On The Record HT Smartcast

Tamil Nadu's finance minister and one of the fiercest critiques of the Modi govt, Palanivel Thiagarajan, has criticized the union government over the issue of coal shortage, power crisis, and fuel price hike. In this episode of the On the Record, PTR spoke to Hindustan Times over the ongoing energy crisis, the political situation in the country, and the winning streak of the BJP.

Shehbaz Sharif is the new Prime Minister of Pakistan and he assumed office after Imran Khan was ousted through a no-confidence motion amid an unprecedented week-long drama. Sharif is the younger brother of former PM Nawaz Sharif and used to be chief minister of the Punjab province. So, what does having a new regime in the neighborhood mean for India. To talk about that, we have the former Indian High Commissioner and author of the excellent book on Pakistan TCA Raghavan in this episode of On The Record. Tune in now!

In this episode of 'On The Record', Hindustan Time's Sunetra Choudhury speaks to VN Rai, IPS officer and former head of the Indian Police Academy, about this week's most debatable issue in the parliament, the new Criminal Procedure Identification amendment. During this interview, he discusses and understands what's wrong with the new amendment, whether the new criminal identity law is really draconian?

On this week's episode of On The Record, host Sunetra talks to BJP's MP from Nagaland - Phangnon Konyak who has been victorious in the Assembly Elections 2022 and she also happens to be the first women MP from Nagaland in the Rajya Sabha and the last time that happened was 4 decades ago. Tune in to the conversation where she talks about her education from the DU & why she decided to join BJP!

It's been more than a week since Russia invaded Ukraine and war broke out on February 24. More than 20,000 Indians who were stranded there are young students pursuing their higher education as Ukraine promised them affordable education. When news reports started emerging of a possible strike, they were torn-should they immediately leave and jeopardise their career or could they stay and try to survive? There were mixed signals that they received- from their college authorities and the Indian embassy. HT's Sunetra speaks to two students 21 years old Clifford Ben Samuel from Chennai and 24-year-old Devesha Choudhuary to understand what it means to escape from a war zone.

As the Karnataka high court hears petitions against the hijab ban, Farrah Ahmed, a professor at Melbourne Law School who specialises in Constitutional law and religious freedom, spoke to HT's Sunetra Choudhury about the right to practice faith, privacy, and education.