Frontline Conversations

Published on June 30, 2025. Environmental activist Nimal Raghavan speaks to Frontline about his wide-ranging efforts to revive water bodies across India and in Kenya. Known for his data-driven, community-focused approach, Raghavan explains how he works with local administrations and government agencies to implement sustainable models of conservation. His work on over 250 projects emphasises the vi...

Published on June 23, 2025. In this episode of Frontline Conversations, senior journalist Saba Naqvi speaks with Syed Akif Zaidi, an Indian political analyst and research scholar at Al-Mustafa International University in Iran, who has lived in Iran for over 15 years. Speaking from Qom, near one of the sites (Fordo) bombed by the United States, Zaidi provides a detailed account of Iran's evolving r...

Published on June 10, 2025. In this episode of Frontline Conversations, filmmaker Varrun Sukhraj speaks with producer, director, and film historian Nasreen Munni Kabir on the life, legacy, and layered cinema of Raj Kapoor, marking his centenary year. From “Awara” to “Shree 420”, Kabir explores Kapoor’s artistic partnership with Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, his cinematic treatment of morality and class, and...

Published on June 6, 2025. In this episode of Frontline Conversations, Amit Baruah speaks with General N.C. Vij, former Chief of Army Staff and Director General of Military Operations during the Kargil War, about the evolution of India’s military doctrine—from the constraints of Operation Vijay to the assertive response of Operation Sindoor. Citing his new book “Alone in the Ring: Decision Making...

Published on June 3, 2025. The four-day conflict from May 7 to 10, known as Operation Sindoor, has triggered fierce debate across South Asia and beyond. In this exclusive interview, veteran journalist and defence analyst Ajai Shukla joins Frontline’s Amit Baruah to discuss the air war, shifting nuclear postures, and the political narratives emerging from India and Pakistan. Context With Indian aut...

Published on May 29, 2025. In this episode of Frontline Conversations, Amit Baruah speaks to the former head of R&AW's Pakistan desk Ramanathan Kumar about the fragile India-Pakistan ceasefire following Operation Sindoor. With conflicting narratives, rampant propaganda, and deep-rooted mistrust on both sides, Kumar offers an assessment of the military hostilities, the risks of renewed conflict, an...

Published on May 23, 2025. In a wide-ranging interview with Frontline Conversations, veteran journalist and Satya Hindi co-founder Ashutosh offers a stark analysis of India's political trajectory since 2014, characterising Narendra Modi's rise as a "right-wing revolution" that has fundamentally disrupted the nation's constitutional consensus. Speaking with host Abhinav Chakraborty about his new bo...

Published on May 19, 2025. In this episode of Frontline Conversations, senior journalist Amit Baruah engages in a wide-ranging discussion with former Indian Ambassador to the United States Navtej Sarna, exploring the complexities of the U.S.-India relations during the presidency of Donald Trump. This conversation comes at a time when Trump’s statements on mediation in Kashmir, escalating trade ten...

Published on May 9, 2025. With the government announcing plans to include caste in the upcoming census—the first such comprehensive exercise since 1931—India is once again confronting the deep questions of its social hierarchy. In this Frontline Conversations episode, senior journalist Saba Naqvi speaks to sociologist Sumeet Mhaskar to explore the significance, challenges, and far-reaching implica...

Published on April 15, 2025. In this exclusive interview with Frontline, Waheed Parra—youth leader and legislator from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)—raises urgent concerns over the changing demographics of Jammu and Kashmir. Citing government data, Parra reveals that over 83,000 domicile certificates have been granted to non-locals in just two years, triggering deep anxiety about identity, l...

Published on April 17, 2025. In an exclusive interview for Frontline Conversations, the Tanzanian-British author Abdulrazak Gurnah talks to Aditya Mani Jha about his latest novel Theft, his first book since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021. He also discusses the themes such as class differences and migration throughout his body of work, why he spoke out against the practice of publis...

Published on April 22, 2025. In this powerful and wide-ranging conversation, acclaimed Kannada writer, activist, and advocate Banu Mushtaq speaks candidly about her International Booker Prize-shortlisted collection Heart Lamp, the struggles of Muslim women in Karnataka, and her lifelong fight against patriarchy. In an interview that is equal parts personal and political, Mushtaq reflects on decade...

Published on April 11, 2025. In the wake of the alleged recovery of bundles of currency notes in a fire at Justice Yashwant Varma’s residence, senior advocate and activist Prashant Bhushan speaks to Frontline on the growing crisis of judicial accountability in India. The incident has reignited debates on judicial appointments, corruption, and the limits of existing oversight mechanisms. Context: F...

Published on April 9, 2025. Ahead of the birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar, public intellectual and writer Anand Teltumbde speaks to Frontline’s Amey Tirodkar about how Ambedkar's ideas are being invoked and often misappropriated by political parties across the spectrum. He discusses whether Ambedkar is truly being honoured through action, or merely worshipped in symbolism. In this interview, Tel...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, Lata Singh, rights activist and petitioner in the landmark 2006 Supreme Court judgment Lata Singh vs State of Uttar Pradesh, reflects on her personal struggle, the continuing reality of honour killings, and the fragile state of the right to choice in India. Speaking in the aftermath of a recent honour killing in Maharashtra, Lata Singh recounts the viole...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, Waheed Parra, MLA from Pulwama, speaks candidly about incarceration, surveillance, and the personal cost of stringent security laws in Jammu and Kashmir. Drawing from his own experience under the UAPA, Parra reflects on how the legal process itself becomes punishment, reshaping lives, families, and political faith. He discusses custodial humiliation, the...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, Lt General D.S. Hooda, former Northern Army Commander, talks about how personal faith and professional duty should work inside the Indian Army. He explains why trust between officers and soldiers is the foundation of military life, and why the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on faith in uniform reinforces long-standing Army principles. Gen. Hooda discusses...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, senior journalist Sukumar Muralidharan speaks with economist and retired professor from JNU, Arun Kumar, who breaks down the turmoil inside India’s economic data ecosystem. He discusses the latest GDP numbers, the IMF’s “not fit for purpose” assessment, and India’s contradictory economic indicators all point to a deeper structural crisis. Kumar explains...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, former IPS officer and security expert Yashovardhan Jha Azad speaks about the recent bomb blast in Delhi and what it reveals about India’s internal security landscape. Drawing on his decades of experience in the Intelligence Bureau and the Government of India, Azad describes the attack as an inflection point—one that exposes gaps in policing, community v...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, author Sunil Tambe, discusses his Marathi book Monsoon Jan Gan Man, which argues that the monsoon—not religion, language, or ethnicity—is the true binding force of the Indian subcontinent. In a political moment dominated by hyper-majoritarian nationalism, Tambe suggests that understanding India requires understanding the monsoon: its ecology, its rhythms...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, Sunil Kant Munjal—Chairman of Hero Enterprise and Founder-Patron of the Serendipity Arts Festival—speaks about the making of one of India’s most unique cultural platforms. Now in its 10th year, the festival in Panaji, Goa, brings together visual arts, theatre, music, dance, literature, culinary arts, craft, and new-media practices on a scale unmatched in...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, wildlife biologist K. Ullas Karanth, one of the world’s foremost tiger conservation experts, examines the recent spike in human–tiger conflict around Bandipur National Park. Drawing on decades of field research in Nagarhole, Bandipur, and other Western Ghats reserves, Karanth explains why rising tiger densities, habitat manipulation, and irrational human...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan speaks with Frontline about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the growing concerns over voter disenfranchisement, transparency, and political manipulation. Bhushan dissects the Election Commission of India's (ECI) opaque process, alleging that the SIR risks becoming a tool to exclude minoriti...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, academic and author, Anand Teltumbde speaks with Frontline’s Amey Tirodkar about his latest book, The Caste Con Census, and the turbulent debate over the caste census in India. Teltumbde questions whether enumeration can dismantle caste or whether it risks reinforcing the very hierarchies it claims to challenge. He traces how colonial censuses transforme...

In the latest episode of Frontline Conversations, senior journalist Nirupama Subramanian speaks with Vignesh Rajahmani, author of "The Dravidian Pathway: How the DMK Redefined Power and Identity in South India". The discussion explores how a century-old social reform movement evolved into a durable political force that reshaped Tamil Nadu’s social and political landscape. Rajahmani traces the move...