Episode Parakala Prabhakar meditates on the import of the rapidly parading events since New India's journey began in 2014, and asks if the 2014 and 2019 mandates are squandered, the trust reposed in the leadership by the people belied and shares his reflections with you.

The BJP has concluded its National Executive Committee meeting in New Delhi three days ago. Newspapers told us that among other things, the party's top leadership has discussed its Rana Niti, meaning strategy, for the impending elections to the five state Assemblies. We all know that real strategies are not discussed in such formal and large forums. Therefore, the gathering in Delhi is not important for what the party's spokespersons told us about its agenda and speeches. It is important for the signals its proceedings sent out, combined with the messages the party's supreme leader and Prime Minister conveyed to the people of India from his recent trip abroad, and from his itinerary after he returned to India. Signals from these three sets of activities are important for us to understand what is on the top of the mind of the ruling party and its mascot. In this Episode, Dr Parakala Prabhakar deciphers those signals to understand the state of the play in the states that are going to the polls shortly.