South Asia Chat

Episode 87: Assembly Elections Special – West Bengal Welcomes Mamata Banerjee; BJP wins Assam

Of the four states and one union territory that went to election over March and April, West Bengal, rightly or wrongly, was the centre of attention. On election day, it was West Bengal once again that invited the most discussion. This was partly due to the overwhelming verdict in favour of Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal despite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi having focused considerable energies and resources on the state. The result also upended most exit polls which had predicted a close contest with some surveys having forecast a BJP sweep. The Bengal verdict put into shade somewhat the results in Assam where the incumbent BJP government returned comfortably to office. To discuss the West Bengal and Assam election results, Dr Ronojoy Sen, Senior Research Fellow, ISAS, spoke to Dr Neelanjan Sircar, a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and Assistant Professor at Ashoka University. Sircar followed both state elections closely and was present in both states during the campaign.

Episode 86: Assembly Elections Special – Left is Right in Kerala

The recent Legislative Assembly elections in Kerala has been a historic one with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) returning to power for the second time in a row. The return of an incumbent party has not happened in the last 40 years and is a reaffirmation of the leadership of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. What led to this victory and why did neither the Congress nor the Bharatiya Janata Party make a visible dent? We spoke to Mr Vinod Rai, Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at ISAS to share his views on the election results.

Episode 85: Pakistan In Focus

Recent anti-France protests by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan turned violent leading to the government banning it. Alongside Pakistan is expected to play a key role in the Afghan peace process, following the withdrawal of American troops. With the Taliban almost certain to come into power, would this embolden such religious groups? To discuss more on these developments, we spoke to Dr Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, Non-resident Fellow at ISAS and Associate Professor of Political Economy at the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University.

Episode 84: India-Russia Ties

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in India on a two-day visit, followed by a stopover in Pakistan which underlined the changing nature of bilateral relations between the two countries. He pointed out Russia's opposition to the Quad by calling it "Asian Nato" while also referring to its relationship with China as being "at the highest in history." To learn more, Nithya Subramanian, Editor at ISAS spoke to Mr Nandan Unnikrishnan, a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, with expertise in Russia and Eurasia. Unnikrishnan began his career as a journalist with the Press Trust of India (PTI). He was deputed by PTI to the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and did a three-year stint in Moscow as its Bureau Chief.

Episode 83: India's Civil-Military Relations

India’s military strength has increased in the past decades. However, it has still some way to go in developing the processes which makes the use of military force effective. The civilian bureaucracy within the Ministry of Defence and military establishment tends to be out of touch in setting national priorities and corresponding military objectives. The book, Absent Dialogue: Politicians, Bureaucrats and the Military in India, captures much of this dysfunction. The author, Dr Anit Mukherjee Deputy Head of Graduate Studies, and an Associate Professor in the South Asia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, joins ISAS Research Fellow Yogesh Joshi in a conversation on civil-military dysfunction in India and its implications on military efficiency in India.

Episode 82: India’s Privatisation Policy

The Finance Ministry has announced an ambitious disinvestment plan and decided to exit most sectors except four strategic ones. Dr V Anantha Nageswaran, Non Resident Senior Fellow, ISAS and Member (Part Time), Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, shares his views on the challenges that the government could face and how it could overcome them, as well as how the Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India) programme ties in with its privatisation plan.

Episode 81: Assembly Elections in India

The ongoing elections in the four states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well as the union territory of Puducherry are significant as these will be a test of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s dominance and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s continuing popularity. These will also evaluate the party’s ability to perform well in areas which are not its traditional bastions and the capacity of regional parties to resist one-party dominance. To discuss the polls and analyse the possible trajectory of the elections, Dr Ronojoy Sen, Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead (Politics, Society and Governance) at ISAS, spoke to Rahul Verma, a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research.

Episode 80: Quad Summit 2021

The first Quad Summit, where leaders of the United States, India, Australia and Japan met virtually, signalled a continuation of Trump's policy for the Indo-Pacific. It also announced a huge vaccine initiative as well as cooperation in rare minerals which not only challenges China's dominance, but also indicates that the group's focus has not been primarily related to security concerns. To tell us more on the significance of this Quad meeting and what it means for China and the rest of the world, we spoke to Dr Yogesh Joshi, Research Fellow at ISAS. 

Episode 79: India-China Military Disengagement

After several rounds of military and diplomatic negotiations, the nine-month long standoff between India and China came to an end with the disengagement of troops along the line of actual control in Eastern Ladakh.  While the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has said that "China and India should be friends and partners,” the new Biden administration has not deviated from Trump's stance on China. What led to this thaw and what lay ahead for the two countries especially in the light of the recent Quad summit? Nithya Subramanian, Editor at ISAS spoke to Ambassador Gautam Bambawale, a career diplomat who has served as India’s ambassador to China, Pakistan and Bhutan. He is also a Distinguished Professor at Symbiosis International University, Pune and Senior Advisor to Ola.

Episode 78: Ceasefire Along the Line of Control

In a surprising turn of events in the relationship between India and Pakistan, both countries recently signed a ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control. While this development is a positive step in improving bilateral relations, it is bound to affect domestic politics as well as have broader regional implications. To discuss the foreign policy strategies at play as well as the factors and rationale behind these developments, Dr Yogesh Joshi, a Research Fellow at ISAS spoke to Professor C Raja Mohan, Director of the institute.