Joanna Slater on the Pivotal Stories She Covered in India for the Washington Post

Grand Tamasha

Joanna Slater is a veteran journalist who served as the Washington Post India bureau chief based in New Delhi from 2018-2021. She was posted there during one of the most consequential periods in recent Indian history—covering the 2019 general elections, the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pegasus hacking revelations, and much more.

This week on the show, Joanna joins Milan to talk about her tenure in New Delhi and what she learned on the job.

The two discuss Joanna’s long history with India, the constraints journalists face while carrying out their jobs, and what it was like to cover some of the biggest stories in recent years from the ground. Plus, the two discuss how Joanna met her future husband on the set of a Bollywood hit movie starring Aamir Khan and the India story that Joanna still dreams about.

1. “Niha Masih on Reporting on India’s COVID-19 Crisis,” Grand Tamasha, June 15, 2021.
2. Joanna Slater and Niha Masih, “The spyware is sold to governments to fight terrorism. In India, it was used to hack journalists and others,” Washington Post, July 19, 2021.
3. Joanna Slater and Shams Irfan, “Inside a Delhi hospital, oxygen runs fatally short as covid cases mount,” Washington Post, April 24, 2021.
4. Niha Masih and Joanna Slater, “They were accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government. The evidence was planted, a new report says,” Washington Post, February 10, 2021.
5. Joanna Slater, “A young Indian couple married for love. Then the bride’s father hired assassins,” Washington Post, August 19, 2019.
6. Joanna Slater, “In Modi’s move on Kashmir, a road map for his ‘new India,’” Washington Post, August 15, 2019.
7. Joanna Slater, “In the world’s biggest election, India’s Narendra Modi pushes fear over hope,” Washington Post, April 11, 2019.