Is Modi’s India flirting with fascism?

In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Ram Madhav, National General Secretary of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former spokesman of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation and ideological wing of the BJP.  

We are one culture, one people, one nation.

by Ram Madhav

Last year, the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi signalled a new era in India politics: promises of extraordinary transformation and economic development, but also a turn to right-wing Hindu nationalism, which has been accused of anti-Muslim, anti-minority rhetoric.  

We explore whether Hindu nationalism is inherently exclusionary and if it is compatible with secularism and democracy, and probe violence against minorities. We also discuss human rights abuses in Indian-administered Kashmir, and how to bring peace to the region.  

Joining the discussion are:

Dr Nitasha Kaul, a Kashmiri novelist, academic, economist and poet, and Assistant Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster in London;  

Dr Gautam Sen, a former Advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office in Bharat and previously a lecturer in political economy at the London School of Economics;

Mehboob Khan, a British Indian presenter at UN Radio, and former BBC journalist and Indian-administered Kashmir correspondent.

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Head to Head  is Al Jazeera’s forum of ideas, a gladiatorial contest tackling big issues such as faith, nationalism, democracy and foreign intervention in front of an opinionated audience at the Oxford Union.  

Watch previous Head to Head shows here.