Below is a summary of the Podcast in a Q&A format:

Q1: Why did Vijay Mallya choose to speak out now after nearly nine years of silence?

A:
Mallya stated that his decision to share his side of the story was driven by what he described as a “vicious, relentless trial by media.” Traditional outlets, he felt, had twisted his narrative, leaving him without an opportunity to express his perspective. The Indian government’s recent acknowledgment of recovering over ₹14,100 crore, in contrast to prevailing media narratives, further pushed him to use the podcast platform to provide a more balanced account.

Q2: What does Mallya say about the debt allegations and the actual figures involved?

A:
Mallya disputes the commonly cited debt figure of ₹9,000 crore. Instead, he points to a Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) certificate that lists the loan amount as ₹6,203 crore (including both principal and unapplied interest). He also emphasizes that the Indian Ministry of Finance’s annual report confirmed a recovery of over ₹14,100 crore, arguing that this robust recovery challenges the narrative of financial misappropriation.

Q3: Does Mallya admit to being a fugitive or a “chor” (thief)?

A:
Mallya firmly denies being either. He explains that his departure from India in March 2016 was not an act of flight but a pre-scheduled visit to Geneva, with proper communication about his travel made to the then finance minister Arun Jaitley. Mallya contends that labeling him as a “chor” is unfounded, especially when compared against the financial recovery figures he cites.

Q4: What factors does Mallya attribute to the downfall of Kingfisher Airlines?

A:
According to Mallya, a mix of external pressures and internal decisions led to the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines. He cites the global financial crisis of 2008, the impact of soaring fuel costs due to international crude prices and state sales taxes, and challenges in securing foreign investment. He also reflects on advice he received during the crisis—specifically, a suggestion not to downsize the airline—which he now believes may have contributed to the eventual financial strain.

Q5: Did Mallya express regret or offer an apology concerning Kingfisher Airlines and its impact?

A:
Yes, Mallya expressed deep regret over the failure of Kingfisher Airlines. He extended a heartfelt apology to his former employees, many of whom lost their jobs or faced salary issues. Mallya acknowledged full responsibility for the collapse, highlighting a specific instance where he attempted to use available funds (₹260 crore from UBHL cash) to meet salary obligations, only to face legal and banking obstacles.

Q6: What does Mallya reveal about his interactions with key political figures such as Arun Jaitley and Pranab Mukherjee?

A:
Mallya recounted brief yet significant interactions with prominent figures like former finance ministers Arun Jaitley and Pranab Mukherjee. He mentioned a fleeting meeting with Jaitley in Parliament before his departure, during which he indicated his plan to attend a pre-scheduled meeting in Geneva. Additionally, he described a conversation with Pranab Mukherjee during the 2008 financial crisis, where he was advised against downsizing Kingfisher Airlines—a decision he later regarded as pivotal in the airline’s financial troubles.

Q7: What are Mallya’s views on the ease of doing business in India?

A:
Mallya characterized the Indian business environment as overly bureaucratic and politically challenging. He lamented the need to maintain favorable relationships with numerous political figures—a necessity he humorously described as staying on the “good books of 29 chief ministers.” According to him, these political and bureaucratic hurdles obstruct straightforward business operations and contribute to a challenging entrepreneurial landscape.

Q8: How does Mallya describe his involvement with the IPL and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)?

A:
Mallya discussed his entry into sports via the creation of the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). He viewed the Indian Premier League as a groundbreaking platform for cricket and brand promotion. His investment of around $112 million in RCB was aimed at leveraging the sport to promote his Royal Challenge whiskey brand. He also revealed that his selection of Virat Kohli, spotted during the Under-19 World Cup, was based on a strong gut feeling about the young player’s potential—a move reflecting a calculated, business-driven approach rather than mere vanity.

Q9: What is Mallya’s stance regarding allegations of siphoning or misusing funds?

A:
Mallya is unequivocal in dismissing any claims of siphoning funds or misusing the proceeds of loans. He states that the funds, including a notable infusion of ₹3,000 crore from UB Group into Kingfisher Airlines, have been consistently accounted for. In his narrative, the normal financial requirements of operating an international airline have been misconstrued as acts of misappropriation. Consequently, he argues that the official recovery figures and documented transactions undermine the allegations of financial misconduct.

Q10: What does Mallya say about his current situation and his willingness to return to India?

A:
Currently embroiled in legal battles both in the UK and India, Mallya describes his life as markedly scaled down since his passport was revoked in 2016. Despite facing prolonged legal challenges and restricted mobility, he remains open to the possibility of returning to India—provided he is granted a fair trial and assured of dignified treatment. His remarks underscore a pragmatic acceptance of his current circumstances coupled with a hope for judicial fairness and respect for due process.

Mallya’s revelations in the podcast not only offer a detailed look into his personal experiences and business judgments but also raise broader questions that merit reflection:

• Impact on Public Perception: How will Mallya’s refusal to accept labels like “fugitive” or “chor” and his presentation of alternative narratives shape ongoing debates about media bias and public trust? His assertions challenge entrenched media narratives, potentially influencing future public discourse on accountability.
• Future of Corporate Governance: The details of Kingfisher Airlines’ collapse and the financial figures discussed could spark wider discussions on crisis management and corporate governance within the business community. This case might prompt reviews of oversight practices and risk management strategies in high-profile companies.
• Legal and Political Implications: Mallya’s insistence on a fair trial and humane legal procedures touches on sensitive aspects of extradition and human rights in detention conditions. His case underscores the potential consequences of politically and bureaucratically driven judicial processes, inviting debate on how legal systems handle complex financial and accountability cases.

As we digest these insights, the conversation surrounding high-profile business failures, media narratives, and the interplay of politics and justice continues to evolve. Each layer of Mallya’s story invites further exploration and a deeper consideration of how public figures are both judged and remembered.

The post Vijay Mallya Breaks His Silence – Key Revelations from the Raj Shamani Podcast appeared first on Praja Media.

The Kashmir issue is not what the world has been led to believe. It is not an age-old religious conflict or a simple territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. It is the product of a flawed, violent, and deeply divisive ideology that tore apart a united civilization barely 80 years ago — and continues to poison the future of South Asia.

When world leaders and institutions echo such factually incorrect narratives, they don’t just spread confusion — they legitimize propaganda. These ideas are repeated in international forums, university debates, and increasingly by misguided Muslim youth, many of whom have been fed a simplified and distorted version of history.

This article is written to set the record straight — not with emotion, but with historical facts and clarity. It is a call to global leaders, institutions, and everyday citizens to stop entertaining the false narratives propagated by Pakistan and to start understanding the truth behind the Kashmir issue — not from centuries ago, but simply by looking 80 years back.

A Manufactured Conflict, Not a Natural One

Before 1947, there was no Pakistan. There was no Kashmir conflict. The Indian subcontinent was one land — diverse, multicultural, and complex — but united in its identity. It was only when a group of leaders pushed the idea that Muslims couldn’t live alongside people of other religions that the demand for Pakistan emerged. The result? A partition soaked in blood, mass displacement, and an artificial fracture of a civilizational whole.

Kashmir was, and remains, part of that Indian whole. At the time of partition, its ruler legally acceded to India. Pakistan’s reaction was not diplomacy — it was invasion. What followed was decades of aggression, propaganda, and the cynical use of religion to justify territorial obsession.

Let’s be clear: Kashmir is not disputed — it is occupied. Not by India, but by Pakistan through its illegal control of parts of the region and its export of terrorism across the border.

Pakistan: A Nation That Couldn’t Hold Itself Together

Pakistan claims to be the protector of Muslims everywhere, yet it failed to protect its own. If shared religion were truly enough to build national unity, Pakistan would not have collapsed within 24 years of its creation. In 1971, after years of brutal suppression by West Pakistan’s Punjabi-dominated elite, the Bengali Muslims of East Pakistan rose up. They were not treated as brothers — they were massacred, silenced, and eventually liberated through the creation of Bangladesh.

This collapse was not an isolated failure. Today, Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and resource-rich province, faces a sustained freedom movement led by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). The BLA has accused the Pakistani military and political elite — again, largely dominated by Punjab — of decades of exploitation, enforced disappearances, military crackdowns, and economic marginalization. These are not just internal skirmishes; they are deep wounds revealing the ongoing disintegration of national unity.

In fact, Balochistan declared independence in August 1947, shortly after Pakistan’s formation — a fact often erased from mainstream narratives. It was only forcefully annexed by Pakistan in 1948. Since then, multiple uprisings have erupted, brutally suppressed by the state. The current insurgency, driven by demands for autonomy or complete independence, is proof that Pakistan’s foundational strategy — of using religion as glue — has failed yet again.

This alone should destroy the myth that Islam unites Pakistan’s agenda. In reality, Pakistan has never been about unity — it has always been about control, domination, and military hegemony, masquerading as religious concern.

Kashmir Will Always Be India

Kashmir is India — not because of demographics or religious identity, but because of history, law, and culture. It is a thread in the fabric of Indian civilization. Its inclusion in the Indian Union is final, legal, and irrevocable.

And let this be said plainly: As long as India exists, Kashmir will remain India. The very idea of another partition based on religion is dead, and any attempt to revive it is not only futile — it’s offensive to the memory of the millions who suffered during the first partition.

If Pakistan continues to obsess over Kashmir, pushing false narratives and fueling unrest, then perhaps it is time for India to reconsider the broader historical injustice of partition itself. Perhaps it is time to reflect on a future where the subcontinent — broken by colonial scheming and religious extremism — could once again find unity.

The Forgotten Tragedy: Kashmiri Pandits and the Islamization of the Valley

One of the most tragic and deliberately ignored chapters in the Kashmir story is the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as Pakistan-backed Islamist insurgency gained ground in the valley, thousands of Pandits — members of an ancient Hindu community indigenous to Kashmir — were targeted through assassinations, threats, and brutal intimidation. They were given ultimatums: leave, convert, or die. The Indian state was caught off-guard, and over 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced to flee their ancestral homes — turning them into refugees in their own country.

What followed was not just displacement but erasure. Entire communities vanished. Temples were desecrated, properties seized or destroyed, and cultural heritage systematically wiped out. And while the world remained largely silent, the valley transitioned demographically into a Muslim-majority region — not organically, but through orchestrated terror and fear.

This demographic shift is not a footnote; it’s a central fact. It shows that the so-called Kashmir cause is not about freedom or justice — it is about religious exclusivism and ideological control. And it’s time the world calls it exactly what it is.

To Pakistan: Stop the Daydream

It’s time Pakistan stops living in a dangerous daydream. Decades of fantasizing about annexing Kashmir have brought the country nothing but economic ruin, diplomatic isolation, and social instability. Instead of chasing shadows, Pakistan must focus on its own people — their jobs, education, and future.

A nation that can’t feed its citizens, educate its children, or maintain basic order has no business trying to claim territory beyond its borders — especially not through proxy wars and terrorism.

To the World: Stop Entertaining False Narratives

The U.S. President Donald Trump recently remarked that the “Kashmir issue has been going on for thousands of years.” That’s not just wrong — it’s dangerously ignorant. The India-Pakistan conflict began in 1947, not 1,000 years ago. Is it too much to ask world leaders to look back just 80 years into history before offering commentary?

When global leaders echo such misinformation, they do more than insult a region’s intelligence — they legitimize false propaganda. They embolden those who exploit religious identity to justify violence and division.

It’s time the world — especially democratic nations — stopped indulging Pakistan’s propaganda. The same country that harbored Osama bin Laden, supports terror networks, and censors its minorities should not be treated as a credible voice on “human rights” in Kashmir or anywhere else.

A New Vision: Unity Without Borders

The Kashmir issue is not just about land. It is a mirror reflecting the consequences of division — and the possibility of unity. India, despite its own flaws and challenges, remains committed to democracy, pluralism, and coexistence. That is the only viable future for Kashmir, and indeed for the region as a whole.

The path forward is not to redraw borders, but to rise above them. Not to divide people, but to unite them — not in the name of religion, but in the name of peace, justice, and truth.

And that begins with rejecting falsehood — firmly, fearlessly, and forever.

The post Beyond Borders: Kashmir, the Myth of Religious Separation, and the Case for Indian Unity appeared first on Praja Media.

GDP is the monetary value of the final goods and services produced in a period of time.

The Gross Domestic Product does not calculate the loss incurred during the period of time in which it is calculated.Now, this loss can range from damage caused to the ecosystem to decline in the living standards of people. In these cases, there is a possibility that the amount of loss is higher than the growth rate.

Economic growth cannot be an answer to every crisis. The United States of America is known to be the world’s largest economy with a total growth of $21 trillion. The country now is facing huge climatic irregularities. Thanks to global warming, a phenomenon which President Donald Trump denies to believe in.

Closer to home in India, the capital city Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh faced extreme climatic conditions earlier this month.

Often in a bid to achieve high rates of GDP, we forget the damage we cause to the environment which in turn can cause damage to human life, resulting in huge losses which we do not calculate while calculating the Gross Domestic Product.

With growing industrialization, the damage on our ecosystem is increasing too. Each day there are new industries popping up. These industries cause environmental damage by not sticking to the norms. The waste that comes out of these industries affects the air we breathe and the water we drink. Last year people of Thootukudi led a mass protest against Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper smelting plant. From time and again the Smelting plant had been violating the environmental norms which gradually started to affect people’s lives. On the 100th day of the protest, the police opened fire to control the situation. 14 people lost their lives. This incident is an example of how a  man contributes in environmental destruction.

A balance in the ecosystem needs to be maintained for which one needs to understand the reactions that an action causes. In terms of education, there is a lot that needs to be done in India. The slow pace of qualitative improvement in this field is an outcome of less investment. If we look at the condition of education in India today, all does not look very fine. The Right to Education Act(2009) has been there since a long time now, but how far has it been fruitful still remains a question. The 13^th Annual status of education report (ASER) published by NGO Pratham in 2018, gives figures on how Indian schools are doing. The report states that there are over 90000 government schools are run by a single teacher. 72.8% of students of class VIII read at class II level. This figure has surely come down from 74.6% in 2014, yet the progress is slow. According to The Lancet, a British Journal, India ranks at 66 out of 100 for its quality of education.

The 2018 World Happiness index saw India drop down 11 places. It ranked 122 in 2017. It now ranks at 133. In comparison to other SAARC countries, India, the world’s largest democracy is below them. Pakistan is at 75, Nepal at 101 and Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at 97,115,116 respectively. Ironically, India went up 23 places in the ease of doing business index in 2018. It went up from 100 to now at 77. Inequality, life expectancy, GDP per capita, social freedom, generosity, public trust (i.e. a lack of corruption in government and business) and social support are the parameters that are considered to calculate the Happiness index.

Development needs to be in terms of overall growth. Monetary growth is usually an outcome of extreme greed and ignorance. If we continue to consider GDP as an indicator of growth, things might turn ugly in the near future. Irregularities in climate, extinction of indigenous animals, and rise in diseases are signs for us to understand that our ways and methods are wrong and that serious interrogation is required. To say that a good GDP is a sign of a developed country is a myth.

The post Is GDP the figure to define development of a country? appeared first on Praja Media.

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.

The words stated above have been taken from the Preamble of The Indian Constitution. Over the recent times, with the events that have been happening across the country, we the citizens of India have been forced to think of how true to the meaning are most of these words that have so nicely been scripted in the preamble of our constitution.

The fact that India is a Sovereign and Socialist country is undeniable, but coming to the point where India is described as being Secular,this  needs to be pondered upon. India is a country that has a melange of religions, traditions and cultures. Are all the religions in the country treated at par, is the question at this juncture.

India- A Secular Country?

The disparities and conflicts between the Hindus and the Muslims that were perpetrated by the British for their own benefits ages ago have left scars that deny to vanish from the present day India. Instead these religious differences have grown over time and caused serious damage to the citizens and the image of our country.

From the recent incidents that have come to light regarding the extremist behaviour of some of the Hindu groups,  showcase the  evident growth of differences between both the major religions of the world.

When a Muslim man from Rajasthan is hacked and burnt alive for an alleged affair with a Hindu lady, the question if India is really a secular country arises. Afrazul was an old man who left his family at the age of 14 for earning bread. When one day a villager thrashes up the old man and burns him alive over a love-jihad rumour, the world for the family of the murdered turns into a nightmare.

In another of such incidents when another old man is violently lynched and killed over a rumour spread that he had stolen and slaughtered the calf of a neighbour, brings us to the same question.  Do we really live in a secular country?

The most striking factor of both these incidents is that the crime was committed based on a rumour and in both the cases the criminals haven’t been condemned.

Have the sufferers got the Justice yet?

Be it given to the delay in the investigations made by the Investigative teams or to any other factor, Justice has either been delayed or has denied to those who wanted justice more desperately than any monetary assistance.

Out of the 20 accused that were arrested over a number of charges in the Dadri lynching case, 14 have got the bail.  one key accused Vishal Rana,  the son of a local BJP worker Sanjay Rana,  has been let out on bail too.

This brings us to another thought. Why do sons of politicians get so many advantages even after committing heinous crimes? They say law is equal for everyone. Is that really the case?
Why are we silenced when we have the liberty to speak our heart and mind?

They have been a number of incidents that came to light when people have been killed for speaking the truth, putting forth an opinion or to bring a change.

Narendra Dhabolkar, M.M. Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh, Ram Chandra Chatrapathi have been some of the people who were killed for putting out their opinions and who tried to bring a change.

There are a number of other people who are targeted and silenced for questioning the acts of our politicians and government.

Is everyone in India treated equal?

This is one question that has been long debated given to the fact that so many people fight for reservations in India. Reservation was started in India in order to give opportunities to the down-trodden and help them lead a proper and happy life.

But with how the things have been going on, it seems as though some day almost every caste would come on to the roads and agitate to get reservations.

Reservations were started to promote education and literacy. But now, we live in an era where politicians use these reservations as a tool to win elections.

One of the key points of the manifesto of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of Andhra Pradesh was to give reservations to the Kapu community that constitute up to 27% population of Andhra Pradesh. In 2014, TDP won the elections and Chandra Babu Naidu became the Chief Minister. Until November, 2017 the Kapu community and the kapus agitated and kept reminding the chief minister of his promises. On December 1st, the chief Minister promised to put forth the bill regarding the reservations in the Parliament. We need to keep in mind the fact that the Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh could be held anytime between 2018 and 2019.

Reservations have clearly become an active part of the vote bank politics too.In another of such incidents of the vote bank politics, the Congress have added a point in their manifesto to provide reservation quota for the Patidars.

If reservations help those who need it the most, there are the best assistance. But then, when those who don’t need reservations get to enjoy all the benefits, there seems to be no hint of equality among the people.

The article has not been written to target any political party or the government. It is based on sheer facts and how certain incidents that occur in our country raise questions to the Constitution of India and also the constitution does not just belong to the politicians, it belongs to all those people who are the citizens of the country and hence it is important for each of us to check ourselves to see what sort of an example  we set.

The post Are the words used in our Preamble true to its meaning? appeared first on Praja Media.