The Interview With Karan Thapar

In strong and outspoken criticism of Indian foreign policy, a former National Security Advisor, M. K. Narayanan, has said that Indian foreign policy is confused and argues that we are not as influential as we once were. India may be internally and economically a more powerful country than it has ever been but our capacity to influence events around the world and win respect for our views is not as great as it was 20-30 or 40 years ago. Mr. Narayanan said: “I think we are confused. I think India’s foreign policy has been confused for a very long time. I think this is one more instance of that kind. Somewhere down the line India still believes we are, or we have the ability, the capacity, to sort out the problems of other nations … I think this is part of the Indian belief that we are leaders of the global south, we are in a position to mediate, we have the authority or even the influence or the ability to sort out other people’s problems, etc. I think there is this misplaced understanding of where we stand in the world today … I certainly think that we are poorer in the eyes of the world today than we were when we were economically weaker … I think this is the quandary that we are in. We still stick to the idea that the world looks upon us as an important power broker. I think we need to get out of that comfortable area that we are in and realize that we are probably just one of the other countries in the world and no longer one that other countries look up to … if you really look at it you are not even a power to reckon with even in the region in which you are located. How then can you speak for the rest of the world? So we have problems ... That’s what I am trying to say: what India does does not seem to matter today to the same extent that it did when we were much weaker economically and militarily … At one stage India was the leader of the non-alignment movement. We are now talking of multipolarity, of this and that. Nobody is quite clear where India stands. Nobody is quite clear how India reacts to situations … I think that (once) people saw there was an intrinsic strength that India possessed and they were willing to listen. We still possess that intrinsic strength and probably have much more of it but you are not able to make people see how we stand and where we have the weight to pull … Internally perhaps today we are stronger than we have ever been, economically we are stronger than we have ever been. The question is we have not been able to transmit that to the world at large that we are now in a position to do things elsewhere.”

Israeli professor of history and international relations Avi Shlaim says that Donald Trump is “Netanyahu’s poodle”, adding that Netanyahu “plays him like a fiddle”. Prof. Shlaim says that Donald Trump is the only American President who is gullible enough to become part of Netanyahu’s plan for regime change in Iran. However, Prof. Shlaim believes that regime change is almost impossible to achieve from the air and what is far more likely is that the regime will survive and if Mojtaba Khamenei remains the supreme leader he is likely to be more ruthless and a hardliner. Prof. Shlaim also believes that the regime only needs to survive to, in effect, win, whereas America if it doesn’t win has, in effect, lost.

Kanwal Sibal, a former Foreign Secretary and former Ambassador to Russia and France and now Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Manoj Joshi, a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation and a highly regarded Strategic Affairs Analyst, discuss whether Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have underestimated Iran’s resilience and its capacity to retaliate and fight on. In particular, they analyze President Trump and his behaviour, the things he has said as well as the things he claims have taken him by surprise. For instance, Trump has claimed he didn’t realize Iran would retaliate by hitting American bases in the Gulf nor did he realize Iran would seek to block the Strait of Hormuz. But Iran had made it clear that if attacked it would retaliate on American bases in the Gulf and had been saying so for weeks before the war began. This is also what the Gulf countries feared. Trump’s own former Advisor, Nate Swanson, had written in February that if attacked Iran would block the Strait of Hormuz. So how come Trump didn’t know this? What does it tell us about him? His planning? The advice he gets? And his understanding of the Middle East?

The well-known historian, author and strategic affairs analyst Srinath Raghavan says “India is objectively on the side of the aggressors in this war”. He says what matters is not what India says but what it does and how its actions are perceived by others and, in this instance, India is perceived to be on the side of the aggressors. Speaking of the Prime Minister’s visit to Israel, 36 hours before the war began, Mr. Raghavan says: “The timing … was extraordinary … there was no substantive reason to go to Israel on the eve of the war … and it’s inconceivable that the Indian government was unaware of the impending attack.” This was the first clear sign that India was aligning itself with Israel and against Iran.

Whilst as yet it’s too early to say how good or how inadequate is the new methodology for calculating GDP, which came into operation last month, India’s former Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian, has pointed out that the old methodology, which came into operation in 2015, overstated GDP growth between 2011-12 and 2023-24 by 1.5-2 percentage points and between 2004-05 and 2011-12 it underestimated growth by 1-1.5 percentage points. He has identified two principal reasons for this. The first is errors and inadequacies in the way growth in the informal sector, which in this period was pretty close to 45% of the economy, was estimated. The second is the deflator. The old methodology used the wholesale price index which understated inflation and didn’t really capture prices in the services sector. So when economists would try to find answers to puzzles such as if growth is strong why is private investment so weak, why is FDI declining, why is capacity utilization, wage growth and employment growth so tepid, the real answer is that growth was not as strong as we thought. This also means that for most of the UPA years growth was underestimated whilst for the NDA years, starting 2014, it was overestimated.

India’s former Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae has called the performance of Balendra Shah and his Rashtriya Swatantra Party in Nepal’s recently held elections “an astounding victory”, the scale of which has taken everyone by surprise. He says Balendra Shah in his person bridged the traditional divide in Nepal between the hills and the plains. He presented himself in the Terai as the son of the soil, often speaking in Maithili, and, of course, was very familiar to the hills because he has served as a remarkably successful Mayor of Kathmandu. However, with his huge majority expectations are sky-high. The RSP has committed itself to creating 1.2 million jobs, doubling national income and starting a health insurance for all. Ambassador Rae says the RSP has “very competent leaders” which he called the best talent available in the country. They will need this to deliver on their commitments.

In strong and outspoken criticism of the government’s refusal and failure to criticize the US-Israel strikes on Iran and the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, India’s former National Security Advisor and former Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has said it is “inexplicable” and “sad”. He says this will not impress India’s BRICS partners and it “diminishes” the country’s reputation. Menon, who has also served as a former Ambassador to Israel and China and former High Commissioner to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, said: “I find our silences and our action quite inexplicable. Frankly. I mean not to have anything to say when a Head of State of a state you recognize and in your neighbourhood is assassinated by another country. By not signing the condolence book for five days and then sending the Foreign Secretary, not the Foreign Minister, not the Prime Minister. And to stay absolutely silent on the issues. Not to condemn the attack. And this is unfortunately part of a pattern. Not willing to call the Russian invasion of Ukraine an invasion. You are not willing to vote when Palestinians are being slaughtered in Gaza and on the West Bank. You abstain on voting at the UN. I find this very strange. And rather sad that a country like India with its traditions should end up absolutely mum.”

One of Nepal’s most highly regarded journalists, the Founder Editor of Himal Southasian, Kanak Mani Dixit, says he is “flummoxed” by the Nepal election results which he said are “not just a landslide but up upheaval”. The BBC’s assessment of the result suggests that Balendra Shah and his Rashtriya Swatantra Party could have won 182 out of 275 seats, which is a two-thirds majority.

India’s former Foreign Minister, Salman Khurshid, says that Prime Minister Modi’s refusal to criticize the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei have let India down. The strikes are a clear breach of the United Nations Charter and India’s silence is a break with its well-established tradition of speaking out and take clear positions in the interests of its strategic autonomy. Mr. Khurshid has also sharply criticized the timing of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Israel, which happened roughly 36 hours before the US-Israeli strikes happened on Saturday. After explaining his view point, which is critical of the Modi government’s handling of this matter, Mr. Khurshid also answers questions about reasons why the government may have chosen silence rather than criticize and express concern about the strikes, which has been done by other leading BRICS members like Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa.

With the US-Israel-Iran war becoming a regional crisis how much worse could the situation become? Can decapitation really lead to regime change in Iran? How long can Iran fight on? Will UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia retaliate? And what more does President Trump have in mind? Those are the key issues Karan Thapar discusses with the Defence Editor of The Economist, Shashank Joshi.

The Editor of Desh Sanchar.com Yubaraj Ghimire says that the new Nepal government that will be elected by the polls to be held on the 5th of March is likely to be unstable and won’t last long. He also says that the interim administration under former Chief Justice Sushila Karki has been a failure and did not live up to the high expectation people had of it when it took over in September 2025. Ghimire says the final result of the elections to be held on the 5th may not be known for a month because Nepal has a hybrid system where 165 seats are chosen directly and the remaining 110 by proportional representation. It’s the proportional representation part that could take time to be finalised. Therefore, the new government may not take over till the end of March or even early April.

In strong and stinging criticism of the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the hate speech against Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Dushyant Dave, a former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, has said the top Court has made “a Himalayan blunder” and “let down 1.4 billion Indians”. Dave said the Supreme Court “insulted each one of us” by refusing to take up the matter and, additionally, it’s done a disservice to the institution and to the judges themselves. 

In an interview to discuss the implications and consequences of the United States Supreme Court striking down President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs and his decision to impose 15% global tariffs on all goods from all counties, the Founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative Ajay Srivastava says that India should now walk out of the India-US interim trade agreement. He said India should now invoke the clause of the joint statement that permits it to modify its commitments if the other country changes its tariffs. 

In an interview to discuss the arrest of former Prince Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office and its implications and consequences for the British monarchy, the former Editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, has said this is a blow for the monarchy and it will become a very serious blow if Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is charged and convicted. However, Lionel Barber says that King Charles has done enough to distance the monarchy as an institution from the former Prince and there is no danger of Britain becoming a Republic. “Look, it’s taken a blow and if he’s charged and found guilty it will be a very serious blow but I think King Charles has done enough to distance the monarchy from Andrew and if they carry on in the way that they do there is no question of us turning into a republic or anything like that.”

Relying entirely on official data made available by the Election Commission of India and the Andhra Pradesh Chief Election Officer i.e. entirely official data, the well-known economist and current affairs commentator Parakala Prabhakar has revealed there is reason to believe serious mischief took place in the Andhra Pradesh polls of 2024, both at the Assembly and the Lok Sabha level. He points out that between 11.45 at night and 2 in the morning on 13th/14th May 2024 just over 17 lakh people cast their vote in 3,500 booths. This means that on an average 491 people would have voted in each of the 3,500 booths in just 135 minutes. That comes to 3.6 voters per minute or roughly 20 seconds per voter. If you deduct from this the time taken by VVPAT machines to reveal a vote (and remember there were two VVPATs because this was both an Assembly and Lok Sabha election) you come to the amazing conclusion that each voter got just 6 seconds to vote.

The well-known and popular Trinamool Congress MP, Mahua Moitra, has publicly called for Petroleum Minister, Hardeep Puri’s resignation and apology to the nation over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. “He owes it to the nation to apologize and resign”, she says. Mahua Moitra has also claimed that “Puri has lied repeatedly and brazenly about his relationship with Epstein.” Furthermore, his emails suggest a friendship and intimacy that he has not admitted to.

In an interview to discuss the recent Home Ministry order directing all six stanzas of Vande Mataram to be played at official functions and that schools start the day with community singing of the song, Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde has called this “constitutional vandalism dressed up in national pride”. Hegde points out that there is no law that requires any Indian citizen to compulsorily sing any song and that the order regarding Vande Mataram is “executive overreach”. 

In a wide ranging interview to discuss the outcome of the recent elections in Bangladesh and the new government that will be formed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party with Tarique Rahman as the new Prime Minister, Zafar Sobhan, the Editor of Counterpoint and former Editor of the Dhaka Tribune, has said that Bangladesh is now a democracy, even if credible questions can be raised about an election that excluded the Awami League, a major party. Sobhan says that the Tarique Rahman government will seek “cooperative” relations with Delhi and ensuring the safety and security of Bangladesh’s 13 million Hindus will be the “foremost” duty of the new government.

With the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) picking up immigrants  especially brown looking people, and even deporting them, a climate of fear has built up among the Indian community, says Sravya Tadepalli.    “Indians are the third most undocumented community in America,” says Tadepalli, deputy executive director of Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR). “Among Indians there is a perception that we are all here legally, as tech workers, doctors, but many Indians are not in a position of privilege,” she says in a podcast conversation with Sidharth Bhatia.   Many organisations are working on educating Indians of their rights vis a vis ICE, she says. HfHR runs a Know Your Rights programme. “We’ve operated at Hindu mandir’s in New York City, coordinating with 10 of them and distributed Know Your Rights cards, conducted training.”  HforHR claims it is the ‘only Hindu organisation working to protect our community from the viciousness of ICE violence.’ Pointing out that organisations like Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh, which is linked to the RSS, “cares more about hating on Muslims rather than supporting Hindus. I’ve never seen a statement from the HSS about ICE. I've never seen any actions from the HSS about ICE. So that should tell us something.”  She emphasises that HfHR spreads “progressive Hindu ideas. We have monthly discussions, called Baithaks for Liberation, where people talk about Hindu liberal ideas, which promote inclusivity, equality, diversity.” This emphasis on the “social justice principles of Hinduism can weaken the stronghold that Hindu nationalists have.”

We present two separate interviews, packaged as one, with Ashok Gulati, Distinguished Professor at ICRIER, and Avik Saha, National President of the Jai Kisan Andolan, on the question has India been successful in ensuring that genetically modified produce or its derivatives are not given access to the Indian market? The government insists that is the case but could there be room for doubt? We explore the extent to which there is credible room for doubt. Both guests believe that traces of GM material will enter India. Mr. Gulati believes this will almost certainly be the case when we import Dried Distillers Grains from America and could be the case (we are not sure) when soya oil is imported from America. Mr. Saha is fairly sure that it will be the case both when DDGs and soya oil are imported. This means that when the Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, told a press conference on Saturday that “no genetically modified items will enter India” he was not correct. Mr. Saha inclines towards the belief that Mr. Goyal lied or was misled. Mr. Gulati believes that Piyush Goyal probably didn’t know that DDGs contain traces of GM and was perhaps only talking about the direct import of American soya and corn rather than their derivatives.