The Interview With Karan Thapar

Reversals in SIR procedures admission of guilt by ECI; all 3 Commissioners must apologise & resign: Yogendra Yadav, National Convenor of the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Over the last ten days the Election Commission has made a series of announcements amending or reversing many of the procedures and documents connected with the SIR...

Was Saturday's mock impeachment a clever idea or childish gimmickry?: Tavleen Singh, Author and Columnist, and Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor of The Wire, debate this key question with Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Saturday’s mock impeachment of the Chief Election Commissioner has both captured the attention of the country and been roundly criticised by...

Netanyahu has done better than expected but Eisenkot could still form the government: Yossi Beilin, former Israeli Justice Minister, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Yesterday Israel held what is possibly its most consequential election in decades. There was a record turnout of 77.7%. The election was effectively a referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu’s prime minis...

Chief Justice Chandrachud did not live up to my expectations of him: Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul to Karan Thapar for The Wire. My guest today is one of the most highly regarded former judges of the Supreme Court. He’s just published his memoirs. It’s called Without Fear or Favour. It's a very accurate title because the book contains some devastating revelations that at times are not just disturbing...

I see the protests as "a moment of great hope"; the audacity and impertinence is enheartening: Mukul Kesavan, Historian, Novelist and Essayist, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Today we focus on the protests that have paralyzed the centre of Delhi since Saturday and the government’s response to them. What do the protests reveal of the state of the country and t...

Charging MDR on UPI payments could increase costs in many ways; it'll benefit Visa & Mastercard: Ajay Srivastava, Founder, Global Trade Research Initiative, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... As things stand the government’s controversial decision to impose a merchant discount rate on specified UPI payments above Rs. 2,000/- will take affect from Thursday the...

The present Indian govt is one of the biggest committers of ecocide in the world today: Author and Blogger Avay Shukla to Karan Thapar for The Wire. The recent environmental disaster in the Himalayas in Nepal was a clear sign we need to pay serious attention to issues of environmental and climate change. If not we are playing with our own future as a planet. There are clear limits to how far man c...

Young Gandhi was racist, never had Ambedkar’s respect on untouchability but won the trust of Muslims: Ramachandra Guha to Karan Thapar on his new book ‘Arguments with Gandhi’ for The Wire Ramachandra Guha’s latest book ‘Arguments with Gandhi’ raises key questions about the Mahatma. Was the young Gandhi a racist during his days in South Africa? Why did Gandhi never win the respect of B. R. Ambedkar...

PM Modi would have been told about the mess in Election Commission: Former CEC S. Y. Quraishi, former EC Ashok Lavasa and National Convener of Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan, Yogendra Yadav, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Today we focus on the Indian Express expose of the functioning of the Election Commission. It raises fundamental issues. Was the Commission functioni...

In A. S. Dulat's first novel Kashmir is a tragedy and the Head of IB has a break down: A. S. Dulat to Karan Thapar for The Wire on his first novel 'Our Kind of Games' I know that former foreign secretaries and former army chiefs have written novels but my guest is the first former Head of R&AW to do so. The book is called Our Kind of Games. Set in Kashmir, it’s the story of Ranjit Soni, the He...

Disappointed, dismayed and worried by Supreme Court's functioning: Justice Madan Lokur, former Supreme Court Judge, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Today our focus is on four critical issues concerning the Supreme Court. Should the Court give top priority to petitions questioning the way the SIR exercise has been conducted? Is the Chief Justice of India guilty...

The Tata crisis is a mess and no one comes out of it unscathed: Sucheta Dalal, Managing Editor, Moneylife, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Today we focus our attention on the crisis that’s afflicted the Tata Group. Was N. Chandrasekaran’s appointment for a third term as Chairman legitimate or illegal? Is the RBI’s insistence on listing in the best interests of...

I hope Modi is defeated in 2029, like the PM in my first novel ‘The Actor’: Tavleen Singh to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ...................................... You probably know Tavleen Singh as a columnist and the author of serious political books. Today I shall introduce Tavleen Singh the novelist. Her first book, The Actor, was recently released. Set sometime in the future, it’s the story of Ind...

Haaretz expose of Netanyahu believable, his behaviour was "criminal": Gershon Baskin, Middle East Director, International Communities Organisation and Israeli hostage negotiator, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... The Hamas attack on Israel on October the 7, 2023 traumatised the country. 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage. In response Israel carr...

BAPS has created outrage in France, embarrassed Macron govt, damaged India's image: Christophe Jaffrelot, Professor of South Asian Politics at Sciences Po and Professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King's College, London ....................................... The decision to keep women away when a delegation from BAPS visited the Eiffel Tower recently has provoked outrage in Paris and head...

Mohan Bhagwat's speeches are confused and duplicitous, not proof Hindutva has changed: Suhas Palshikar, Chief Editor, Studies in Indian Politics, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Several people have concluded after reading about Mohan Bhagwat’s speeches in America that he is genuinely celebrating diversity and even sounding like a new Jawaharlal Nehru. Is that...

Q1 GDP growth "difficult to accept" but S. C. Garg is "conceptually illogical" and completely wrong: former Chief Statistician, Pronab Sen, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Today we focus on the recently released Q1 GDP figure. It’s created a storm of controversy. So we ask is the 7.8% figure credible or, as former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg has sai...

The shuddhikaran was "a crime"; Uttarakhand police behaved "bizarrely & inexplicably": Justice Madan Lokur, former Supreme Court Judge, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... The saga of the shuddhikaran carried out in Haldwani after Mallikarjun Kharge’s rally last month has taken a bizarre turn. Blatantly and repeatedly ignoring Rahul Gandhi’s demand that an FIR...

Penguin lacks spine, govt is nervous, we're not a democracy but electoral autarchy: former Cabinet Minister, Editor and Author, Arun Shourie, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Reports that Penguin Random House India will not be publishing Sonia Gandhi’s memoirs whilst Alfred Knopf will publish them in America have raised worrying questions. Does this mean the bo...

Sugar situation "a fiasco", "total failure of policy", Govt has been "irresponsible": Ashok Gulati, Distinguished Professor at ICRIER, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Why have sugar prices risen so sharply in recent weeks? Should imports have been permitted a lot earlier than the 20th of August? Was the delayed response negligent or even irresponsible? And how...

Yesterday (21/8) the police were wrong and Rahul Gandhi was right - two top lawyers: Salman Khurshid, former Law Minister, and Sanjay Hegde, Senior Advocate, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... There was great drama in the centre of Delhi yesterday when Rahul Gandhi staged a 7-hour dharna outside the Parliament Street police station. He went there to help Sahil Lo...

Imran Khan and Pak govt will come to "a deal" and he'll get "relief": Najam Sethi, Founding Editor, Friday Times, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... On Tuesday the Pakistan Supreme Court ordered that Imran Khan be shifted to a private hospital for medical examination and treatment. 24 hours later the Shehbaz Sharif government moved a review petition calling this...

Modi's dimaagi naxals charge is Orwellian but Gen Z will fight back: Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Cabinet Minister, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... In this interview, Mani Shankar Aiyar compares Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that dimaagi naxals are a threat to India and must be identified and isolated both to George Orwell’s thought crime and thought...

Mecca defence pact gives Pakistan a greater profile in Mid East - no doubt about it: Shyam Saran, former Foreign Secretary, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ....................................... Does the three nation Saudi-Turkish-Pakistani defence pact announced last week have serious and worrying implications for India? Does it strengthen Islamabad vis-a-vis Delhi? Does it raise questions about I...

There’s growing apprehension that the government could bring the Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment Bill to parliament in the last few days of the monsoon session. It’s silence on this matter is not reassuring. Meanwhile, the opposition and the Christian community in particular strongly oppose the bill. They’ve called it undemocratic, unconstitutional, dangerous and deeply alarming. Today w...