In this episode, Dhanya Rajendran, Pooja Prasanna, and Leena Reghunath are joined by The Hindu’s Suhasini Haidar and lawyer Zafarullah Khan.
On the crackdown on Indian students in the Unite States, Suhasini says that the US government is essentially saying that it doesn’t care about “what's right and wrong”. “What we have seen in the last two months is... governments making it very clear they don't care if due process is followed or not.”
Dhanya talks about the impact the crackdown has had on students. She says: “There is panic amongst the student community… especially that anything they post on social media, anything they do on their campuses, can come back to bite them.”
Pooja highlights the Indian government’s muted response to the crackdown. She draws attention to the mismatch between PM Modi’s “bravado” in the Parliament speeches on foreign policy and its “meek” implementation.
As the conversation shifts to the recently passed controversial Waqf Amendment Act, Zafarullah says, “The present amendments do not address the shortcomings in the administration of the Waqf and its properties. The focus is on how to deprive the Waqf of their landed properties. She says the act’s agenda is to make Muslims “second-class citizens”.
Dhanya calls the BJP’s claim of protecting the Muslim community’s interests “hypocritical”. She says: “This is a party which did not give a seat to a Muslim. It stood and watched when Muslims’ homes were demolished; when there were hate speeches made against Muslims.”
Tune in for an in-depth discussion.
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Audio timecodes
00:00:00 – Introductions
00:01:23 – Announcements
00:03:03 – Headlines
00:13:39 – US crackdown on students
00:44:51 – Waqf Amendment Act
01:09:13 – Letters
01:14:23 – Recommendations
References
RSS and BJP’s quiet takeover of Auroville
A storm brews at Isha Foundation: Sexual assault allegations and countercharges
Great Nicobar: Tribal lands don’t show up on maps as Union govt pushes mega project
Wrongly accused of 'Hamas support': Indian student speaks after being forced to flee US
Whittling down sources of U.S. soft power
Waqf bill cleared in Lok Sabha, Opposition calls it attack on minorities
Recommendations
Suhasini Haidar
Zafarullah Khan
Leena Reghunath
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Pooja Prasanna
Dhanya Rajendran
Produced by Bhuvan Malik, edited by Jaseem Ali.
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