A Desi Woman with Soniya Gokhale

Dr. Anuradha Chenoy is the retired former Dean at the Jawaharlal Nehru School of International Studies in New Delhi. Dr. Chenoy has been the Chairperson of Area Studies and Director in the Center for Russian and Central Asian studies. She has also written numerous books, monographs and articles in the domain of security studies, development studies and gender. Dr. Chenoy has held short-term consultancies with the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNESCO, ActionAid International, UN Women, and UN Peacekeepers to name a few. She has also evaluated the work of organizations like Focus on the Global South and the Asia Europe People's Forum. Dr. Chenoy joins us to discuss the presentation she gave in 2020 at the South Asian Forum on Sustainability in Hong Kong entitled, 'Confronting the Triple Trap, Pandemic Economic Downturn and Climate Crisis in India'. In this podcast we discuss the fact that India is at a grave crossroads, whereby the failures of the current government and administration, the fragility of democratic rights, and the surfacing of a national security deep state have all been exposed, and revealed a true crisis in the country. India, not unlike the 40 other majoritarian, illiberal democracies with right wing populist leadership has deliberately and exploitatively used the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to deleteriously increase their control over citizens, and expand their influence in both the regional and international spheres. The crisis, labeled a humanitarian and systemic crisis coincide with the dual impact of neoliberal capitalism and militarized globalism. What are effects of all of this upon India's economy, its citizens, the climate and especially its most vulnerable--all against the backdrop of the CAA Bill enacted in December of 2019?