The world’s most populous country will head to the polls on April 19. Polls strongly indicate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party will return to power for a third consecutive term.
Foreign Policy’s Spring print issue explores the political, economic, and foreign-policy trends to watch as an estimated 960 million eligible voters choose their next leader. Contributors to this issue include Modi’s former chief economic advisor, Arvind Subramanian; authors Snigdha Poonam and Amitava Kumar; and FP’s Rishi Iyengar.
Join executive editor Amelia Lester in conversation with editor-in-chief Ravi Agrawal, who wrote the lead essay in the issue. In “The New Idea of India”, Agrawal explores how Modi’s vision of the country prioritizes religion and culture above liberalism. He argues that the prime minister’s enduring popularity may have as much to do with demand as it does supply—a theory that helps explain India’s growing assertiveness in global affairs. Subscriber questions are encouraged.
Narendra Modi is likely to win a third term as India’s prime minister. FP editor in chief Ravi Agrawal explains how Modi is reshaping the country.
Agrawal argues that the popularity of Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party is, at least in part, because of voters’ growing support for a new Indian social compact that curtails secularism.
Agrawal warns of a growing economic divide between India’s north and south that could lead to real resentment.
Agrawal on how India makes the most out of global conflict with a new, more muscular foreign policy.
Host of FP Live
Ravi Agrawal
Editor in chief, Foreign Policy
Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, the host of FP Live, and a regular world affairs analyst on TV and radio. Before joining FP in 2018, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade in full-time roles spanning three continents, including as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. He is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy.
Guest host
Amelia Lester
Executive editor, Foreign Policy
Amelia Lester is the executive editor at Foreign Policy. She has worked as a journalist on three continents, most recently reporting in Japan for publications including the Economist, the New York Times, and the New York Review of Books. Previously, she was the editor in chief of the weekend magazine of the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age newspapers and, before that, managing editor and an executive editor at the New Yorker. Lester lives in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of Harvard University.
