Mahendra Ved

Mahendra Ved

About Mahendra Ved

The author is President, Commonwealth Journalists Association

More From Mahendra Ved

Nudged by China, Pakistan tries to woo Bangladesh

Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen met Pakistan’s High Commissioner Imran Ahmed Siddiqui in Dhaka on July 1. According to a media report, the meeting indicates a possible thaw in bilateral relations, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

The new cultural cross-pollination in Pakistan, but Bollywood obsession remains

The rising popularity in Pakistan of Turkish television series ‘Diriliş: Ertuğrul’ has raised prospects of a larger Pakistan-Turkey collaborations and how these are being encouraged by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has criticized “Hollywood-Bollywood vulgarity.”

Pakistanis looking beyond Bollywood fixation, find Malayalam cinema 'secular'

The emergence of Netflix, Prime Video, and other web-based entertainment platforms have helped Pakistani viewers/writers to look beyond Bollywood and to other Indian regional cinema, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor 

Pakistan 'Caliphal dream'? How a Turkish TV series has mesmerized a country and its prime minister

This 2014 Turkish TV series has set viewership records and is reportedly seen in 65 countries. Over 40 million have watched it in Pakistan alone since the holy Ramadan month, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

Pakistan's 'diminishing democracy': Where dissent is a crime

Thirty prominent human rights advocates and peace activists, who disagree with a lot that is happening in Pakistan. Either living at home, but most of them exiled abroad, participated in the conference titled Enforced Disappearances, State-sanctioned killings, & Diminishing Democracy in Pakistan, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia…

A Turkish soap opera re-ignites Pakistan's identity debate

Epics are having epochal impact on Indians and Pakistanis as they live through the coronavirus pandemic. As Indians locked inside their homes stayed glued to their television sets, watching Ramayan and Mahabharat serials that are part of their cultural ethos, across the border, a Turkish historical series, Ertugrul, has captured not just…

Honour killings continue in Pakistan: Feudal-patriarchal mindset still rules

Honour killing has been part of social traditions in Pakistan’s deeply conservative tribal society, but not confined to it. Killings have been reported in Lahore, Karachi and other places as well, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

A conflict-ridden AfPak region where fighting COVID-19 is not a priority

A common thread that runs through them is of COVID-19 taking the back seat in the plans and actions of various stakeholders in the  AfPak region working at cross-purposes, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

Amid global corona alarms, Pakistan had sports and religious fests

Ignoring the growing global threat and alarm over the fast-spreading coronavirus (Covid-19), Pakistan hosted a cricket tournament and Tablighi Ijtema

Modi's cancelled visit: Coronavirus saves the blushes for Delhi, Dhaka

The moment of relief for both sides, as it were, stems from the unstated, but nevertheless evident situation whereby Modi could have faced hostile protests in Dhaka that the Hasina regime was preparing meticulously to avoid, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor