Frontline Conversations

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, Dipankar, General Secretary of the CPI(M-L) Liberation, speaks with Vaishna Roy, Frontline’s editor and Anand Mishra, Frontline’s Political Editor, about the shifting political landscape in Bihar ahead of the 2025 elections. Dipankar analyses why the Left’s grassroots presence in Bihar has grown, how feudalism and fascism intersect, and what the INDIA bl...

In this exclusive interview with Frontline, Priyank Kharge, Karnataka’s Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Information Technology, and Biotechnology, discusses his call to regulate RSS and other organisations’ activities in government schools, colleges, and public spaces. On October 4, Kharge wrote to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, urging restrictions on RSS activities in government i...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, ghatam player Sumana Chandrashekar shares her journey as one of the few women percussionists in Carnatic music. In her new memoir, “Song of the Clay Pot – My Journey With the Ghatam”, she traces her path from a mystical calling to mastering an instrument long at the margins of tradition. Guided by her guru Sukanya Ramgopal—the first woman ghatam artist—S...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, ecological economist Nilanjan Ghosh, Head of the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), examines the recent floods in north Bengal and questions whether they were a natural calamity or the outcome of flawed water governance. Drawing from years of research in ecological economics and river basin systems, Ghosh argues...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, Political Editor Anand Mishra visits Kalyan Bigha, the ancestral village of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, to explore the making of a leader who has dominated the State’s politics for two decades. Speaking with Sitaramji, Nitish Kumar’s childhood companion and long-time associate, the conversation traces his journey from a thoughtful boy who mediated...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, music director Sushin Shyam talks about what led to his return to independent music with "Ray" after years of composing for Malayalam films. From his first experiment with “Under the Apple Tree” in 2013 to blockbuster scores for “Kismath”, “Ezra”, “Kumbalangi Nights”, “Aavesham”, and “Manjummel Boys”, Shyam reflects on how his sound has evolved and why R...

In this episode of Frontline Conversations, Professor Abdul Qadir decodes the mood in Bihar ahead of the 2025 Assembly election. Speaking from Gaya, Qadir traces how caste, class, and community alliances are shifting—from the historical legacy of "backward-caste solidarity" to new anxieties among Muslim voters and the rise (and decline) of parties like All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. He di...

Since August 2024, India-Bangladesh relations have undergone a seismic shift. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was seen as a reliable and trusted friend of India, but strong opposition to her within Bangladesh, along with her close ties to New Delhi, appear to have worked against both her and India. Now believed to be living in exile in Delhi, Sheikh Hasina has left behind strained India-Bangla...

Nepal is witnessing a surge in pro-monarchy protests, driven by widespread discontent over corruption, misgovernance, and political instability. While these demonstrations reflect frustration with the current system, they also underscore the country’s delicate position between two regional giants—India and China. Both nations have a vested interest in Nepal’s political trajectory, raising question...

The topic of delimitation has turned into a South vs North debate, with most of the States in south India expected to lose seats in a demography-based delimitation exercise. The southern States strongly oppose any redrawing of Lok Sabha constituency boundaries solely on the basis of current population figures as it would not only reduce their political representation at the national level but also...

In an exclusive interview for Frontline Conversations, noted Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy talks to Frontline's Bashir Ali Abbas about the Gaza conflict and potential solutions to the crisis. Levy further discusses Israel’s ceasefire violations, the US’ influence, Gaza’s future, Hamas’ role, and the fading two-state solution. Gideon Levy, the internationally acclaimed journalist and au...

In this interview, legendary filmmaker Goutam Ghose talks to Frontline’s Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay about “Raahgir”, a visually stunning yet logistically challenging film. He discusses the challenges of shooting in remote terrains and explores the film’s deeper themes of humanity, compassion, and endurance. “Raahgir” was inspired by a short story by Prafulla Roy and driven by Ghose’s quest to exp...

Mohan Kumar, a former Indian Ambassador to France, is currently Dean, Strategic and International Initiatives, and a professor of diplomatic practice at O.P. Jindal Global University. As India’s lead negotiator first at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and then at the WTO in crucial areas such as intellectual property rights, services, dispute settlement, and the environment, he h...

In this exclusive interview, Rohan Pethiyagoda, a well-known scientist and public policy advocate in Sri Lanka, talks to senior journalist Nirupama Subramanian about Adani Green Energy’s recent decision to withdraw from its controversial wind energy project in Sri Lanka. In their conversation, Pethiyagoda and Subramanian discuss the wind power project, its environmental impact, Sri Lanka’s energy...

Zakia Jafri, who fought an over two-decade-long legal battle to secure justice for the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots, died at the age of 86 in Ahmedabad on February 1. Her husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was among the 69 people who were killed inside Gulberg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, during the riots. “Out of hundreds of Gujarat cases, Zakia Jafri’s was the one tha...

On September 20, 2024, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said the State government planned to hold an international conference and install a life-size statue of the archaeologist John Marshall, who announced the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation through excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro exactly a century ago. In January 2025, CM Stalin announced a $1 million prize for experts or...

Ahead of the Delhi Assembly election scheduled on February 5, 2025, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Jasmine Shah’s book, The Delhi Model: A Bold New Road Map To Building a Developed India, was released in New Delhi. It is an insider’s account of the making of the “Delhi model” of governance, which according to the AAP was conceptualised by its party chief, Arvind Kejriwal, in consultation with other...

In an exclusive interview for Frontline Conversations, former Railway Board member K. Balakesari tells Senior Associate Editor R.K. Radhakrishnan that the hurry to electrify the railway track was misguided as the “pollution is just being moved along the tracks”. In a freewheeling interview, Balakesari shares his insights on the availability of electric locomotives, political considerations influen...

Rollo Romig, American journalist, essayist, and critic, has spent considerable time in South India since 2013 and his first book, I Am on the Hit List: Murder and Myth-making in South India, takes its title from the late activist and journalist Gauri Lankesh’s own darkly prescient inclusion of herself in a self-prepared list of potential targets of Hindu right-wing elements. The book begins with h...

In this comprehensive interview, former Indian Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Moscow, Kanwal Sibal delivers an expert analysis of the recent assassination of Russian General Igor Kirillov and its implications for the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Speaking with veteran diplomat-turned-journalist Amit Baruah, Sibal provides unique insights from an Indian perspective on the escalating tensions, Weste...

Najma Heptulla is one of India’s longest-serving parliamentarians, holding the record for the longest stint as Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. Her granduncle was Dr Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a key freedom fighter and independent India’s first Union Education Minister. She was close to the Nehru-Gandhi family, working in Indira Gandhi’s inner circle and maintaining a strong relationship with...

In this important interview, former Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad talks about how Syria changed forever in 2024. He explains the fall of Assad's government, Israel's new military moves, and what it all means for peace in West Asia.

Historian Ira Mukhoty's latest book, The Lion and The Lily: The Rise and Fall of Awadh, challenges long-held views about the fall of the Mughal Empire and the rise of British rule in India. Through her focus on the kingdom of Awadh, Mukhoty reveals a complex narrative of regional courts resisting British imperialism while engaging in international diplomacy. In an interview with Anirudh Kanisetti...

On September 2, the West Bengal government passed the Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, apparently in response to the gruesome rape and murder of a young doctor in Kolkata's R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. Since then, the Bill has been universally panned as regressive, unconstitutional, and anti-feminist, with activists calling it nothing more than...

The prolific author Sudeep Chakravarti’s 10th book, Fallen City, is about Delhi, where two children, Geeta and Sanjay, were brutally murdered in 1978. He places the crime in a socio-political context. Chakravarti’s own life is as interesting as his work and he has just emerged after three years in Dhaka, where he set up a South Asia study department at a university. In an interview with Frontline,...