London Vārta

America and Israel labelled “rogue states” : Talmiz Ahmad identified the United States and Israel as the world’s two “rogue states”, claiming they support each other unconditionally and face no checks even when committing war, violence, human rights abuses, or genocide. Israel asserted as regional hegemon : Following its attack on Qatar last year, Israel has demonstrated that it is the sole hegemo...

C. Christine Fair, Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University in the United States, has warned that the war in the Middle East is now beyond the control of the United States and Israel. She says Israel poses a threat to world security: “If you look at what Israel is doing, it has bombed some seven or eight of its neighbours. It gets to decide who has nuclear weapons in the region and w...

“Reshaping in the Middle East is inevitable. In fact, the potential reshaping has already begun,” says defence analyst Dr Ayesha Siddiqa in a podcast focused on Pakistan’s evolving role in the ongoing Middle East crisis.  Pervaiz Alam, broadcaster at Cine Ink podcast series, London Vārta: New World Order, is in conversation with Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa, Senior Fellow in War Studies at King’s College Lo...

"Rules-Based Order Lies in Tatters" Says Navdeep Suri, Former Indian Ambassador, UAE & Egypt, in conversation with Pervaiz Alam on Cine Ink's podcast series London Vārta: New World Order. Discussing the US and Israel attacks on Iran, Suri says that the United States and Israel had anticipated and planned for a short war, but Iran had prepared itself for a prolonged conflict. He adds that the G...

लंदन वार्ता: नई विश्व व्यवस्था  لندن وارتا: نیا عالمی نظام In the first episode, Dr. Avinash Paliwal, Reader in International Relations at SOAS, University of London, states: “Trump believes he is the king. He is trying to turn the U.S. from a democracy into an authoritarian regime.” He makes this comment while introducing the evolving face of the world order over recent decades, which has culmina...

Former BBC colleagues—including William Crawley, Satish Jacob, Ali Ahmad Khan, Naresh Kaushik, Andrew Whitehead, Nick Nugent, Wusatullah Khan, Nayeema Ahmed Mahjour, Qurban Ali, Ram Dutt Tripathi, Seema Chishti, Charu Shahane, and Sanjiv Srivastav—celebrate Sir Mark Tully: his life, legacy, and enduring impact through fascinating anecdotes and personal reflections. Presented by Achala Sharma and P...

In this engaging episode of London Vārta , we feature an illuminating conversation with Francesca Orsini , Professor Emerita of Hindi and South Asian Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She is an acclaimed Italian scholar specialising in multilingual literary histories of South Asia. Her pioneering work explores Hindi, Urdu, and Indo-Persian texts...

This is a radio adaptation of legendary Urdu writer Ismat Chughtai's controversial story "Lihaaf". Directed by Prof. Pervaiz Alam, Lihaaf was a part of the radio production class of the students of School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC), Apeejay Stya University, Gurgaon, India, in 2017. The lead role is performed by Pankhuri Singh, a student of MA Journalism, SJMC. Why is Lihaaf Contro...

Mahmood Farooqui and Darain Shahidi of the Dastangoi Collective bring Shrilal Shukla’s iconic Hindi novel Raag Darbari to life in a captivating performance, produced by Anusha Rizvi. The podcast has been produced by Pervaiz Alam and Achala Sharma for Cineink.  This Cineink podcast in Hindi is adapted from a stage production performed in London on April 8, 2025, before a live audience. Sahitya Acad...

In a revealing episode of Cine Ink’s podcast London Vārta , former Intelligence Bureau officer and R&AW chief Amarjit Singh Dulat describes the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then-Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, by JKLF militants as a “textbook example of how not to handle a crisis.” The abduction marked a turning point in Kashmir’s history, igniting widespread militan...

India’s veteran journalist, columnist and author, Saeed Naqvi is in conversation with Pervaiz Alam on Cine Ink podcast series ‘London Vārta’ .  “Rajiv asked me, Saeed, what do you think about opening the embassy of Israel in India as some of my people are against it. Muslim leaders tell me that the Muslim vote will slip away from Congress if I allowed an Israeli Embassy,” reveals Naqvi.  Formerly...

This programme is in Hindi/Urdu. Senior journalist Qurban Ali made headlines when he approached his local police station in New Delhi to register an FIR against the prime minister for making communal and inflammatory remarks about Muslims at an election rally on April 21, 2024 at Banswara in the state of Rajasthan.  Qurban Ali is in conversation with broadcaster Pervaiz Alam in Cine Ink series, Lo...

Back after 10 years with a new novel 'The Girl with the Seven Lives’, Vikas Swarup unravels the mystery behind his success as a novelist in conversation with broadcaster Pervaiz Alam on Cine Ink podcast “London Varta”. This podcast is in Hindi/Urdu.  There’s huge excitement in the fiction world. The blurb promises Swarup's new book is filled with the same evocative prose, immersive narrative and p...

“When you put 2 .3 million people for 18 years now in the biggest cage in the world, you should expect any kind of resistance and struggle, even the most brutal and cruel and criminal one. And this is what we faced. And then the aftermath,” says Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in conversation with Pervaiz Alam on “London Vārta”, a Cine Ink podcast series. Once the British daily, The Independent, de...

A PhD in Linguistics from the Jawahar Lal University of New Delhi, she is a political satirist known for posting short videos on social media as Dr. Medusa, not her real name. She says she won’t be able to live a life without expressing her dissent. However, self preservation is equally important, therefore, to avoid trolling by two-rupee trolls she uses satire as a protective armour. Dr Medusa is...

Pankaj Pachauri is in conversation with Pervaiz Alam in Cineink’s podcast series: London Vārta - Freedom Of Speech. In a wide-ranging interview, former Communication Adviser to PM Dr Manmohan Singh, Pachauri says: If I were to advise PM Narendra Modi, I would try to convince him to hold a big press conference for at least two hours at the new Media Centre in New Delhi. Let the journalists ask all...

Arm-twisting through legal means and harassment of journalists by the current govt in India is to create “a chilling effect”. And there’s a word for it, SLAPP, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta explains:  Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. The process is the punishment, Thakurta says.  Thakurta is one of India’s best known journalists. But he’s controversial too.  Besides having been questioned...

“I will ask questions. I’m not backing off. Let me make this clear to this government,” says Abhisar Sharma, famous Journalist and television anchor, in this long interview with broadcaster Pervaiz Alam on Cine Ink’s new podcast series London Vārta: Freedom of Speech.   Abhisar Sharma is an award-winning journalist and has worked with BBC Hindi, NDTV, Zee TV, Aajtak and ABP as a reporter, presente...

In this first episode of “London Vārta: Freedom of Speech”,   Utkarsh Amitabh, CEO of Network Capital, is in conversation with broadcaster Pervaiz Alam. Amitabh has recently authored a book: Passion Economy And The Side Hustle, published by Penguin.  He is also the Chief Marketing Officer of  5ire.org , a blockchain unicorn valued at $1.5 Billion.  Utkarsh Amitabh is a writer at Harvard Business R...

The year 2023 has seen been witnessing one of the the most heated debates on the idea of having a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in India. The framers of the Indian constitution endeavoured to have a common set of laws governing personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and adoption for all citizens, irrespective of their religious affiliations. Both Muslims and Christians have expressed...