The new India

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This video is about the widening gap between the story we’re sold and the reality unfolding around us. It looks at how India is projected as a decisive global power even as it finds itself increasingly sidelined in key moments, with neighbours like Pakistan stepping into spaces India once dominated, and a leadership that appears more aligned with Washington’s expectations than willing to assert its own. But just as crucial is the role of the mainstream media—less watchdog, more amplifier—echoing the government’s line, softening uncomfortable truths, and feeding a carefully constructed narrative to an audience that deserves far better. And while this illusion of strength is reinforced through spectacle—through headlines, debates, even blockbuster films like Dhurandhar—what gets buried is the cost of this disconnect. Watch this if you want to understand not just what is happening, but why you’re not being told the full story. Watch it. Become a paid subscriber

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Protestors at Columbia University (America)

Protestors at the Jamia Campus (India)

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From Columbia University to Jamia Millia Islamia, students are being criminalized for standing up for justice and equality. By silencing dissent, we risk creating a generation that sees protest as a 'bad word'—eroding the very foundations of democracy and the power of collective voice. In Jamia students were suspended for commemorating the citizenship protest, at the Bernard campus, students speaking in solidarity with Palestine were arrested. Both events happened in the same week. I look at the parallels, drawing references from the past and what it bodes for our future

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The Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has asked for the accused in the Kolkata rape case to be hanged within a week. A performative statement that reflects our casual attitude to crimes against women, besides promoting a brazen disregard for the law of the land.

On the 75th anniversary of the Indian independence day, two years ago, the Narendra Modi government released the men accused of gang-raping Bilkis Bano, the face of the Gujarat anti-Muslim riots. In between these high-profile cases are the thousands of women in India whose stories of brutality never make it to our front pages.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ranaayyub.substack.com/subscribe

Rana Ayyub's Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

While you are here, you might want to read these stories -editorials about the Indian election results

Is there hope for Muslims with the election results

The world’s first ‘Exit Poll Stock Market Scam’ Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/the-worlds-first-exit-poll-stock-market-scam-3058706

Where does India go from here

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Video edited by : Rajan Chaudhary

I hate to use the term brave or resilient for journalists in Gaza but journalists like Hind truly embody that resilience. Speaking to me from the residence of her friend Motaz Azaiza in Gaza, Hind speaks to me about her last phone call with Hamza Al Dahdouh who was murdered by an Israeli air strike three days ago

Hind says she has got multiple opportunities to leave Gaza but she cannot leave her people whose stories she must tell the world. She has gone without food, without basic amenities, her own house in Gaza has been flattened into a rubble. 

Be it Plestia or Hind, the interviews have been heartbreaking, i do not know if my questions are even framed right or are sensitive but like I told Hind, each one of us has got so much to learn from Palestinian journalists.

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Over the last three years, the launch of publications like Mooknayak and Maktoob media focused on telling the stories of the Dalits, Muslims is an indication that these voices have long been isolated in mainstream publications. When these communities are not being censored, they are misrepresented, demonised and caricatured. In this important conversation with Meena, I speak about caste census, reservations and the importance of telling our stories.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ranaayyub.substack.com/subscribe

Rana Ayyub's Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ranaayyub.substack.com/subscribe