Newslaundry Interviews

“It is not only democracy that is on the ballot... but the realisation that we have a dictator in the making if we were to give Trump a second presidency,” says Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar in an exclusive conversation with Sreenivasan Jain. 

On the high stakes in the elections, the prominent Muslim politician says that rights and liberties, “bodily autonomy,” policies like student debt cancellation, and the progress made us over the years will “under threat” if Trump comes to power. 

Speaking about Kamala Harris’s candidacy, Omar says Gaza is a “huge blindspot” of the Biden government. “I have called on the president to impose an arms emargo… I do believe US laws and international laws are being violated. There is an ongoing genocide.”

On the challenges facing Kamala Harris, Omar says “most people don’t know who the Vice President is”.  She also talks about Harris’s policies, challenges, and the consequences of the media’s “lost journalistic ethos”.  

Watch our mini-series on the US polls

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In this episode of Another Election Show, Manisha Pande and Atul Chaurasia reached Jammu to understand the issues of the locals, particularly the youth, ahead of the third phase of polling in Jammu and Kashmir. 

Following the recent delimitation process, the region has a total of 90 electoral seats – 43 in Jammu and 47 in Kashmir. the voting in three phases, with the final phase set to cover 40 seats simultaneously.

At Jammu University, we spoke to the students about their key issues, the region’s politics, and campus life. For most of them, employment, development and reservation were the main poll issues and not the abrogation of Article 370.

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The politics of Jammu have been distinct from that of Kashmir. To grasp the nuances of this difference and the issues in Jammu, Manisha Pande and Atul Chaurasia spoke to the region’s senior journalists – Mohit Kandhari of The Pioneer and Nishikant Khajuria of Daily Excelsio.    

In this episode of Another Election Show, the conversations shed light on the influence of the various political parties in Jammu and the people’s views on the abrogation of Article 370 and statehood. 

On Article 370, Kandhari said, “People have voted in large numbers in the valley, which shows that democracy is taking its place here.” The journalists also delved into the BJP’s election strategy and the other parties’ initiatives to win electoral support.  

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जम्मू कश्मीर में करीब 10 साल बाद चुनाव होने जा रहे हैं. यहां मुख्यधारा की लगभग सारी पार्टियां जैसे-नेशनल कॉन्फ्रेन्स, पीडीपी, कांग्रेस और बीजेपी चुनावी मैदान में हैं. इसके अलावा ऐसी पार्टियां भी चुनावी मैदान में हैं जिनपर अलगाववाद और ‘आज़ादी’ के नारे लगाने का आरोप है. इन्हीं पार्टियों में से एक पार्टी है शेख राशिद इंजीनियर की आवामी इत्तेहाद पार्टी और दूसरी है जमात-ए-इस्लामी.जमात -ए-इस्लामी अतीत में हथियार के बल पर ‘आजादी की वकालत’ करती रही है. जिसके चलते जमात-ए-इस्लामी पर भारत सरकार ने प्रतिबंध लगा रखा है. वहीं, इस पार्टी के कई नेता जेल में बंद हैं और उनके सारे उम्मीदवार निर्दलीय चुनाव लड़ रहे हैं. उन्हीं में से एक हैं तलत मजीद, जो पुलवामा से निर्दलीय चुनाव लड़ रहे हैं. उन्हें चुनाव आयोग की ओर से टॉर्च का चुनाव निशान मिला है. 

जमात-ए-इस्लामी ने अतीत में अलगाववाद की बात की है और अब वह भारतीय संविधान के तहत चुनाव लड़ रही है. ऐसे में हथियारों के बल पर आजादी से जम्हूरियत के रास्ते राजनीति का यह सफर कैसे हुआ? और कश्मीरी आवाम को वह अब क्या कहकर अपने पक्ष में जुटाते हैं? इन्हीं सब मुद्दों पर हमने तलत मजीद से बात की. 

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The census has been postponed five times over the past four years – initially due to the Covid-19 pandemic and later even without citing any reason. Last year, the home ministry deferred it to October 2024. But skepticism persists as the allocated budget of Rs 1,300 crore is significantly lower than the Rs 12,600 crore promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.

In this conversation with Newslaundry, former registrar general and census commissioner AR Nanda sheds light on the impact of the delay in the census, the linkage of the National Population Register with the census, past practices, and the government’s alleged interference in the exercise. 

Nanda says, “We have brilliant officers [in charge of census] and they have technical support, but, unfortunately, none of them, including the present one, have field experience in conducting the census on the field…Field experience is important because it is a massive exercise” involving elaborate government machinery.   

He says that the census is a “valuable” exercise and the delay has particularly impacted the beneficiaries of the government welfare schemes because of the lack of data for over 14 years. “The coverage is not known. It is all tentatively being calculated, which cannot match the census data.”   

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It will soon be a year since Hamas’ October 7 attack. Contribute to our new NL Sena project to help us bring an exclusive mini-series that examines the multiple dimensions of the Israel-Gaza war from ground zero.

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What started as a mass student protest against job quotas escalated into a deadly uprising in Bangladesh, with over 150 people killed so far.

Muktadir Rashid, a journalist in Bangladesh who has been reporting on the clashes from the ground, speaks to Newslaundry about the challenges to reporting in such circumstances, the incident in which he was shot at, how two journalists were killed, and the struggle for media in Bangladesh to be independent.

Rashid also discusses the triggers behind the protests, and how it’s become one of the biggest challenges Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has faced in her two-decade tenure. 

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After the spate of allegations against IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, last week the UPSC said she had misused the disability quota and filed a case against her. But this changed the course of the conversation, with several bureaucrats raising questions on the need for the quota. 

Arman Ali, executive director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, spoke to Newslaundry about why putting the blame on people with disability is a harmful narrative and would result in pushing back people of disability by decades.

Ali also spoke about a case he recently filed against prominent cricketers for allegedly mocking people of disability and the need to include disability in mainstream conversations.

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Nearly a year after violence broke out during the Brij Mandal religious yatra in Haryana’s Nuh, killing at least six people, preparations are underway for another yatra on July 22. And Bittu Bajrangi, cow vigilante and key accused of last year’s violence, has claimed to lead the procession this year.     

Bajrangi, who was arrested by the Haryana police last year and subsequently granted bail, told Newslaundry that he is set to lead the yatra. He has also been urging people to participate in the yatra in huge numbers. 

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Bihar is now the first state in India to simultaneously recruit three transgender persons as sub-inspectors in the state police. Among the 1,275 candidates who cracked the sub-inspector recruitment examination held by the Bihar Police Subordinate Services Commission, three of them broke several stereotypes – Manvi Madhu Kashyap, who identifies as a transwoman, and two transmen, Ronit Jha and Bunty Kumar.

The three of them prepared for the exam at the coaching centre of Guru Rehman, alias Motiur Rehman Khan in Patna, after they were refused training by several coaching centres. Rehman, who is also popular as “Daroga Guru” in Bihar, spoke to Newslaundry about the many challenges faced by his transgender students and breaking stereotypes.

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The cancellation of the FCRA licence “has nothing to do with technicalities. It [the government] is weaponising FCRA and using it as a political tool against organisations that are critical of the government,” said Joe Athialy, executive director of the Centre for Financial Accountability. Last week, the FCRA licence of the CFA’s parent entity, India Institute for Critical Action Centre, was cancelled citing “errors” in tax filings.

In a conversation with Newslaundry, Athialy alleged that the government has “double standards” for civil society groups and India Inc. “Consider that a company had some erroneous filings. This doesn’t mean that tomorrow the company will shut down.”

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