Parley by The Hindu

In 2016-18, four women from Kerala accompanied their husbands to join the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan's Khorasan Province. Their husbands were killed in different attacks and the women are now lodged in an Afghanistan prison. Authorities in Afghanistan want to return the women to India, but the Indian government has not indicated what it proposes to do in this matter.Sources say security agencies have advised against taking them back. What do international laws say about foreign fighters returning to their countries? Here we discuss the question.Guests: Kabir Taneja, a Fellow with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation and author of The ISIS Peril; K.P. Fabian, a former diplomat author and Professor at the Indian Society of International Law.Host: Suhasini HaidarRead the Parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

Last week, the Government of India prohibited retired officials of security and intelligence organisations from publishing anything about their work or organisation without prior clearance from the head of the organisation. Serving civil servants are barred from expressing their personal opinion on policy matters and criticising the government. But once they retire, many of them take part in public debates and enrich our conversations.Here we discuss whether there should be any restrictions on the freedom of expression of a specific category of retired government officials. And if yes, what the limits of such restrictions should be.Guests: Syed Akbaruddin, India’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Dean, Kautilya School of Public Policy; G.K. Pillai, a former Home Secretary of India.Host: Varghese K. GeorgeRead the Parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

Last week, WhatsApp decided to legally challenge one of India’s new Information Technology rules which requires messaging platforms to help investigative agencies in identifying the originator of problematic messages. WhatsApp reckons this would break end-to-end encryption and undermine people’s right to privacy. The government responded saying it is committed to ensuring the right of privacy for all its citizens, and that it also has to ensure national security.Have these new rules been framed to adequately address the privacy versus security balance, especially in the context of social media intermediaries such as WhatsApp? Here we discuss this question.Guests: Parminder Jeet Singh, Executive Director, IT for Change; Rishab Bailey, Technology Policy researcher at the National Institute of Public Finance and PolicyHost: Sriram SrinivasanRead the Parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

The 11-day fighting between Hamas and Israel, coupled with protests across the Palestinian territories and Israeli cities, have turned the spotlight once again on the Palestine question. The internationally accepted solution to this crisis is the so-called two-state solution. This would mean that an independent, sovereign Palestine state and an independent, sovereign Israeli state would coexist in peace. But on the ground, since the Oslo Accords were signed, there has been little progress on the two-state solution and Israel has only tightened its occupation of Palestine over the years.Here we discuss the past, present and future of the Palestine question.Guests: A.K. Ramakrishnan, a professor of international relations at the Centre for West Asian Studies, JNU, New Delhi; Nathan Thrall, the author of The Only Language They Understand and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine and the London Review of Books.Host: Stanly JohnyRead the Parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the State-level lockdowns batter the economy, Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das this week noted that the impact of the second wave is likely to be less severe than the first one. He said that businesses and people have started to adapt to lockdowns and that the hit to demand would be much lower this time.Here we discuss the two COVID-19 waves, and how they have impacted the economy.Guests: Radhika Pandey, an economist and consultant at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy; Vivek Kaul, a business journalist and author of India’s Big Government: The Intrusive State & How It’s Hurting UsHost: Prashanth Perumal J.Read the Parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

As the second wave of the pandemic rages across India, the country’s overcrowded prisons are in danger of becoming major hotspots for the spread of the disease. Dozens of political prisoners, mainly civil rights activists, continue to languish in prison indefinitely with no possibility of their trials commencing any time soon.Here we discuss the issue of overcrowded prisons during the pandemic.Guests: Sanjay Hegde, is a Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India; V. Suresh, is a National General Secretary for the People’ Union for Civil Liberties.Host: Jayant SriramRead the Parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

The Central government has transferred the responsibility of vaccinating people in the 18-44 age group to the States, and opened up vaccine pricing to market forces, at a time when discussions around the world are about an intellectual property (IP) waiver for COVID-19 vaccines and providing free vaccines. Here we discuss India’s vaccination policy and its challenges. Guests: K.M. Gopakumar, a is Legal Adviser, Third World Network. He works on the global intellectual property regime and its impact on developing countries; K. Sujatha Rao, a former Union Health Secretary, is the author of the book, Do We Care? India’s Health System. Host: G. Ananthakrishnan Read the Parley article here. You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

India is witnessing a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with record numbers of new cases and deaths every day. At the same time, States holding Assembly elections have seen mass rallies by political parties. In most such rallies, especially in West Bengal, which still has two phases to go and where campaigning is still on, COVID-19 protocols such as masking and physical distancing are blatantly flouted.In view of the COVID-19 surge, and the fact that public rallies are super-spreader events, should campaigning be restricted to virtual mode — at least until the pandemic is behind us? Here we explore this question.Guests: Neelanjan Sircar, an Assistant Professor of political science at Ashoka University, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi; Sanjay Kumar, a political analyst, psephologist, and co-director of the Lokniti Research Project at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi.Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The HinduRead the Parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

After daily new COVID-19 cases peaked on September 16, 2020, during the first wave, new cases and deaths in India began to increase from the third week of February 2021, marking the beginning of the second wave. The rise in daily cases and deaths has been steep since April 1. On April 14, India reported nearly 2 lakh cases. The seven-day average test positivity rate has also been climbing.Here we discuss what will it take to contain the second wave?Guests: Giridhara Babu, an epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India and a member of the Karnataka COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee; Gautam Menon, a Professor of Physics and Biology at Ashoka University.Host: R. Prasad, Science Editor, The HinduRead the Parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

Australia’s new News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code will force platforms like Facebook and Google to pay local media outlets and publishers to link their content in news feeds or search results. The Australian law is being seen as one of the early shots fired in the coming battle by countries to regulate tech giants to take back some of the control they have on global communications.But is it an ideal regulatory model? Won’t regulating the platforms affect free speech? Is regulating platforms the way to save the news media business that is in the doldrums? Here we discuss the issue.Guests: Dwayne Winseck, Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, Canada; Jeff Jarvis, Director, Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.Host: P.J. GeorgeRead the Parley article here.You can now find The Hindu’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in