This week, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Raman Kirpal are joined by historian and author S Irfan Habib.

The discussion begins with Irfan’s latest book Maulana Azad: A Life, where he talks about Maulana Azad’s personality as a political figure and how he was different from other politicians. He also mentions his grief for today’s generation who call Azad a “jihadi” and blame him for our poor education system when, according to Irfan, “Azad was an actual scholar of his time”.

The discussion then moves to the IT surveys at the BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai. Abhinandan talks about the idea behind the survey and asks “How do the government think that they are benefitting from this?” He calls the surveys “an unplanned move”. The panel also discusses the media narrative around this whole issue.

The panel then talks about the Karnataka election that will take place later this year, and how “Hindu-Muslim” might be the only issue on which the election might be contested. Abhinandan mentions that “polarisation always begins right before the elections in the states where they [the BJP] are losing”, citing two speeches by Karnataka leaders.

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