On February 14, 2019, a suicide bomber crashed into an Indian paramilitary convoy in Pulwama, Kashmir, killing forty Indian soldiers. The attack was the deadliest assault on Indian security personnel in Kashmir in three decades and captured the attention of domestic and international headlines. It also led to a nationalist fervour that fueled, in part, the BJP’s dramatic reelection just months later in the 2019 general election.
How did the attack take place? Who were the masterminds of the operation? And how does this attack fit into a decades-long story of terrorism, militancy, and spycraft that has come to define the contemporary politics of Kashmir? These questions are clinically addressed in a new book by the journalist Rahul Pandita, The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur: How the Pulwama Case was Cracked.
This week, Rahul joins Milan on the show to discuss the inside story of the Pulwama attacks, the Indian investigation into the attack’s masterminds, and India’s retaliatory airstrikes on Pakistani territory. Plus, the two discuss the legacy of the Modi government’s abrogation of Article 370 and the nature of the terrorism threat in Kashmir today.
On August 15, 2020, India celebrated its 73rd birthday. To reflect on the state of Indian democracy and to kick off the podcast’s fourth season, Pratap Bhanu Mehta (https://twitter ... Read more
On August 15, 2020, India celebrated its 73rd birthday. To reflect on the state of Indian democracy and to kick off the podcast’s fourth season, Pratap Bhanu Mehta (https://twitter.com/pbmehta) joins Milan for a wide-ranging conversation on India’s past, present, and future. Pratap is a professor of political science at Ashoka University (https://www.ashoka.edu.in/leadership_team#!/pratap-bhanu-mehta-624) and a contributing editor and columnist at the Indian Express (https://indianexpress.com/profile/columnist/pratap-bhanu-mehta/) . He is a noted author, scholar, and commentator, not to mention arguably India’s finest public intellectual (https://openthemagazine.com/open-minds-2009-2019/public-intellectuals-pratap-bhanu-mehta-52-shashi-tharoor-63-swapan-dasgupta-63-ramachandra-guha-61/) . Read more
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