Dipankar Ghose from the Hindustan Times joins Milan to discuss the Bharat Jodo Yatra, its impact on the Congress Party's electoral fortunes, and Rahul Gandhi's image. Read more
Dipankar Ghose from the Hindustan Times joins Milan to discuss the Bharat Jodo Yatra, its impact on the Congress Party's electoral fortunes, and Rahul Gandhi's image. Read more
Pranay Kotasthane kicks off Season 9 of Grand Tamasha with Milan with a lively discussion on the role and capacity of the Indian state, ideology in Indian politics, and pro-busines ... Read more
Pranay Kotasthane kicks off Season 9 of Grand Tamasha with Milan with a lively discussion on the role and capacity of the Indian state, ideology in Indian politics, and pro-business versus pro-market policies. Read more
One of the blessings (though it sometimes feels like a curse) of hosting Grand Tamasha, Carnegie’s weekly podcast on Indian politics and policy, is that our host Milan Vaishnav end ... Read more
One of the blessings (though it sometimes feels like a curse) of hosting Grand Tamasha, Carnegie’s weekly podcast on Indian politics and policy, is that our host Milan Vaishnav ends up reading a ton of books and interviewing many authors. In what we hope will become an annual holiday tradition, Milan has made a list of his top three India reads of the year, based on some of the books we’ve highlighted on the show’s recently wrapped eighth season. Read more
To commemorate the season finale of Season Eight of Grand Tamasha, Milan welcomes back show regulars Sadanand Dhume (American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal) and ... Read more
To commemorate the season finale of Season Eight of Grand Tamasha, Milan welcomes back show regulars Sadanand Dhume (American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal) and Tanvi Madan (Brookings Institution) to discuss the latest developments in the world of Indian politics and policy. The trio discusses the recent elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi, and what, if anything, they tell us about the political landscape heading into the 2024 general election. They also review Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and debate the future of the Congress Party. Finally, they discuss the significance of India’s G20 presidency and its domestic political salience. Milan, Tanvi, and Sadanand wrap up the show by highlighting one India-related trend they’ll be keeping their eye on in 2023. Read more
This past week, voters in the state of Gujarat went to the polls to select the 182 newest members of the state assembly. While the votes will be counted on December 8, there is an ... Read more
This past week, voters in the state of Gujarat went to the polls to select the 182 newest members of the state assembly. While the votes will be counted on December 8, there is an aura of inevitability around the result; journalists, pundits, and polls all point toward a decisive victory by the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Narendra Modi. But this year’s contest is not without its fair share of intrigue. In what has traditionally been a two-party contest between the BJP and the Congress Party, this year Gujarat features an ambitious new entrant in the form of the Aam Aadmi Party. To talk more about this year’s election and what it signifies, Milan is joined on the show this week by the journalist Mahesh Langa. Mahesh is a veteran journalist who currently serves as the Gujarat correspondent for the Hindu. He previously covered the state for the Hindustan Times. The two discuss the significance of the 2022 race, AAP’s pitch to voters, and the Congress’ listless campaign. Plus, the two discuss the enduring legacy of the 2002 riots and the salience of the “Gujarat Model.” Read more
In December, India will assume the presidency of the G20, an international forum comprising the world’s twenty largest economies. It’s India’s first time chairing the group, and it ... Read more
In December, India will assume the presidency of the G20, an international forum comprising the world’s twenty largest economies. It’s India’s first time chairing the group, and it represents a major diplomatic and political opportunity for the government to shape perceptions around India’s role in the world and to make headway on some of its key priorities heading into 2024, a general election year. To discuss India’s agenda at the G20 and its approach to multilateralism more generally, Milan is joined on the show this week by the scholar Karthik Nachiappan. Karthik is a research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and a nonresident senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa. Karthik is the author of the book, Does India Negotiate?, which revises the conventional narrative that India’s multilateral behavior is prickly, obstructionist, and defensive. Milan and Karthik discuss India’s emerging G20 agenda, its attitude toward existing multilateral institutions, and what its behavior at the recent COP27 climate summit tells us about its evolving approach. Plus, the two discuss India’s digital soft power ambitions and how those aims could conflict with international concerns about data localization. Read more
Why do rising powers on the global stage sometimes challenge an international order that enables their growth, yet at other times support an order that constrains them? This is the ... Read more
Why do rising powers on the global stage sometimes challenge an international order that enables their growth, yet at other times support an order that constrains them? This is the core question motivating a big, new book on international order by political scientist Rohan Mukherjee. The book is titled, Ascending Order: Rising Powers and the Politics of Status in International Institutions, and it is a comprehensive study of conflict and cooperation as new powers join the global arena. The book focuses on how international institutions shape the choices of rising states as they pursue equal status with established powers. Rohan is an assistant professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. To talk more about his new book, Rohan joins Milan on the show this week from his office in London. The two discuss China’s surprisingly cooperative behavior in the post-Cold War era, India’s grievances with the liberal international order, and the importance of status concerns in international relations. Plus, Milan and Rohan discuss India’s approach to the nuclear nonproliferation regime during the Cold War, U.S. policies to restrain China, and the implications of a more isolationist U.S. foreign policy for rising powers. Read more
Semafor's Bill Spindle joins Milan to discuss the showdown between rich and poor nations at COP27 this week, India's opportunity to play a pivotal role in climate diplomacy, and wh ... Read more
Semafor's Bill Spindle joins Milan to discuss the showdown between rich and poor nations at COP27 this week, India's opportunity to play a pivotal role in climate diplomacy, and whether U.S.-China tensions will cloud the conference. This week, climate negotiators and world leaders from around 200 countries are descending on the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheikh for COP27—the twenty-seventh gathering of the 197 nations that signed up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change back in 1992. As proceedings get underway, a huge question mark hangs over this year’s climate summit. Rich nations are pushing for poor countries to announce greater cuts to carbon emissions, but developing countries claim that their developed counterparts have stiffed them when it comes to climate finance. To make sense of this dynamic at this year’s gathering and to explore the unique role India plays, journalist Bill Spindle joins Milan on the show this week. Bill is the climate and energy editor at the new journalism start-up, Semafor. He’s also a ten-year veteran of the Wall Street Journal, where he served as South Asia Bureau Chief from 2016 to 2020. Bill has spent the last year crisscrossing the length and breadth of India reporting on the transformation of India’s energy sector—a journey he documented on Substack. Bill and Milan discuss the developed vs. developing country deadlock that imperils the COP27 proceedings, India’s opportunity to play a leadership role, and the continuing uncertainty over U.S.-China relations. Plus, the two discuss Bill’s year-long adventure traveling 8,000 kilometers across India by train. Read more
