The Wire Talks
The Wire Talks is back, but with a new look. Now, host Sidharth Bhatia will chat with guests on video as well as audio, on issues such as culture, politics, books and much more. Our guests will be well-informed domain experts. The idea is not to get crisp sound bites but to have a real discussion, resulting in an explanation that is insightful and offers the audience much to think about.
Episodes
Thirty years ago, Saeed Akhtar Mirza made his final feature film, Naseem, about an aging Urdu poet, played by Kaifi Azmi, and set in the days preceding the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The film opened with a title card which said, “That one act of demolition wrote the epitaph of an age that has passed, perhaps never to return!”
“The Babri Masjid epitomised the final collapse, you know, of an idea of India, of a sovereign, secula...
India’s left parties are no longer as influential as they used to be. In her new book, Comrades and Comebacks: The Battle of the Left to Win the Indian Mind, Saira Shah Halim, CPI(M) candidate in the 2024 elections, analyses the reasons for this and suggests the way forward.
“There have been strategic decisions that went wrong, but morally the Left has never made a mistake,” she said in a podcast conversation with Sidharth Bhatia.
...Comedians and satirists have borne the brunt of the state and of people who are offended by something or the other, but even so, the stand up co...
Why have digital scams become so commonplace? And why are senior citizens falling prey to scamsters?
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It is no longer unusual to hear of someone, especially from a younger generation, who is undergoing therapy from a mental health professional, w...
In President Trump’s second term, he has imposed several sanctions against India, starting from 50% tariffs on Indian exports for importing oil ...
There has been growing anti-immigration and anti-Indian sentiment in many countries, including in Australia. A Member of Parliament rece...
The Violence in Nepal Was Very Well Planned, by Forces Other Than GenZ Protesters | Mahendra P. Lama
The agitation in Nepal last week had three dimensions—the total collapse of the state machinery, multiple forces joining the GenZ agitators and ...
What is the cause of the severe flooding seen in northern states and cities?
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The reason why the Marathas have begun agitating for reservations in recent years is because there is a “rural as well as urban crisis” in the s...
A rupture has taken place within our community relationships and this will take a long time to heal even if the government changes. This is the ...
Historian Richard M Eaton says he is “very concerned” at the erasure of the Mughals — “one of the most spectacular empires in the world” — from school history books.
Eaton, one of the most eminent historians of pre-modern Indian history, debunks some myths about the Mughals in this podcast conversation with Sidharth Bhatia.
He pointedly says that though the Mughals were Muslims, “they saw religion as a very personal affair and ra...
There is a widespread belief that the 1950s were a time of great Hindi films, in terms of stories, songs and film-making. Seventy-five years lat...
The Election Commission’s announcement in Bihar that a citizen should prove his or her credentials to vote has sparked outrage among political p...
The Devendra Fadnavis government has withdrawn its proposal to introduce Hindi in the early classes in schools in Maharashtra because of the opp...
India’s stand on global events is becoming increasingly unclear. Whether on the Israel Iran war or the Ukraine-Russia war, India has not taken a clear position, though in recent years, India has been supportive of Israel, giving up the country’s long standing support of Palestine.
Nor has prime minister Modi clearly repudiated President Trump’s repeated statements that it was he who brought an end to the India-Pakistan conflict.
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India sends students to the US in record numbers, but this academic year, applicants are feeling anxious before they head out. The changing policies of the Trump administration is likely to cause delays and tougher immigration questioning, among other things. Moreover, it is likely that the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme, which allows F-1 visa holding students to work for a year or more, will be modified if not termina...
Every year, parts of Mumbai’s streets and tracks get flooded after the rains, but this year, the floods happened in the southern parts of the city. South Mumbai is generally considered immune to this kind of monsoon flooding, but this year, things were different. Citizens of Mumbai have got used to such inconveniences during the rainy season, especially in the first few days and weeks, but things are getting worse year after year. ...
Veteran Indian diplomat Talmiz Ahmad, who is an authority on the Middle East, says Turkey has been bringing up Kashmir for a long time but relat...
With the election of a new prime minister in Canada, there are hopes that relations between India and Canada will improve. Under Justin Trudeau,...
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