Is Narendra Modi trying to rig India’s elections?

ABC Asia editor Karishma Vyas joins Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald to unpack a week of fast-moving stories across Asia.

In India, a youth protest movement – born after the the chief justice of India offhandedly called unemployed graduates “cockroaches and parasites” – has taken to the streets of New Delhi following the government's decision to strike 130 million names from the electoral roll, triggering a police crackdown, mass arrests and detention of the movement's leaders.

Meanwhile, in Laos, China has opened its first foreign air base, a former Vietnam War-era facility now repurposed with Beijing’s backing. Vietnam is watching the development closely given its own territorial disputes with China.

Plus: the trial date is set for Simon Carman, the Australian man accused of murdering 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla in Pattaya, and what the case reveals about Pattaya’s sex tourism economy.

Guest: Karishma Vyas, the ABC's Asia editor

Recommendations:

Karishma – NAZA documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor

Hamish – 2026 ABC Boyer Lecture Series

Geraldine – David Brooks, author

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