How Vajpayee met foreign policy challenges, made India a nuclear power

There is a stark contrast between the styles of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi, the two Prime Ministers the BJP has given to India

How does the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) want India to be seen by the rest of the world?

There is a stark contrast between the styles of the two Prime Ministers the BJP has given to India.

Under Narendra Modi, India’s currency of power is the capacity to conduct surgical strikes against neighbours who have been out of line. At multilateral fora, it is about proximity to and familiarity with the powerful, that opposition leader Rahul Gandhi derides as ‘hugplomacy’. The messaging is that India has arrived as a socio-cultural soft power with a strong diaspora outreach. This is at