event

Online Event: How the BJP Wins

Thu. September 28th, 2017
Virtual

Three years into the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be going from strength to strength. The BJP and its allies now control power in eighteen of India’s twenty nine states. For the first time in Indian history, the prime minister, president, and vice president all hail from the BJP. If current trends hold, the ruling alliance is on track to establish a majority in the upper house of India’s parliament—giving it control of both houses—by the middle of 2018.

The secrets to the BJP’s unprecedented success are unpacked in a new book, How the BJP Wins: Inside India’s Greatest Election Machine (Juggernaut), by the journalist Prashant Jha. Drawing on months of fieldwork, first-person reportage, and interviews with key members of the BJP and its ideological fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Jha takes readers inside the front lines of some of India’s most consequential election battles.

To discuss the rise of the BJP and its ramifications for India’s political and governance prospects,Carnegie hosted a special Google Hangout featuring Prashant Jha and Carnegie’s Milan Vaishnav.

Prashant Jha

Prashant Jha is a journalist with the Hindustan Times and the author of Battles of the New Republic: A Contemporary History of Nepal.

Milan Vaishnav

Milan Vaishnav is senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he works on the political economy of India.

DemocracyEconomySouth AsiaIndia
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Milan Vaishnav

Director and Senior Fellow, South Asia Program

Milan Vaishnav is a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program and the host of the Grand Tamasha podcast at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His primary research focus is the political economy of India, and he examines issues such as corruption and governance, state capacity, distributive politics, and electoral behavior. He also conducts research on the Indian diaspora.

Prashant Jha