Foreign policy no longer exists in the domain of elites: Milan Vaishnav

"Today, welfarism has become a necessary - but insufficient - condition to triumph in Indian elections"

MILAN VAISHNAV, senior Fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., discusses the intricacies of welfarism in a conversation with Aditi Phadnis in New Delhi. Unveiling the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) strategic vision for the upcoming Lok Sabha (LS) polls, he delves into themes such as pro-poor reforms and India’s global standing. Edited excerpts:

How do you see the outcome of the Assembly elections in terms of the upcoming LS elections? Has welfarism won, or lost?
 

Before this most recent clutch of five state elections, the BJP was already the